The ©asi Interview
Don't sleep on the biggest thing out of Spanaway since a 90's album title.
Punk-Rap duo Casi (Stylized ©asi) only released their first song on January 13th of this year, but have already become something of a local legend among 18-25 year olds in the Seattle-Tacoma area. Born out of pure boredom of their mixed suburban community of Spanaway, Eli and Xay are reviving the grainy skate video music you would hear in an early 2000s Thrasher compilation. The musical equivalent of taking one too many adderall and tearing your shirt off at a punk show drew me in immediately after hearing their debut single Woke Up in A Bag.
After getting a chance to hear their full EP in April, I was convinced of their staying power. Not only was the sound of their in-your-face, punk rap singles Weapon and Disbelief released in full force, but we also saw a more laid back and introspective side with songs like Live (Orange) and Nuthin Like. The versatility of the group shown on a short 6 song, 18 minute EP, showed that this group took their project significantly more seriously than just about any other small, local act.
There is very little information on the internet about this duo, a large reason as to why I wanted to sit down and find out more. While Casi has done one video interview before, this is the first time the two have sat down for an extended period to answer some of the biggest questions I and many others have about the mystifying group.
Hans: If you guys want to start off by introducing yourself, what you do in the group, and your favorite Casi song.
Eli: Hell yeah, what's up. My name’s Eli, EEDizzle, I do vocals and produce for Casi.
Xay: My name is Xay. I play guitar, bass, and drums for Casi.
E: My favorite song is unreleased, so I can't say, but [released] it’s Nuthin Like.
X: My favorite song is also unreleased, right now it's either Live (Orange) or Weapon.
H: Sick, alright, so you’re both in LA right now?
E: [Gestures around himself]
H: But you’re both from Spanaway, and for some people who are tapped in, their only knowledge of Spanaway is the Tacoma band Seaweed’s album from the 90’s called Spanaway. Whether positively or negatively, how has Spanaway impacted the way you make music or visuals?
E: I think it’s a mixture of both. The positives of it are that it’s so boring and you gotta drive to do anything so there’s no going out or hanging out kind of vibe. It’s a mixture of the suburbs and the hood, where the hang is either to kick it in the crib or pull up to a parking lot which is how we ended up making music. I feel like on the visual end, it’s that mixture of suburbs and hood. You get the n****’s in the big ass white tees, but then it's also military fools who pull up to school with the nicest ass Jordans on.
H: To keep it local, I wanted to know more about ETC in Tacoma. You guys played a show there and it seemed important, not only to you guys, but to ETC as well. From what I understand, they hadn’t done a show there since around 2016?
E: Dude, yeah, that was some full circle moment shit. Once we were old enough to catch the bus there, that became like “Oh that's our Supreme,” but if you’re like 4 years older than us that's what you did [was go to ETC]. So us being the younger kids since like 2016 going to shows there. It definitely felt like a full circle moment to be able to experience what we couldn't then, and we brought the scene out, which has been so dead for so long. So that felt really good.
H: So it was like getting your own Supreme portrait tee?
E: Deadass, swear to God. Umi—the owner of the shop's name is Umi—bro was like Black Buddha, man. He was just in the back and he had so many wise words to say.
H: Okay, this next question's for Xay. You do modeling on the side. You're really tapped into the fashion scene, does that have any influence on the way that you write your music or perform or act in your videos?
X: I think as far as modeling goes, it contributes to just making the character of Xayvien. My influences are Yves Tumor and Prince. They both have a very big aura and presence. I think with modeling and being on runways, it helps me get that experience, and sometimes when we play shows, some runways I did are more packed than some of our earlier shows. And so having that experience for me when we were younger, he'd be on tour with Enumclaw, so he got a lot of that stage presence experience. I feel like I didn't get that, but through modeling, that was my trial to gain confidence. It transfers over because I'm always trying to look better at every show. Every show I want to perform better than the last show, I think fashion really ties into that and each show is getting closer to the idea of what we want to be.
E: I feel like each show is a catwalk.
X: A lot of the way I have to walk on the runway. I kind of do when we play shows, even the way I have the guitar, but sometimes I try to treat it more like a prop, even though it is an instrument, I do try to treat it more like a prop.
H: You brought up a stage presence, and your guys' shows always have insane energy, I wanted to know if you guys could have the stage presence of any artist, who would you choose?
X: I'm not going to lie. I'll say Yves Tumor. Actually no, I would want the stage presence that we have, I'd want to keep that. But I definitely will say I do take a lot of influence from the androgynous loud persona, especially because I'm more reserved in my day-to-day life. I think it's cool that when I'm on stage, I feel like that's the most extroverted and loud and ugly and disruptive and rough I can be, everything I hold inside I feel like there I can just unleash it on the world,
E: It's like if I'm playing guitar, I want to look like Pat Smear from Nirvana. If I'm on bass, I want to look like Franz, but if I'm on mic, this one's kind of a little bit of deep cut, but Aaron Heard from this band Jesus piece, he's up there doing gymnastics, but the most brutal vocals. That kind of balance of all three of those, they do everything at once and that's where my shit comes from for sure. Or want to be on that.
H: I had a similar question to the modeling one for Xay, but for Eli, how does skate culture influence you in the same way.
E: I think we were literally just talking about it today, a friend that came by the studio and we were just saying our goal with Casi is… we have many goals, but one of them is to be a thing that the skater homies would put on their Instagram story or skate to or when you're fucking mobbing to the 7-eleven to go steal some taquitos in your AirPods. I feel like you never really grow out of it as a skater.
H: That's funny you say that because on my skating playlist today that Spotify made for me, one of your guys' songs was on there and I was like, yeah, this actually does fit crazy well.
E: I mean, yeah, I'd say so.
H: It's easy to get trapped in the local scene. Where do you guys see yourself succeeding the most? Or do you want to stay local to the Seattle Tacoma area?
X: I think it's always going to be home and it's always going to be important, but I do not want that to be where we stop at all. I want that to be merely a small domino in our chain reaction. I want to be playing stadiums, I want to be headlining, I want be doing things. I want to be everywhere all at once.
E: Yeah, we have no shame in saying that we want to be a big band, and I feel like it's always this thing with anybody's local scene, but specifically Seattle Tacoma, it has such a history of being the cool place, which it honestly really… not to shit on it, but it has this history that's like, oh, if you're popping in Seattle, you got this badge of honor of being the popping Seattle band. But it's like, I want to be worldwide and I would want to be on some shit where we're playing shows in Asia. If we had mad fans in fucking Indonesia, that would make me super happy.
H: While we're on the topic of local scenes, you guys worked with Rain on Disbelief and I reached out to them about the process of the song's creation and they said, and I quote, “I definitely approached writing the verse for Disbelief differently than my other work. I tried to make it fit the vibe in terms of the lyrics. I directly wrote a response from the first verse Eli wrote. I remember pulling up to the studio in Tacoma and had no sort of plan, but Eli asked if I wanted to get on it. Played the verse a couple times. I wrote the verse right there, and Eli coached me on screaming because I had never done any of that before. I remember specifically one point where he told me for the background vocals to sing like a violin and then I tapped in super quick after that. Eli is a great director in terms of performing it. I got my angry face on for sure and the song is so fucking hard. I love the song and I love Casi Bada Bing Bada Boom”. Do you guys have any response to that or of that or any memories of creating that track?
X: That night was hella sick too because I remember when the idea was to have Rain on the song, I wasn't there for the initial process cause I had to work, but I remember they told me to pull up. So right after work I shot straight to the studio, so it was like Rain, Jules, Liv, Ramone, we were just all in this tight space going crazy, and I remember the look on everybody's face when I got there because they were all so engraved in the process and Rain, bro. I saw some vocal takes and I got to see some videos that they took from the performance and everything was in one take. It felt so natural, it felt so cool and it really felt like literally we were all just hanging out when the song just happened to be made. And I think that's what makes it so good, especially because me and Eli made that song two years before we had Rain get on it and for Rain to just be able to, not even just add to it, but immerse in the song I think is so beautiful artistically.
E: That's something that no matter how much experience in anything you have, it is hard to just understand the assignment, pick up on the concept of the thing or just mesh into something that's already been pre existing and do it right, especially being a feature, it's been two years, but Rain pulled up and I would say it has something to do with them being such an amazing singer and such a great performer and someone that jams all the time. They just knew how to get into a pocket and it obviously helps that we're such good friends. Rain's amazing. Shout out to Sex Ribbon. It felt like how all of our music has always felt and how we always wanted to feel like you're just in the room with your friends doing what you do and letting it happen. I didn't even really feel like I was directing. I was just like, yo, wouldn't that be funny if we did that? And it worked. It's not my favorite song, but that part is my favorite thing we have out.
H: So it wasn't hard at all to fit another artist's style into your guys'?
E: I think we got lucky. It might be hard. We don't know.
H: Who are some artists that you guys would like to work with? It doesn't have to be local, it could be globally. When you guys start selling out stadiums.
E: We got a list of the features and the tours. Sometimes they overlap, but a feature and a tour would be Yves Tumor. That would be amazing. That's our goat. Paris Texas tour would be awesome. A feature would be sick. I mean fucking Peggy. I’d love to get some guest production from Machine Girl. That'd be really fun.
X: I think it'd be really sick to work with Blood Orange, get out of our comfort zone and try to make something, even if it doesn't come out.
E: I feel like it wouldn't be right if I didn't, I have to name drop Deftones, so Chino would be awesome, but I feel like it's kind of clipped because Trippie Redd had the Chino Moreno feature, so I want to take it the next step forward and get Chino and Stephen. So we can just say featuring Deftones.
X: I also, we really want the Blind Heresy feature too. Shout out them.
E: Yeah, love Blind heresy. What's up guys?
H: So when people come to see you live, what do you hope that they take away from that?
E: That's a good question. I think I just want them to take away that they were in a moment. They're in something that exists right now and they are part of it. They think back at it like a time capsule. I was just talking to my mom and my dad actually, two separate conversations and I found out they went to an NERD concert in 2002. But NERD was opening for the Roots and they didn't know. They were there for the Roots. They didn't know who NERD was, but they knew Pharrell and just the way they're talking about it, they were like, I remember Pharrell had the camo shorts on. They didn't even know that it was Bape, but you had the camo shorts on and the hat and it sounded so good. And I just remember everybody was so well dressed. I kind of want that to be us, because people grow, get out of their phases. But if one day you have a kid and you're like, yeah, I went to the Casi show and 2027 and it was at Neumos, that's what I want our takeaway to be.
X: Same. I want people to come to our shows and experience something that they feel like they've never seen before or don't understand, but they recognize it and they feel a sense of home and they also feel a sense of being a part of something great. I say that because when we played at Evil House, I don't remember what song we were playing, I think it was some of our unreleased shit, but I remember I was strumming on the guitar, I was shirtless and this guy, he was in the audience, his face was fucking melting. He looked like he was just so astonished and so wowed and empowered. And I remember after the show, he came up to me, he was like, bro, I be making shit in my room too. And this just let me know I could do this shit too. And it just lets you know there's a will, there's a way. So I just wanted people to take inspiration.
H: I wanted to hear about how Casi came about. What made you guys want to start the group and how long have you guys been working on music together?
X: Long story short, we met fifth, sixth grade. We started making art first, actually we were trying to make an anime and then bro started learning how to DJ and was like, I want to start making music, and then one day he invited me to his house, it was like Christmas, sophomore, freshman year. I pulled up to his crib because I had some shit going on at home and I spent a week at his house and we made a whole EP in two days and then we dropped it and everybody said it was shit and garbage. It was pretty bad. But we didn't stop. And then we made a group chat with 50 n****s in it trying to make some Odd Future type shit. And I remember one day we were all supposed to meet. I didn't even show up bro. And this random n**** showed up and he sent him home. And then from there we had four or five people and we were called ATM and it was like we would leave school, come to his house, grab a pizza and just fuck around.
E: It was like that for years. It was like a four piece kind of odd future inspired thing for four years about senior and high school time. And that's when I joined Enumclaw or I guess COVID really was what made us stop hanging out. We couldn't all kick it. So it's like whatever, the mixture between COVID and then being at the end of high school. And once COVID opened up, I joined this band, Enumclaw and playing bass, which was something I hadn't done before and it just turned into this thing. It got really big and I got really busy and a couple of the homies fell off. Some of them we had, I don't want to say beef with, but just little high school drama. So it fizzled out. But me and Xay just anytime I got off tour, we would hang out. And it started being a point where it's like, dude, it's been two years now and we've been recording with each other. Why don't we just be the thing, let's do something. So we became a two piece thing and we decided we're going to be called Cosmos, which lasted for a year and that's when we made Disbelief. I think that was when he started learning guitar. The pieces fell together. He started learning how to produce more. I was kind of getting tired of not being able to really do shit. After a while we changed the name and now look at us a year later. It made sense. But the real thing was we were sitting on these songs. But we got to a point where we know we have this thing, we have a name, we have songs, but we wanted to make sure we did it right. We didn't want to just be how we were in middle school, high school, dropping songs in SoundCloud to 10 of your friends, which is chill. But we knew we wanted to do something, so we really sat and took a full year to be like, all right, let's make sure we know how to get a show. If we're going to do a show, we're going to have merch. If we're going to have this, we're going to learn how to perform. And I think some things kind of fell into place. My life loosened up in a way that it really hadn't for a couple of years. It was January we did our first kind of secret show and then a month after that put out our first single, April, we put out our EP and now we're working on a lot of shit and going to go on a first tour at the end of this month with Princess Pulpit and Tears the Joy. I feel like it felt like for where we're at right now, it was worth the wait.
H: What would you guys say is the end goal of Casi? How will you know you've achieved what you wanted with the group?
X: Deadass. I don't think it's ever going to be a point where I'm just like, damn bro, this is enough. Because every time we make a song we're like, damn, this is the best shit we make. And we always taught that we play a show and it feels like this is the best show I ever played. So I just think being the perfectionists that we are, I just don't think there's ever going to be a time, I'm not going to say never, but in this point where we are, I don't think there's, at least for me, I don't see an angle where I'll be satisfied for a while
E: I feel like we've had this conversation before where, we don't know the exact end goal, but we know that we want to get to a point where it's like we can not put out a shitty album that shouldn't have came out. We can be like, alright, we did our shit. We made our records, we made our money, gracefully bow out, become producers, we become background producers. He’d fucking score a movie. Do a cameo.
E: I don't know when. I'm sure winning an award or two will help and doing some sold out crazy shit. But I feel like it's hard for me to say “the thing”, but we're going to make sure we cut it off at a point where we mutually agree on that.
X: Yeah.
E: While we know we just want to get to a point where we're like, okay, we can stop.
H: For sure.
E: Not going to be dropping the Carter 6.
H: I want to pivot over to talking about genre. I know genre is a pretty easy way to pigeonhole yourself, and you guys have said before that you don't want to skirt around calling yourselves rappers. So which rappers specifically would you say that you draw the most amount of inspiration from? I feel like there are a lot of bands that make music similar to you guys that don't want to call themselves rappers and don't want to acknowledge how rap has influenced them.
E:I think most of us for sure growing up, Tyler, that's the example. But even Tyler in a way kind of had this, I think he's over it now, but I feel like even just watching Tyler grow up with us in a way, it's like there was this, “oh I don't want to tell them I'm a rapper. I'm so much more than that.” It took me being a little older and getting into other music to find that there's alternative rap music where they're not afraid to be a rapper. And I always say JPEGMafia is my example of that where he's going to tell you he's a rapper.
X: I feel like what inspired me was Tyler, Earl and Carti. As far as rappers, I feel like Carti was a big one for me. Probably the biggest one. Carti. Even if we rap, we may not sound like him. I definitely think the way he uses his voice is more like an instrument and not being afraid to just say shit. I feel like sometimes people think if you rap, there has to be some deeper meaning behind shit. I feel like me and him both agree that sometimes, bro, if it sounds good, my n**** It sounds good.
E: Yeah. I feel like when I say I don't want to stray away from being a rapper thing, I just don't really fuck with Lil Yachty, but even he had this kind of moment where it's like to be accepted as a real musician, you have to stop being a rapper, not make the rap album. And I use Lil Yachty, an example, he did the Tame Impala ass record and it's cool, but I think Poland and all the other random shit, I think those are pushing the limits of music just as much if not more than just kind of making some shit just to say that you don't rap.
H: What is it that you guys think draws people to Casi? Do you think it's the videos, the live performances, just the music itself? Or is it something else entirely?
E: Xay's jawline.
X: I think it's the energy. I deadass think its for energy.
E: Xay’s big dick energy.
X: I think it's the energy. I just think the energy's in the videos, it's in the music, it's in the outfits, it's in the stage presence and it's in just everything we do. So I just think there's an aura and the energy that people can resonate with. I feel like most rock stars either have it or you don't, and I think we were blessed to have that shit.
H: One thing I've noticed at the Casi shows that I've been to is that you guys always help set up all musical equipment. People see you, which is not typical of a bigger concert. That makes it harder to, correct me if I'm wrong, to turn your guys' self into Casi. So at what point between that, do you feel like, okay, I'm setting the music equipment up and at what point do you feel like, okay now I'm Casi?
E: When the band that's before us is done and it's time to put our shit on the stage and we put our own aux on, we put the song that we want to hear on before we get to our set and I turn around, I look at the crowd and I look at Xay. That's when we become Casi. Before then we're normal ass dudes that don't have egos, we'll help you out. We'll sell our own merch, pack our own shit up, wrap up the cords. When that moment happens, we turn into Menace and Dizzle.
X: For me specifically how it works for me is like I be talking shit before the show every time ask this n**** . I'm like, bro, I don't give a fuck. I'm not scared. This shit is cool, whatever. Then it's always the last five, 10 minutes before we go on, he always is like, are you good? Then that's when I started tensing up. I get on stage, I'm real scared, I turn around, I plug my shit in, I say a prayer every time I fucking play, I pray to God, once I take my glasses off, it's like, okay, I'm Menace
E: Fucking Superman.
X: Once I take the glasses off, I feel like I'm me. I'm Xay.
E: Honestly Dude, I fuck with that question so much because, we're going on this tour with Tears of Joy, a hardcore band. I think one of the things that brought me, and this is where I pull inference from hardcore, is that you're not better or worse than the guy on stage or the person on stage. They could be playing to a crowd that knows every word of their song, everybody's stage diving, but once they get off that stage, that's not a celebrity. That's not some person that's bigger than you, bigger than the world. And I think it's cool to have mystique. We keep saying Yves Tumor, we love artists that have a thing, a separation, but there is something really cool and I feel like inviting about the simple thing, setting up the gear and just being down to hang out by the merch table. And I hope it's kind of a hard thing to ask once you get to a certain point, you're going to be so removed from that. But I hope that we can keep those kinds of fundamentals around at all times. Whether it's throwing free shows or doing benefits, fuck it. I know it's an arena, but I'm going to go by the merch. That shit goes a long way.
H: What kind of art do you think the world needs more of right now?
X: Authentic art. We have too many artists who want to be clones and I think there's a difference between being inspired by something and just making your version of that thing. Because you go on Instagram all the time, it's dying down now. But I remember for around a cool two or three years, all you saw was Basquiat clones on Instagram and you still kind of see that it's dying down, but for a long time that's all you've seen and It's like now you get on Instagram and any guitar plugin is a Mkgee plugin. So I think nowadays more authenticity and people making shit not to seem cool or not to sound like somebody, but making shit because, I need to do this because I feel some type of way. This is how I express that and I don't care if you like it or not, I like it. So I want you guys to have the choice to listen to it or not, or read it or not or look at it or not appreciate it or not.
E: We're in a world where art doesn't have a ton of love in it. Sometimes it does feel like a product, sometimes it's not your fault. But artists of any medium can be a service. We're just here to serve aesthetics. We're here to just be your sound for your TikTok. We're here to just be the thing you can go get drunk at and jump around to the thing to get tattooed and forget about it. Something like love, intention. Those are the things that I feel like art we need more of right now. More than anything I feel like intention.
H: Xay, you said that Prince, Yves Tumor, Blood Orange et cetera, inspire you and, Eli, you've said before that Show Me the Body, Turnstile and some others have inspired you. Have any visual artists or artists from mediums that aren't music that inspired you guys? Music or videos?
X: Yes. When we make music, I like looking at a lot of books and one that I really like looking at is Matisse paintings and a lot of his collections. We watch a lot of movies like Quentin Tarantino, which is a big one for me too. A lot of his films and a lot of our visual aesthetics or ideas for music videos come from movies. There's one that's going to be coming out shortly that I can't get too much into, but it definitely is inspired by Tarantino.
E: I think it's kind of funny that it took me hella long to figure out that, oh, other art forms do influence me. It's so silly to say, but I know just from being in the van kicking it with all these homies, these photographer friends, you get put onto these photographers from all decades. And I found out about this dude Greg Girard, he's this photographer that was in Hong Kong in the eighties and everything about that. That's clear influence.
X: JoJo’s is a big influence for me for sure. Anime..
E: Oh well I guess I'm forgetting the mascot, right? Me and him both are borderline former weebs and lifelong Sonic fans. And I love the concept of an animatic, a cartoon character, like a drawn motherfucker. So that kind of stuff. Definitely with the Casi Cosmodog mascot taking shit from there. Manga, a lot of that's in there.
H: So on the latter third of the ep, you guys slow things down a little bit, get more introspective. You guys are talking about things like near death experiences, depression. I wanted to know what inspired the turn from the more in your face, punk inspired music from the rest of the EP into that style of those last two songs.
E: I don't know if it ever wasn't there. I think it's just finding the time to say it. We're both very emotional people at times and real humans that go through shit and I feel like… not trying to be super relatable all the time, but if you have something that you feel like other people might want to hear, you got to say it.
X: I think when it came to those last two, it's funny because the EP was hella long originally. We took shit off, put shit on, took shit off. And those last two, after we made this, we were like, these really need to go on there. They felt really real, they felt really vulnerable. And originally we were nervous to put 'em out. We were like, damn bro, is this too real. I think kind of like what I was saying before where you have to make shit because you like it. I think those were the two where we really were like, I don't give a fuck for him it was Nuthin Like it for me was Orange Live where it was like, there's a lot of shit I feel that I'm afraid to talk about even with my friends, my family. So I feel like with songs sometimes there are certain songs where I don't have the courage to say this or talk about this or tell anybody about this, so let me put this in the song. That way I can let it out. And I feel like those two will do that. The other ones, they were more songs, things to make, but I feel like those were true examples of pure expression.
H: What's next for Casi?
X: Should we tell? An album? Debut album.
E: Real ass album.
X: It's actually why we're out here in LA.
E: I mean Tour with Princess Pulpit, Tears of Joy. Blind Heresy, tours coming soon. But yeah, our first tour.
H: Alright, cool.
E: Kickin with Hans and Ramone, and Gene, Metro, and Kenyu and Margaux and Marcus
X: Having clothes made by TNT studios.
E: That's what's next.
H: Well cool. I appreciate you guys taking the time to sit down.
