Cassius Neon - Interview

A little while ago we interviewed Adam Ficek, but also met "Cassius Neon", the man behind Neon Asylum. Having spoken to him briefly and checked out his tracks on Myspace, Grace was keen to find out more

You used to run the official Crystal Castles forum and got a guy who used that forum to do the video for Destroy Mika, and have released a number of tracks through your Myspace, do you see the Internet as a postive for new music, or do you think there's so much out there that it's music overload and even more difficult for people to reach their intended audience.

It depends really, There was an overload of MySpace generation bands as it was a very easy medium to get music out there and a few survived the cull. It's a good thing but it does make it very hard to actually concentrate on the genuine good new bands...

Heartsrevolution. What are the chances of future collaborations?

I'm hoping it happens. I've been asking Leyla (Heartsrevolution, singer) for ages and we have discussed it at one time but she's too busy with Ride or Die (Heartsrevolution debut album). But, If it does happen It'll be very exciting.

Do you ever look back on some of your earlier work and want to try different takes on it, or are you a firm believer in leaving it at a certain point and moving on with new material?

I am a firm believer of moving on, but I did try rerecord some old songs for an EP but I gave up and just left them.

Tómas Larkin joined Neon Asylum in June/July, how did you discover him, and how much of an impact has he had on Neon Asylum. Has it changed the way you work?

Ah, what I failed to announce previously as Tomas had left Neon Asylum to concentrate on his solo project 'Betamaxx' but his impact was fantastic and it was good to have him aboard for the short amount he was in. His vocals can be heard on my next single 'Everywhere Nowhere'

Quite surprised by the remix of "For Whom The Bells Toll", how did that come about?

It's actually a cover, and it was Tómas' idea!!

After hearing Heartsrevolution, how did you start in producing your own material and what sort of equipment were you using? Are you using the same equipment now?

I started messing around on Fruityloops, Ableton and Acid Pro using my laptop trying to recreate the same kinda thing Heartsrevolution do. I still use the same software but not equipment. I made the first songs on a desktop PC and made over 100 songs and samples but my desktop PC died so i have lost all of them samples / songs.

I'm always changing equipment, I still haven't finished adding equipment to my live show. I've just ordered a Korg Nanokey to add to my live shows.

I heard you Djing when I came to see RKC at the "Hare and Hounds", and you played quite a variety of music, would you say you have a broad music taste?

I could never just listen to one kind of music, I find it boring to only listen to one kind of music, especially as a musician you learn to appreciate all forms of music and find inspiration in everything.

To find out more about Neon Asylum: http://www.myspace.com/neonasylum

By Grace