The Adriana McCassim - Interview
From Florida to Asheville, NC, McCassim grew up in a very influential home with parents that played the likes of Norah Jones, Fiest, Joni Mitchell and Dixie Chicks. McCassim’s parents got her behind the piano at an early age and by the time she started attending middle school, she was already exploring songwriting. Studying as an engineer major, it was until after graduating that McCassim knew there was something else in the stars for her. In this interview we explore McCassim’s youth growing up in Asheville, her influences, meeting her friend and bandmate Ryan Pollie, opening for Sharon Van Etten and her new EP Dual Twin (“This EP explores themes of family, my relationship with my mother and ultimately belonging. It was all recorded in one take.”) We’re also very excited to be debuting the short documentary surrounding the EP on Primitive Man Soundz to go alongside this interview!
Tell me about growing up in Asheville, NC before relocating to LA. What was your childhood like? When did you first begin to fall in love with music, more specifically songwriting? Was music relevant around your household growing up?
Growing up in Asheville was really special, especially when I was a kid. It was before a lot of people cared about it being a tourist destination, but it was also pretty much all I knew for a long time. My parents made the move from Florida to North Carolina working on a summer camp in the mountains, so I spent my formative years, honestly, playing in the woods. My siblings and I grew up with a lot of traditional Roots, Americana, and Folk music. My momma was working nights at a restaurant in Asheville called Jack of the Wood where I saw many touring grassroots bands and songwriters play. I fell in love with music as a young kid; it was always around and super important to my parents’ relationship. They put me in piano lessons fairly young and I started experimenting with songwriting in middle school.
What would you and your brother do for fun growing up? Who were some of our earliest influences in your more formative years? When and where did you see your very first concert and when did you realize you wanted to spend your life making music?
My siblings and I spent a ton of time playing in the woods and in arts camps as kids. I have memories of writing musicals at home with my close friends and creating ticketed shows for our parents to attend, all of which happened in our basement. Every Sunday my pops would corral us for his Disco night where the family would sit in the computer room to listen to his Disco selection of the week. My sister and I have such vivid memories of the records he pressed on us and how he’d point out certain song sections. I feel really lucky to have been raised with such a music rich household. My dad was always playing rock, metal and old Motown records for us on the way to school, or at home. He was in a touring rock band in his twenties and shared a lot of show-going with my mom at the time. My momma was big on songwriters like Joni Mitchell, Dixie Chicks, Tori Amos, Sarah Mclaughlan, Feist, Norah Jones etc. Joni’s Court and Spark record was in heavy rotation and has been a huge north star for my songwriting. The first concert of memory was Carrie Underwood during her Some Hearts tour when I was probably twelve, or thirteen. It was my first real introduction to American Pop Country and was pretty fantastic. Pursuing songwriting, or making music my career was something I never really considered as a possibility until late college. I went to school for audio engineering and it wasn’t until after graduation that my focus shifted.
Did you participate in any groups, or projects prior to setting out as a solo artist? When and where did you make your live performance debut and what was that experience like for you?
I was in theater and choir all throughout highschool and college, but only started playing with bands right before the pandemic in 2020. I made a record, “Quiet Sides”, with Colin Miller and Jake Lenderman in Asheville at their home studio right before Covid. Colin had just made records with my friends MJ Lenderman and Wednesday, so we spent a lot of time playing music together at that house. The first time my band now played together was at the Fable here in LA. Ryan Pollie actually started booking shows there and has since been a really beautiful spot for songwriters and bands. This show was super special and our preparation for playing the Troubadour in March with Sharon Van Etten shortly thereafter.
Tell me about writing and recording your debut EP “Dual Twin” that was released earlier this month. When and where did recording begin and what was the overall approach and vision for this album? What was most important to express with this being your debut record?
Writing Dual Twin was different to any previous experience I’ve had. The writing process happened really fast after going back to Asheville last Christmas. I went back to visit my family and mix part of the album with my friend Alex Farrar. “Sandy Believes in Me” was the first song I wrote, and happened during a mixing session while I was taking a break between songs. Late November of 2022, I had been chewing on the idea of making a project to my Tascam 388 tape machine all in one take. After making an album over the course of several years, I really wanted a challenge that was different in process. Shortly after this trip, Dual Twin was written sort of before I understood what I was writing. My friends and I made this EP in my living room a few months later, so the turnaround time was around 3 months. I know now that Dual Twin is about family, my relationship with my mom and ultimately figuring out belonging.
Can you tell me about writing and recording the songs that are featured on the album? You mentioned in our correspondence that Ryan Pollie helped work on this project with you. What was that experience like and how did you initially meet him?
I’ve been working on my full length record for I think almost two years now. Ryan and I have put so many hours of love and heartache into this thing. We are both super proud of this record. Dual Twin ended up being an instantaneous interruption to the album timeline process, but now just feels really good to have shared. We first met during his Stars residency show with Eagle Rock church in LA. I saw his home studio shortly after, and immediately knew that that’s where I needed to make my album. Ryan is a brilliant producer and we have so much influential overlap that the making has felt really natural.
Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
This spring I have a few LA shows I’m excited to announce. I’ll be playing with my band at Club Teegee May 21st, which will be a really fun night.
