Casual Projects – “Life, Music, Women, Beer, Positivity, Things, Stuff......”
When you talk to Casual Projects and listen to their music, one word to describe them instantly springs to mind – cheeky! They list there influences as “Life, Music, Women, Beer, Positivity, Things, Stuff......”, promising to fill any room “ with a great vibe playing their take on hip-hop”.
Casual Projects (or Cas-P as they're also known) began as just that, a casual project in 2004.
“A few of us started out just jamming on freestyle grooves with acoustic guitars for fun. We thought it might be cool to put together a band more as a casual project, we got a bit carried away but the name stuck.”
This 8 piece all live band hail from our nation's capital and are now bringing their positive words and funky sound to a state near you.
“There is a serious lack of venues in this city (Canberra) which is a very big problem for every band here but that could be associated with a lack of punters also. We try not to play too often here so it is always more exciting when we do. Interstate has been like starting over a little bit but we have been received really well at some of our Melbourne gigs.”
They are enjoying all the travelling that there live performances entail. “Yeah its pretty good fun being on the road with 7 of your mates going to do something that you love. We are still in negotiations on building our million dollar tour bus but hopefully it’s not to far off!” they say.
“We are pretty close friends and talk about virtually everything together. Honesty is really important and a lot of constructive criticism is always around, not just to do with our music, but how we deal with each other and the world we live in.“
A lot has happened for Casual Projects since they began. Within their first year together they have played alongside the likes of Machine Gun Fellatio, Urthboy + Ozi Batla (The Herd), Architecture in Helsinki, Blue Juice, Spoon (USA), Good Buddha and Kid Confucius, as well as being on the 2005 bill for STONEFEST alongside Butterfingers, The Beautiful Girls, Thirsty Merc, Electric 6 and The Living End.
The middle of 2005 saw the official release of their self titled album, launched to a sell out show at the ANU bar in Canberra.
“The album Launch was a good springboard for us, and gained us a decent respect and reputation with the local community. We sold 150 cd’s in 2 hours at the launch which we were pretty happy with. Sales in stores could be better, but we have recently started distribution in Japan and have sold hundreds there within a matter of weeks which is cool. We are looking at touring there later this year to follow up the release, ” Cas-P says.
In October 05, Cas-P were shortlisted to the top 8 for the SOYA Noise competition out of 8000 entries.
“It was alright 'til we didn’t win (laughs) – we felt very privileged to be some of the last ones standing around so many talented artists. They came down and shot some footage for a short documentary about us which was very cool.”
In March 2006, the band took part in the 93rd birthday celebration for Canberra, playing before fellow Aussies, Something for Kate.
“Our bass player was very happy as he’s a big SFK fan. There were a few thousand people there so it was great exposure.”
More recently, Casual Projects graced the stages at The Great Escape over the Easter long weekend.
“Our set was pretty late on Saturday night but there were still heaps of people around. It was a really amazing festival with a very broad range of music and activities. We highly recommend it! We also played a lot of ping pong…”
Casual Projects have now had many a memorable live performance. “The launch will always be very memorable as it was like a new beginning for us, but playing the great escape is up there now as well. Another one would be the Blue king Brown support at The Green Room in Canberra which went nuts.”
“Schmooze”, a themed event in Canberra, which is basically a series of bands put together for one night, saw their unique sound bought to a room full of pirates.
“Yeah it was pretty funny having hundreds of pirates dancing to our music. No one was raped or pillaged which was a plus,” they say.
Ask Casual Projects to explain in ten words or less, for those of us not fortunate to make it to one of there gigs, what someone can expect from your live show? And those cheeky boys respond with a quote from someone else!
“Funky, rocking, soulful sweet tight raucous, all in one show” (Alistair Erskine – BMA magazine)
Casual Projects self titled album is available from all good music stores throughout Australia, through MGM distribution.
