While Cassy London’s bright blonde hair and sparkling lipgloss might be best suited for a vapid bubblegum pop star, one of OC’s top up and coming songstresses is looking for more depth and meaning in her tunes than just a Top 40 hit.
After initially gaining a respectable following through YouTube covers and a pair of singles, London certainly could’ve rushed her debut EP to capitalize on the early momentum. Instead, she spent a solid chunk of time crafting each of the six songs that appear on her aptly named release.
“I’d been working on Realm for the last two years, and I’m really excited about it,” London says. “Aside from really liking the word ‘realm,’ this has been my realm for these last two years, so that’s where the title came from.”
From classic pop channeling the divas of the ‘90s and '00s to more modernized electronic sounds, Realm covers a wide range of catchy music. But beyond the powerful vocals and memorable beats, London mainly wants to inspire her listeners to follow her example and dig into the raw creativity they had as a child.
“I wanted to make this music very unique, so everything from the messages in each song to the way they’re named is different,” London says. “The name of each song is a metaphor for something, so they allow people to perceive the songs in any way they want. A big part of my platform is embracing creativity, so I don’t want people to feel like I’m telling them how to feel or what to think when they listen to one of my songs.”
With Realm finally released and London looking like a pop artist to watch, the South County native isn’t planning on leaving her first EP behind anytime soon. Remixes and collaborations are likely in London’s near future, and although tracks like “Carousel” and “Magic” already have some elaborate and grandiose videos, the singer still has plenty of visual ideas for her other tunes.
“Now that Realm is out, I’m looking forward to collaborating with a lot of different artists and DJs to create some different versions of my songs,” London says. “I’m also creating a lot of new visual content for the EP, which is exciting. I love big theatrical costumes and dancing, so I’ll definitely be doing more of that.”
But the recording industry isn’t the only place London’s let her talents shine through. In 2011 – just a couple of years before her music career really took off – the young performer made her first (and only) appearance in a beauty pageant when she walked away with the title of Miss South County before continuing on to take part in the Miss California pageant. Although it’s not something she plans on doing again, getting the chance to see into the pageant life gave London a whole new appreciation for that gave.
“I’ve always had a lot of respect for people in pageants,” London says. “There’s a tremendous amount of work involved that people don’t know about. I’ve only done one, but it was a great experience. I did it for fun – well, I did it on a bet, to be honest – but it ended up being such a great platform and a great experience. After that first pageant, I’ve resigned from that world, but I give tremendous respect to all the young girls who are involved in it.”
As for how pageantry compares with music, London says the two industries have a handful of things in common. Aside from your favorite band’s guilty pleasure of Toddlers & Tiaras, pageantry and music also crossover in empowering young women to take on life’s toughest challenges.
“Comparing the two worlds, they both cross in the world of entertainment and in being a role model, so they do have some common elements,” London says. “They’re also both great ways to build a lot of confidence, and that’s a big part of what I want to do with my music.”
Josh Chesler used to play baseball for some pretty cool teams, but now he just writes about awesome stuff like tattoos, music, MMA and sneakers. He enjoys injuring himself by skateboarding, training for fights, and playing musical instruments in his off time.