A fixture of the Sydney queer performance scene, Cassy Judy's trans identity is front and centre in her music – through songs that cover self-discovery and empowerment. Plus, her experience as a criminal lawyer in Broken Hill have deeply influenced her music, with songs on the mixtape like 'You're Gunna Get Sent' reflecting her observations of the justice system.
Cassy's unflinching honesty and wit feature throughout all of her music – including this new body of work – even in the midst of addressing complex issues in her lyricism.
Recording the mixtape at Quarterpipe Studios in Gymea Bay, Cassy was able to experiment with different sounds and styles. Here, she breaks down each track on the project, describing her influences, inspirations, and motivations.
"I want people to think about lives that are outside of their own," Cassy says. "I want them to think about social justice, to engage in our political system, and agitate for change and for fairer outcomes."
Learn To Love Again
This song was co-written with Kiwi and licensed security guard Sam Schroder. Sam has an amazing musical sensibility and I watched him hold the room with this song. When I spoke to him about it years later, I couldn’t believe that he wanted to move on from it. I really wanted the song to have a life and for people to hear it. So I recorded it. The lines “I swear to god these walls are bringing us down. This infrastructure is bringing us down”, really resonated with me! I can really relate to the ways in which the urban environment isolates us from one another rather than facilitating connection and interaction. It’s really designed to facilitate sales. So, 'Learn To Love Again' is about having another crack at love and trying to escape the oppressiveness of an urban environment, combined with Adriana plucking her cello in the chorus and me blowing my own horn on the track. I mean, who else is going to blow it? Good times!
Love Letter To Society
If I have a bee in my bonnet about anything it’s inequality. It’s the way that some people’s life choices allow them to live in leafy suburbs and others have to eke out a living on struggle street, or worse, public housing ghettos. I can’t believe that such a world is ever fair or that it should exist. The one human being’s work is worth millions of dollars more than another’s. I don’t. I won’t. So this song is written from the perspective of someone who lives in a disadvantaged area full of “sunken, sullen faces tell a bittersweet bedtime story”, that are “staring far too much at me”. The protagonist yearns to leave this area and have a better life. Some do. I don’t want this song to discount individual effort and achievements but it shouldn’t prevent us from looking at social patterns of poverty, deprivation and disadvantage and striving to shift them.
You’re Gunna Get Sent
This song is pretty much a mudmap of my time in Broken Hill as a criminal lawyer. What I saw. The situations that some people were in. The joy that spread through the town of Wilcannia when the river was full. Kids jumping from the bridge into the flowing Darling below. Also, the charged atmosphere when a tough Magistrate was in town. People taunting one another, “ya gunna get sent!” a client approached me doubled over in pain, feebly clutching a medical certificate, asking for his case to be adjourned. The raw human theatre of it all was compelling. Underscoring this song is a sense that society doesn’t care about these lives. That we live in the cities and focus on our property portfolios, but out there, life is different!
Trailblazer Demo
I did this one using Garage Band on my iPad. It was spontaneous and many attempts to re-create it with expert production assistance were futile, they never came close to the raw authentic passion I was able to muster, harness and record. So I wanted it out there to be a testament to my thoughts about being a woman and a dad. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t make me a man. Also, please don’t ask a girl what’s between her legs unless you want to pay for her surgery, laser hair removal or earrings from Lovisa (not being paid to say that)!
Xanthan Gum
I seem pathologically incapable of releasing a recording without flicking the switch to vaudeville. This is 'Xanthan Gum', an ingredient that lives in my pantry but I have never used. It can make your toothpaste nice and thick. No one should have to tolerate un-thickened toothpaste! It’s insufferable, intolerable and ought not be accepted. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, let alone my worst enemy. Ok, maybe some really famous transphobes. May they have un-thick and runny toothpaste aplenty!
I’ve Come So Far Calypso
Call me an unreconstructed '90s teen but I love a good remix! So, this remix has a fruity calypso Peter Allen meets UB40 vibe! Pass me my Jamaican steel drums! Grab your maracas and come get some! Shake it baby! Wanna dance?
Fly Away
The mixtape finishes with 'Fly Away'. Derek Turner came in hard on this one, like he was rehearsing for a title fight! I got really obsessed with the RnB whistle like Prince used in the song 'Black Sweat', so, 'Fly Away' was born. Elon Musk promised us the hyperloop which promised to revolutionise urban travel. That dream appears to have died on a Nevada test track but I was sure as hell excited about it. I dream of escaping the city traffic. Such is the promise of the automobile. The promise of unlimited individual freedom but the kicker is that your freedom has to compete with everyone else’s and sometimes everyone’s freedom at the same time results in gridlock. So there!
Cassy Judy's 'The Cassy Judy Mixtape' is out now. She plays Moshpit 20 December, 3-6pm with guests Lauren Hersey, Carla and Headspacer.
