review from The Toronto Star:
Degrassi girl rocks out
Alex Kucharski
Planet reviewer
5 May 2005
Cassie Steele's debut album, How Much For Happy, is putting a new face on music. She recently launched the CD at the Mod Club downtown, and the next day, I interviewed her.
"I'd have to say that it's alternative rock. There's loads of stuff in there. It's sometimes bluesy, jazzy and then I have a lot of harder songs, also pop, and rock. Just different flavours all combined into one," says Cassie.
As for the lyrics, they're way beyond Cassie's age of 15, and may even be regarded as controversial. She sings about cheating on "Rock Your Bones" , stereotyping on "Fantasy" ("Baby, oh you make me sick/Why can't you accept it?/You've made an image that you think is me"), fame on "Famous," and the morning-after breakup on "Crimson Tears," just to name a few.
"A lot of them are metaphors because I want people to relate to my songs. They're little things that happen in my life, not so much to the extent of my lyrics. I can blow things out of proportion so that other people will be able to feel it more," says Cassie.
But when she sings about religion on "A Sinner's Prayer" ("Dying with despair/God, do you care of a sinner's prayer"), she says she's not singing about being religious herself. "If anything's religious on my album, then it's questioning religion as opposed to being religious myself," she says.
The first single off of How Much For Happy, "Blue Bird," is one of the jazzier songs on the album, but the jazz has a more up-to-beat tempo.
When this girl, who plays fun, bubbly Manny on Degrassi, sings darker music on her album, with just two or three songs that are pop/rock, it may be difficult for some people to get in tune with her deeper side.
"I think some people may have a hard time, but purposely I did pop/rock songs because of those fans. Also, I wouldn't all of a sudden do death metal, when my character is a little R&B, dressed up, loopy. So I still kept it tame, even though from my lyrics I could say whatever I want, express myself in any way that I feel.
"I took advantage over that. And if people don't like it, then it's not my fault," she says.
When I ask her about any changes she would makeshe says, "We didn't take time to record as much as I'd like to. A lot of songs deserved different treatment and they didn't get it. We rushed a bit and we only wrote the songs in about a month. Overall, I would just like to work more on it."
As for the song that she likes the most off the album, "I'd have to say, 'Broken (How Much For Happy)'. If I had to have one song on that album to describe who I am, that is definitely it."
Will Cassie Steele be the next Gothic princess in the music world? Where will her music take her?
"I want to reach as many people as I can. I don't really know where my music is going to take me. I just want to keep singing, keep performing and I just want to prove to everyone that I'm not just an actor and I'm not here just because of that. I'm going to show you what I'm about," Cassie says.
Alex Kucharski, 13, Grade 8, Richmond Hill