Q&A: Pop Punk is Back with Cassadee Pope’s ‘Hereditary’ Album
☆ BY isha merchant ☆
Photography Credit: Alex Lyon
POP-PUNK SONGSTRESS — Cassadee Pope, is on tour promoting her recent album Hereditary. This album is long awaited, and will solidify her place as a pop-punk artist. In this interview, Pope discusses her childhood, in which she explored a variety of genres of music, until she found the niche she thrives in today. And talks about the inspiration behind her two recent singles “I Died” and “Three of Us”. Pope describes herself as a storyteller and works to bring life into her music.
LUNA: How would you describe your sound as an artist? Who exactly is Cassadee Pope?
CASSADEE: I would say my sound now has gone back to what I did before country, which is pop punk. I definitely have brought in some of my songwriting tendencies from country music because, you know, being in Nashville for 10 years, learning to write a song that really tells a story was something that I really didn't want to lose coming back to the rock genre. I feel like there's also a storytelling aspect to my music. [I am] more fearless in my music persona versus my personal life. I'm brave and I am driven in my everyday life, but in my songs I'm definitely more open to expressing myself and even in ways where I might not be painted in the best light, because I think it's important to be honest in your songwriting. I love hearing another artist open up about them and their flaws because it makes me feel less alone.
LUNA: What artists have informed the way you create music today?
CASSADEE: Growing up, I was listening to 90s country. I loved Shania Twain, Faith Hill and Martina McBride. That's the through line with all of them, as their choruses are just very catchy and there's undeniable hooks and that's something I always gravitated towards. When I started to listen to rock music, I got really into Blink-182, Fall Out Boy, Yellowcard and Avril Lavigne. Those artists had that catchy hook element to their music, and that's something I've just always loved and gravitated towards. I try to do it in my music as well.
LUNA: Would you say you have predominantly country roots?
CASSADEE: I wouldn't say my roots are predominantly country. When I started to learn how to sing, I started with country music. When I was four years old and I started to sing take lessons [my teacher], would always give me Martina McBride and Faith Hill songs because they're vocally challenging. But as a listener and a fan, my parents listened to 80s classic rock. My grandparents were country fans and my sister was really into hardcore rock music. It was definitely a mixture of a bunch of things. I would say the predominant genre that my family loved was 80s classic rock.
LUNA: How are you feeling about starting off tour tonight?
CASSADEE: I'm excited. This album has been two years in the making, so I wanted to be able to support it with the tour. I'm kind of old school in that way. I'm happy to be out on the road. On Sunday, I woke up with this crazy neck pain and I went to the hospital and it turns out I have three bulging discs in my neck. My head banging days are over. It's going to be high energy, but not so much me jumping around. Just more sonically it's going to be very in your face and high energy. I'm excited to be having my friend Foxy, who is also Nashville-based, and then on the east coast dates, my friend Natalia Taylor's joining us as well. It's a bunch of friends out on the road.
LUNA: How would you describe your newest single, “I Died?”
CASSADEE: I was on Instagram and came across Daisha McBride and loved her music. I DMed her and [asked her] if she would ever want to collaborate on a pop punk song together. She said yes. We got in a session with one of my friends Jake Saghi, the producer, and we wrote “I Died.” I brought in the concept of when you break up with someone … and both people pretend like the other never existed. It's like death. It's very sad and very eerie and weird how you can go from one thing to the other so quickly. We had a great time writing it. It was a really easy session.
[For the visuals] I hit up my friend Ed Pryor. We put together this idea of Daisha and I leaning into seeing our exes and making creepy VHS videotapes of us singing to the camera to spook our exes with. It was really fun. It came out great.
LUNA: What about the song “Three Of Us?”
CASSADEE: For “Three Of Us,” I wrote in LA with one of my closest friends Ali Tamposi. I had the idea of trying to tell the story from the perspective of the person who's loving someone through substance abuse and how hard that is. I never really found the right way to talk about it or sing about it because I never wanted to come across like I'm the victim in the situation. I do feel like it's important for that perspective to be shared. A couple people in that session who are sober helped tell that story from a very empathetic and sensitive place.
I've had loved ones who struggle with substance abuse, and it's a very hard thing to navigate. You want to be there for them, but you also want to make sure you're taking care of yourself. I'm very proud of where we landed with that. I brought it back to Nashville to my producer Dan Swank. We actually have a version that’s a lot more produced, like a power ballad, and we realized it was taking away from the lyrics. We stripped it back down, and that's the version that we released. [For the visual] we did a music video where I had fans send in handwritten notes of their experiences with substance abuse. We printed out all of the notes and hung them up behind me and the music video. It was a very emotional day. I'm really proud of how that turned out as well.
Pope has released a new album titled Hereditary and is supporting it on her current tour. Be sure to check out the album and buy tickets for the tour. Be sure to also see her on tour with Marianas Trench later this year.
