At the release show for their excellent new album, 'Love Is Not Enough', we caught up with Welsh alternative band Casey to dig a little deeper into the background and conception of the LP.
Happy belated release day for âLove Is Not Enoughâ! How does it feel to finally get that labour of love out there?
TOM: “Relieved! Itâs been an extensive process. Weâve had the record finished for about nine months, and itâs just been back and forward to get it sorted. Itâs nice to finally have it out and to have such a positive response to it, which is great.”
LIAM: “Just to see peopleâs reactions to something weâve been sitting on for so longâŠitâs a relief. I mean, we were expecting a mix of positive and negative reactions, but itâs all been positive so far.”
When listening to the album, itâs almost tiring and draining to listen to, in terms that itâs an emotionally heavy album, it makes you sit back and think about your own dealings with mental health, love, and other things. So, in that regard, was it a difficult album to write and record?
TOM: “Yeah, to an extent. We did all the recording ourselves. We rented out a studio and did all the drums, piano, and some other pieces, and then we rented a much smaller studio to do everything else. We were around each other a lot, so it was definitely a learning curve doing it that way, by being in each otherâs space all the time. We also had high expectations of each other that we hadnât had before.
“Everything I had written for [Love Is Not Enough] was written over⊠it wasnât as if Iâd gone away for a weekend and poured everything out, before coming back again the next weekend and recorded everything in one go. So, in a way, it was nicely spaced. Itâs more draining live than anything â there are certain songs that we play and I think âIâm not in that frame of mindâ. All the things that Iâve written are photographs of certain periods in my life, and Iâm not necessarily going to be in the same mind-set singing them today that I was when I wrote it, when I felt it.”
Why the title âLove Is Not Enoughâ? What does it mean to you?
TOM: “The record comes from a few different places. Obviously, thereâs the love between two partners; but thereâs also a song in there about my brother, whoâs severely handicapped, so itâs about the idea that my love is not enough to repay the debt of gratitude I have to him. Thereâs a song about my parents and how theyâve dealt with coming to terms with mental illness â theyâve never had an experience of it and they tend to stay away from the subject. Whilst I know that theyâre completely respectful of it and they try to understand, they never have any meaningful discussions about it because theyâŠintellectually naĂŻve, I suppose. It again goes back to the idea that their love is not enough to make amends for things that they canât help.
“Itâs an all-encompassing subject and discusses the idea that love may not always be enough â obviously there are circumstances where it will be, but my experience of relationships falls onto two different levels: one is that love is solely apart of something much bigger and that alone can be detrimental in some situations, because you can love someone but hate them at the same time but because you love them, you try and stay around them for a long period of time and thatâs when it starts to deteriorate. I do try and keep this [album] ambiguous, even right down to the artwork â itâs based on a sketch my friend Sophie did and one of the things I liked about it is that itâs quite neutral in terms of gender and identity. A lot of people look at it and think, âOh, itâs a man and a woman kissingâ but, more so to me, itâs of me and my brother.”
Is there a certain track that really speaks to you?
LIAM: “âDoubtâ is the track that stands out the most for me; it speaks volumes to me. I think that, musically, itâs completely different andâŠI always say that I canât relate to the songs as much as Tom, or Toby, or Max does. We all take completely different things from each song â so if you were to take a physical emotion away from the music, then âDoubtâ is something that I would listen to outside of the band as I like a lot of that style of music.
“I love the contrast between the different styles of music when you listen to the record, so I think thatâs why itâs [âDoubtâ] so special to me. Every time that song comes on, be it Iâm showing it to my girlfriend, or my parents, or my friends, then thatâs the song that I think really sets us apart from a lot of other bands within the genre.”
TOM: “Thatâs the only song I show to my parents. âDoubtâ was the song that was written last and itâs the most recent of those âphotographsâ that are taken during various different periods of my life, and itâs also the most retrospective of them. Itâs the song I currently relate to at the most; itâs about accepting the fact that, recently, Iâve been very selfish in the way that I treat people in my life and, when I listen back to it, itâs an apology to particular people. And like Liam said, itâs a song that I would happily show to other people.”
Your album came out via Hassle Records. How are you finding the Hassle Records experience?
LIAM: “Weâve all been in bands before and, without sounding really clichĂ©, weâve all been down that path where weâve been offered contracts, nothingâs come of it, and then we end up losing moneyâŠitâs been awful. So we were really hesitant when people started expressing their interest in the band, but then Tom and Toby went to London to speak to the guys at Hassle HQ and everything that we wanted from the project, they were able to get on board with. They were in the exact same mind set as us â itâs very hard to find a label that you click with, so that helped us in deciding that we wanted to work with Hassle Records. They knew exactly what we wanted and there was no âYou want this but we want thisâ, and theyâre just very easy to work with and we all have the same end goals.”
Whatâs next after these release shows and your tour with Being As An Ocean?
TOM: “More touring. Weâve got some stuff lined up for next year which hasnât been announced yet, so I canât divulge full details. But weâve become involved with SJM Concerts â one of the representatives has come on board with us and the team that works with Casey, which is really exciting. Their reach is far beyond anything we could do by ourselves, so weâre working with them. Weâre also in discussions to go further afield, so maybe by the end of the year we can go further internationally.
“Weâve already started writing again; this record [Love Is Not Enough] has been so long in the making, itâs now the case that weâre itching to move on and weâve already started putting ideas together, so weâll be back in the studio at some point, hopefully by the end of next year or the beginning of 2018. The exciting thing for me is that Iâve never been in a band with this much foresight â everything that Iâve done previously is always along the lines of âWhat are we going next month?â or âWe should be planning for six weeks down the lineâ, whereas, with Casey, itâs a case of we can plan for whatâs going to happen within the next 18 months. It just moves so quickly.”
LIAM: “Like Tom said, Iâve been in bands before but it just seems like, from the get-go, itâs just been so full on, and we need to start prepping a year in advance. When I was in bands before, it would be a case of âShould we play this one-off show next month?â and thatâs been our biggest thing. Now, weâre already thinking about locations, studios, engineersâŠitâs exciting and terrifying.”
‘Love Is Not Enough is available now via Hassle Records, and Casey will be on tour with Being As An Ocean through November, which you can see the dates for below.
NOVEMBER
07 SOUTHAMPTON The Social
08 LEEDS Key Club
09 BIRMINGHAM Rainbow
10 GLASGOW G2
11 MANCHESTER Sound Control
12 LONDON Tufnell Park Dome