First introduced to the music world as the vocalist of Hey Monday, the last fifteen years have been somewhat of a rollercoaster for Cassadee Pope.
Releasing just one full-length record before her band’s 2011 hiatus, after becoming the first female winner of The Voice US, she has spent the last decade of her career making waves in the country genre. Growing exponentially from the teenager who piled onto a tour bus to play her first Warped Tour, everything has changed for Cassadee, but her fourth studio album ‘Hereditary’ comes as a reminder that no matter where life takes you – you can’t ignore your roots.
Returning to the sound that defined her formative years, Cassadee is making a fresh start. Bringing a decade of sonic and personal growth and having learnt vital lessons about the industry, her reunion with pop-punk feels like a homecoming, radiating a joyful authenticity.
With Hey Monday set to play ‘Hold On Tight’ in full at this year’s When We Were Young Festival, Cassadee might be stepping into the past, but there’s no doubt that her focus is fixed firmly on the future. As the latest chapter of her story unravels, we sat down to reflect on her journey and how the songs on ‘Hereditary’ came to life.
ROCK SOUND: First off, let’s rewind a couple of years to when you decided to come back to the pop-punk world. After spending some time in the country scene and exploring your songwriting, what drew you back to this sound?
CASSADEE POPE: “A lot of factors played into it, and it was gradual. In 2020, I was getting very reflective, like everyone else during that time. I kept thinking about the things that shaped me as a person and as an artist, and I kept going back to rock. I was listening to all these pop-punk bands that influenced me so heavily, and I wrote my album ‘Thrive’ during that time. That was a country pop-punk record, but it was not received as well as I had hoped. That forced me to think about why I was staying in country music. A lot of the reason was that I was afraid to leave something after working so hard to be a part of for the last ten years. I had built a career in that world, I had some success, and I had been getting consistent shows. It was scary to think about leaving that behind.
I thought about how much of the game you have to play to succeed in that genre, though. Being a woman already puts you at a deficit in the country scene, and being outspoken on a lot of social issues can work against you. I wasn’t even listening to country music at that point either. At the same time, pop music started to have more guitars, and more rock infused into it. I was naturally drawn to pop music again, as well as the resurgence of pop-punk. There was a synchronicity there, and it felt like if I were to not go back in that direction, it was out of fear rather than what I truly wanted.”
RS: Once you started experimenting with that sound again, how did it feel?
CASSADEE: “It felt great. It took a minute to give myself permission to get out of certain habits, though. There are a lot of boundaries within writing for country music, especially as a woman. Once I started letting go of those and getting into sessions with people who don’t think that way, it was amazing. I went to LA to write with pop and rock writers, as well as people in Nashville who write rock. It felt natural again. I tried to tap into those days before I ever moved to Nashville, and I didn’t really know what the structure of a song was. I was just writing a bunch of verses and creating these stream of consciousness songs. I fused that spirit with everything I’d learned in Nashville.”
RS: Knowing that you’ve spent the last decade building a fanbase in the country sphere, was it daunting to begin that new chapter?
CASSADEE: “I think what helped me through it was being realistic about the fact that it might take a minute. People will still see me as a country artist for a while because I’ve done it for so long, and people in the rock space might be a little bit hesitant to fully embrace me again. I went into it with a mindset of patience, and I wasn’t like, ‘This has to work’. I’ve diversified my career to a point where, if it didn’t work out, I would still have other things to work on. Luckily though, it’s going well. The expectation on myself wasn’t as intense as it usually is, and because of that, the reward felt bigger when it did work out.”
RS: Coming into ‘Hereditary’, what was the vision for those songs?
CASSADEE: “I was listening to a lot of Biffy Clyro and Four Year Strong, so I’d have a song reference every time I went into the sessions, and I would have an idea or a concept. I made sure I was going into sessions with people that I knew understood what I wanted to do sonically. I love all the new stuff coming up in the scene, but I don’t feel like it’s me to do a trap beat under a pop-punk song. That’s not my vibe, so I went with people who got that. It was so seamless, and the goal was to write a record that I would love to listen to as a fan. I’ve always tried to do that, but there were a lot of other factors clouding my judgment in the past. This time, all those external aspects were gone. I was just like, ‘What would be fun to play live?’, ‘What would I love to hear as a listener?’, and ‘What did I not get to do in Hey Monday?’.
Hey Monday were on a major label. We were working with great producers, but they were polished pop producers. We wanted to be heavier, and we had a lot more intricate guitar parts, but we didn’t end up getting to go where we wanted to. This was my way of correcting that, and finally getting to go in the direction that seemed clearest to me. Lyrically, I also wanted to make sure that the album talked more about who I am as a person, the ways that I’ve grown, and the things I’ve discovered about myself. Coming back to the genre that got me my start in music, it called for some self-awareness and self-discovery.”
RS: Storytelling is a huge part of this record… Is that part of your writing that’s developed over the last decade?
CASSADEE: “I love a super cryptic lyric, but my writing style has evolved over the last ten years of being in Nashville. It’s become more of a conversational approach, which is something that I love about artists like Dashboard Confessional and Olivia Rodrigo. Sometimes the lyrics aren’t super profound, but they just hit you in the gut. That’s rubbed off on me, and country music has a lot of beautiful things about it. The storytelling aspect is one of them, and so is the twist that they put in songs. I did that on ‘Wrong One’, but I didn’t incorporate too many country elements into these songs. I knew where the line was.”
RS: Lyrically, a song that feels especially important is ‘Three Of Us’. What was the inspiration behind that track?
CASSADEE: “I had a session in LA with a close friend of mine, Ali Tamposi. She’s like a sister to me, and I felt safe diving into this with her. She knows my whole story, from family stuff to relationships, and so when I told her that I wanted to write something about loving someone through substance abuse – she was automatically on board. She’s been sober for a long time, and she’s had people in her life that have loved her through that process. It was a therapeutic session, and it helped me to make sure that I was staying sensitive to her experience. There were two sober people in the session, and I didn’t want everybody to listen to it and think I was being insensitive or trying to make it about me.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years though, it’s that if you don’t honour your feelings and make sure that your needs are met, you can’t help other people. If you’re at a deficit and you’re not fulfilled, you’re not able to show up as your full self for somebody. I’ve been thinking about writing about this subject for a long time, so it was a refreshing song to finally get out. I wanted to make it sound like it’s about a relationship, but I have also struggled with a family member’s addiction. I’ve chosen to keep the people that it’s about private, but when the song came out it was overwhelming to see how many people had similar experiences. I asked people to send me notes of their experiences, and I printed them all out and put them up behind me in the music video. It’s unfortunate how many people have been through it, but if we could destigmatize it and talk about it more, a lot more people would feel comfortable opening up. It’s part of the healing process.”
RS: Something that’s special about pop-punk, especially in the live show, is that you can be singing about heartbreaking topics but the music behind them can be full of energy and super uplifting…
CASSADEE: “I love when songs do that, and I always feel drawn to doing that. With ‘Three Of Us’ we kept it sad across the board, but we tested the waters a bit. My producer, Dan Swank, and I produced a power ballad version with big drums and big guitars. After a while though, we decided that it was taking away from the sentiment and the overall vibe of the song. There are times where it works and times where it doesn’t, but it’s good to experiment to see what you like best.”
RS: You worked with a whole host of incredible creatives on this record, including the brilliant Aaron Gillespie on ‘Ever Since The World Ended’. What was it like collaborating with him?
CASSADEE: “I’m a huge fan. I told him about when I was high school, and I went to an Underoath concert in Florida. A friend’s mom got us a limo to show up in, and we were so embarrassed. You can’t go to a hardcore show in a limo! However, that show changed my life. Our collaboration came about because of my friend Nick Bailey, who was in a band called Runner Runner back in the day. He’s a writer now, and he texted me to say that he had a chorus that he’d written with Aaron Gillespie. He asked if I’d be down to finish the song with them, and Aaron and I were able to hop on Zoom together. It was before he moved to Nashville, and we finished the song together over Zoom.
I was trying to think of ways to get him to agree to sing on the final track, and whilst we were writing I suggested that we make it into a duet. We made the second verse from the guy’s perspective and eventually I was like, ‘I would love for you to sing on this, and I’d love you to produce it too’. We got together and recut it, and when he moved to Nashville, he laid down his iconic vocals. His voice is one of my favourite voices in rock music. It’s so distinct, especially within a scene where so many singers had such a boyish nasally sound. He had this raspy manly approach that made you want to punch a hole through the wall. I was so excited to sing with him.”
RS: Growing up inspired by the likes of Blink-182 and Avril Lavigne, what does it mean to be able to come back to pop-punk and have your fans embrace that change?
CASSADEE: “It’s so cool and I think that right now, I’m ready for this chapter. Before, I would have put a lot of weight behind it. Everyone has insecurities, but I always struggled with insecurities within the rock genre. I never felt weird enough, and I always felt like the pop chick. I felt as though I wasn’t intriguing enough. I probably put a lot of that on myself, but it didn’t help that Hey Monday was constantly compared to Paramore. They were absolutely blowing up, and we were not. That left a bad taste in my mouth for a long time, but once I worked through that, I was able to see that I had an influence on the genre.
Hey Monday was such a short-lived thing, so I don’t often think about the legacy or the impact we had on the genre. Once I started to dip my toes into the waters of rock again though, I would post about Hey Monday, and all these people started coming into my orbit. All the fans that fell off because they weren’t as interested in the country stuff came back, and everybody was excited that I was back. A lot of people weren’t convinced by the country stuff, and now that I’m back in this genre, it feels like this is where I should be. It feels like I’m at a place in my life where I’m ready for this chapter.”
RS: Are you feeling more confident in yourself as a rock artist now than you were as a teenager in Hey Monday?
CASSADEE: “Absolutely, because I was so insecure back then. I had all these older men telling me what I should do and what I should wear, but I was told that they knew what they were doing. They had all these bands that were killing it, so why would I – as a kid from West Palm – say, ‘You’re wrong, I’m right’? I went along with a lot of stuff, and even though I wrote the whole [Hey Monday] album, a lot of it was influenced and steered by these older men. Now, I don’t have as skewed of a perception on authority. I don’t believe that people older than you always know better than you, and often those people in the industry get it wrong. As an adult, I’ve done so much work in therapy, and I’m way more level-headed. I can handle the setbacks and the rejections with more grace. If someone doesn’t like your music, that doesn’t mean that other people won’t. Now, I’m in a better place, and I’m more equipped to handle life’s journeys.”