Kaitlin Cassady has a wistful voice and melancholy songs. Her debut album, Home Away from Home is perfect for a rainy day when you’re ready for all of the feels.
Please tell us about yourself and your music.
I came from a musical family. My dad is also a songwriter and musician and has been in bands/touring since he was a kid. I started playing guitar at age 13 and joined the jazz band (playing guitar) in high school and in college. I’ve been in a few folk/rock bands since I was in my early twenties (playing guitar or bass) but didn’t start songwriting until my mid-twenties. When I moved to Michigan for grad school in 2014, I was very lonely, and it took me some time to find people to play music with. When I finally did, I started taking over songwriting duties. From then on, I became infatuated with songwriting and taught myself how to play piano and drums. After I moved to Berkeley in 2019 for my post-doc, I started writing more and more songs and began recording and producing my first collection of songs that I’d written in Michigan – which would become my Home Away From Home Album. Apart from some crucial mixing/mastering help from my dad, I wrote, recorded and produced the entire album by myself. I moved back to Minnesota in early 2024 and created a new band called Winter Rayne. This band plays all my original songs and we’ve been playing shows all over the Twin Cities ever since. I also started working on my second album, which I hope to release by summer or fall or 2025.
In terms of musical influences, these are endless. Some of my main influences include Aimee Mann, Elliott Smith, Billie Eilish, Amy Winehouse, Norah Jones, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Fleet Foxes, Phoebe Bridgers and Boygenius, The Beatles and The Beach Boys/Brian Wilson.
Your music is retrospective and quite sad. Is it hard to play some songs live (such as Happy For You) or cathartic?
It really does feel mostly cathartic to play these songs. Many of the songs from this album were written so long ago (e.g., 7-8 years) that I’ve had time to heal from some of these difficult experiences, like heartbreak at the end of a relationship. And honestly, writing and expressing my feelings through song is a great form of therapy for me. It helps me to let go of and move on from some of the negative feelings associated with a difficult experience and think back fondly with a new perspective and how I’ve learned from the experience.
Can you talk more about Baseline of Sadness? It feels like a song that many folks can relate to.
Baseline Sadness is about trying to live a normal life with depression. It’s about trying to find ways to be happy, even if it feels like fleeting moments of joy. I’ve suffered from depression since I was a kid. Despite trying many ways of coping – whether it’s medicine, therapy, meditation, diet, or lifestyle changes – I’ve found that I always inevitably “fall back down” to my baseline level of happiness, which, instead of being at a normal zero, oftentimes feels like -100 for me. I know that this is a feeling many people can relate to and given that I feel this way most of the time, I felt like I needed to talk about it or “get it out” somehow so that it doesn’t feel like I’m just bottling it up inside all the time. And I guess that’s how the song came about.
Where (or what) is your Home Away From Home?
At the time of writing this album, my Home Away From Home was Ann Arbor, Michigan. As I mentioned before, I lived there for five years of my life while working on my PhD. Most of the songs from this album were written about my experiences during that time of my life.
Where can we see you play in the Cities?
I play with my band, Winter Rayne, all over the Twin Cities! We perform all my original music, including songs from Home Away From Home and newer songs from my upcoming second album. We also play a few fun cover songs as well. We formed quite recently this past summer, so at this point we’ve played mostly at bars, cafes, and coffee shops. But hopefully, we’ll play at bigger venues and more outdoor local festivals next summer. Recently, we’ve played at local favorites such as Driftwood Char Bar, The White Squirrel, Minnesota Music Café, The Acadia Café, and Ginkgo Coffeehouse. We also have upcoming shows at Troubadour Wine Bar, and Palmer’s for New Band Night. Also, Radio K has been playing a lot of my songs recently and we plan to play at their studios soon. You can find all my upcoming show information on my website at https://kaitlincassady.com/.
Mostly Minnesota 