Today we’d like to introduce you to Casimir Cadence.
Hi Casimir, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I grew up in a family where almost everyone could sing or at least hold a tune, so between that and church I naturally developed a passion for singing at a very young age. From there, I began recording music when I was about ten years old. I was signed to a couple of independent labels from my hometown of Durham, North Carolina. During that time, I received years of artist development under the stage name Lil’MaQ (pronounced lil mack).
From age 10 to 17, I performed at all types of events — festivals, talent competitions, and corporate events. I had the opportunity to open for Frankie Beverly & Maze, Joe, and Mary J Blige. I even got a chance to perform at the RBC Arena as an opening act on the annual Women’s Empowerment conference, I was 14 at the time, I think. To sum it up, I traveled with about 4-6 dancers all across the east coast from New York and down to Florida. Those were some of the best memories of my childhood. We would have rehearsals every Saturday and sometimes Friday’s. This was my life for seven years and I loved it.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
At the peak of my career, I was able to land an in-person meeting with DJ Mormile, who at the time was working for Interscope Records. It was the summer of 2009, I was 17 and my family, my managers and my label heads received an invitation to be flown out to LA to discuss my career. At this point, it felt that everything I had worked for was finally paying off. Seven years of building my name, creating a following, artist development. This was my moment!
We arrived in Santa Monica and drove over to Interscope where we were introduced to Laurie Anne Gibson, whom I was set to begin working with if all worked out.
Long story short, it didn’t. I can’t get into the details of why it didn’t work out, but shortly after that trip, my management contract and my recording contract with the independent label were terminated. I was crushed. It felt like I had nothing. I literally had graduated from high school one semester early JUST to ensure I had availability to fly out to LA to begin recording. And then here I was with nothing, no major label, no independent label and no management team.
I had to piece my life together and I didn’t know how. Up until that point, I’d never even thought about college. My aspirations were tied to being in the music industry.
In the fall of 2010, I enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where I majored in Communications and took up a minor in Journalism. It felt like the easiest thing to pursue at the time. For the next four years of college and the next three years after that, I completely gave up on music. In fact, I didn’t record music again until 2015 — I felt like a failure. It felt like I’d let down my family, the dancers who traveled with me for all those years, their families and the fans I developed along the way.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I moved to LA in 2015 a few months after I graduated college and met a producer by the name of De-Capo. Meeting him was a blessing because he helped me regain my passion for music. We would record music for hours, experimenting with sounds and styles and just having fun.
During the four years of college, I lost a lot of my confidence and working with him, I was able to build it. The biggest thing for me was shedding my adolescent image of myself and realizing that I’m an adult. I was no longer the 15/16 years old boy singing about my high school crush. And although I knew that, as an artist it was hard for me to feel comfortable sharing my adult experiences. ALOT of who I was had evolved over the years and I didn’t know how to express that and if I was even comfortable sharing it.
From 2015-2021 I continued to craft my sound — taking influence from some of my favorite artists such as Brandy, Usher, Chris Brown, Travis Garland, Tiwa Savage and Malik Berry. It wasn’t until the end of 2021 that I made the decision to begin releasing my music again. Something I never thought I’d have the confidence to do again.
In lieu of that, I landed on the artist name Casimir Cadence. The name ‘Casimir’ has a few translations; one of them being “bringer of peace.” While ‘Cadence’ is a musical reference to “rhythm” & “harmonic change.” I was inspired to put these two names together metaphorically to mean “bringer of peace through music/rhythm.” This describes the essence of what my creative art form does for me.
I’m excited to share my experiences and perspective through my music. It’s a scary feeling because some things are REALLY personal while others are more fictional but still relatable, I hope.
My first single “Last Thing I Do” is my re-introduction to music, I guess that’s appropriate to say. I’m not new to it but I’m also aware that no one really knows me despite my previous experience as a child. I made this record almost two years ago and I’d been sitting on it for forever until recently when I met LeviDoubleU (the co-producer). He created a new beat for me and it made me fall in love with the record again. I hit my boy DeCapo up who I had originally recorded it with and he put his touch on it and it was up from there. I’m excited to release new material.
I’m currently working with another producer you may have heard of by the name Soundz. We got something pretty dope that we’re about to drop so stay tuned for that.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
Ahh man, I’ve had an army of supporters over the years. Of course, my parents who invested thousands of dollars into my early career, my Nana and grandpa who have been my #1 supporters my entire life. Aside from them Quintin Deberry – he’s the one that connected me with Decapo.
Speaking of him, I definitely have to thank my long-time music partner De-Capo. Like I mentioned earlier, he really invested a lot of time into me not only as an artist but as a person. This dude is like a brother to me. He’s spent hours paid and unpaid helping me develop my sound over the years! I’ve learned so much about myself through his guidance and I appreciate that. My style is really heavy on backgrounds, that’s the Brandy influence that I’ve always had, lol. He understands that. Honestly, in recent years R&B music has progressed to a more simplistic approach and I can appreciate that you know? Minimal backgrounds and a strong lead can be amazing but it just isn’t my preference or style and he taught me how to find a healthy balance with some of the newer trends while staying true to my core sound.
Another person that I definitely have to recognize is Tijon Clark. He’s my engineer so most of the stuff you guys will hear from me will likely be things I’ve worked with him on. We met in college and when I lived in Denver he and I reconnected out of the blue and we’ve been putting in work together ever since. When I left LA, I didnt know if I would quickly find another person that I connected with musically because, you know recording music is all about the vibe and the energy. That really affects the recording process and Tijon and I just work well together which is a blessing.
Contact Info:
- Email: catchmycadence@gmail.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/casimircadence
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/casimircadence
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpOdGUGQ_NeNYeHF1AACF0w
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-955114547
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/track/6WytPdNlfDtFQ5Abjx9MCt?si=e1b9ed52f8c940b7
Image Credits:
Hallo Smith (photographer for 2 photos)
