Pop Star Cassie Dasilva Interview: TikTok for Independent Artists
Canadian pop star Cassie Dasilva recently sat down for an interview with us (Adrienne & Layla) initially to discuss what it was like having her song go viral on TikTok, but we learned much more about how a social media app can give an artist freedom and control over what they produce.
When we first encountered Cassie Dasilva's newest single "Unsolicited Contact" on our FYP, we were praising the algorithm gods:
As huge fans of Cassie and her music, we assumed that she had to have had at least an inkling that her video would go viral on TikTok. "No- that's the funny thing."
And then she got into why she wasn't banking on TikTok to blow up her first independently released single:
"When I made this music, I was making it from a place of having come from a label and having had this pressure - making songs that everyone's gonna like- and when I started making this EP on my own I was like 'you know what, the baseline needs to be that I love it and if other people like it that's great, but like- I'm just gonna try things that I like and not think about what peoples reactions are gonna be. So it was really surprising and amazing to get that affirmation that people were liking it on TikTok."
Even with the amount of time, energy, and attention to detail put in to produce the perfect angsty pop anthem and a visually satisfying music video to match, there was still a chance the algorithm could fail.
"Sometimes you'll put something out there and like 5 people will see it." Cassie even said that the clip that went viral was actually the last of three snippets she posted of her music video.
When it did go viral, she saw views migrate from TikTok to her Spotify and Youtube page, and she went from 50 followers to 10k followers on TikTok in 3 days!
Having seen the success of Cassie's TikTok, it was important to ask the question as to how she came up with the idea to get her content out thereon TikTok's platform in the first place. Cassie explained that initially - like many other users - during the year 2020, "TikTok was a coping mechanism" and there had been no initial intention to put out music content on the viral platform. Cassie went on to explain that she initially held back from putting her content onto TikTok, partially due to not wanting to tease users with content that was not ready to be officially released, which eventually led to the decision to use her TikTok profile for comedic and non-content-related use.
Talking with Cassie, we couldn't help but fangirl a bit, which actually helped us get to the bottom of why the song and music video was so addicting. After listing all the reasons we loved 'Unsolicited Contact' - the specific lyrics, the purple hue over everything, the relaxed choreography - Cassie revealed that what separates this song from her older music is who she worked with.
No longer under the nose of a label, she made it a point to work with an all-female team, because why not? Instead of having some dude from a label guess what she would like, as her own creative director, Cassie had complete control over every aspect, down to hand-making props herself.
"It was all cohesive because it was all my vision. I think that's why it comes across - it's not someone who I hired trying to guess the things that I would like and trying to guess the things that I would want to wear," which she says has happened in the past. "I think that's what makes it such a strong vision."
Additionally, the specificity and the honesty of the song was an interest of ours. Cassie revealed that the song itself was in fact entirely accurate (down to the names!) and she agreed part of the success in this song was due to the explicit honesty - a story that many girls find themselves relating to in some form.
Having reached over a million people, it was inevitable her ex and the infamous Megan would find out. Cassie's not sure about Megan, but she did mention that she noticed her ex watching all of her Instagram promoting the song. However, when the song dropped he stopped watching - if we were him we'd probably need a break from social media too.
Something else unique about promoting a song through TikTok is the close proximity to fans. Cassie got a sense for how much fans related to her song pretty quickly - "getting messages from people who are like 'oh my god this is literally what I'm going through, 'because of you I just blocked my ex, they reached out to me on my birthday,' or 'their new girlfriend's name is Megan!"
One of the many interesting things that we learned from the interview with Cassie, was understanding that transparency and remaining true to herself - as an artist - played a huge role in the success of Cassie's viral teaser for 'Unsolicited Contact'. Many decisions that were made in the production of the song and the music video were initiated by Cassie's desire to stay true to herself and to remain genuine. She spoke about how doing what she wanted to do and how were an important factor when creating content and this in turn, has shown to have brought Cassie incredible success in her career.
During our interview, Cassie revealed that she was soon releasing a new song and has since posted a snippet of her newest release "We Might Break Up" - OUT TOMORROW: https://bstlnk.to/cassiedasilva-wemightbreakup !!
https://vm.tiktok.com/
Catch Cassie all over everyone's 2021 Spotify Wrapped, or just follow her here:
Twitter: @cassiedasilvaSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4pbczoOebMX6nCbWP59fre
Adrienne Lucas / Executive Editor
A passionate writer with experience in editing, content creation, and social media marketing. A lover of animals, helping others improve their writing, and 2000's pop culture.
Reviewed by Adrienne Lucas
on
Thursday, April 08, 2021
Rating:
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Adrienne is a passionate writer with experience in editing, content creation, and social media marketing. She’s a lover of animals, helping others improve their writing, and 2000s pop culture.
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