Meet Case, A New Rising Collective Coming Out Of Chicago

Introduce yourselves

CASE consists of Charlie O’Neill, Noah Toritto, Jabriel Martin, Cale Zepernick, and Seamus Masterson. Cale sings and plays guitar. Noah also plays guitar. Seamus plays the violin and sings, Charlie plays drums and Jabriel plays trumpet.

Originally, Case was just Cale and Seamus, now you guys have developed into a 5-piece. You said the expansion of Case was the best decision. Talk about that.

When CASE first started, we really didn’t know what we were doing. We liked “only one” by Kanye so we recorded a demo of that in Cale’s basement and put it up on SoundCloud. After that, we decided to record a four-song EP, a collection of tunes we were working on in our first stages. It was fun with the two of us, but the songs didn’t have the fullness we desired. After we hit up Charlie on Instagram and found Noah and Jabriel at Lane, we had a drummer, guitarist, and trumpeter to work with. Now, we can confidently play live shows, we have a much bigger audience, and our friendship really fuels the band’s progress.

 

While you guys are fairly young, most of your songs are about love and the emotions that are tied to those experiences. Talk about those experiences

For me, I have always been able to find solace in songwriting, says Cale. I guess love has subconsciously become a central theme in my writing based on the need to funnel my interactions through music. Days on a Wire is a song I wrote after getting rejected. Honestly, people look into it too much though. It’s really a song that uses heartbreak as a bridge to understanding the growth from childhood to manhood where one leaves the comfort of motherly love and leaps into first romances. Flowerbomb is definitely very different but still bittersweet. I wrote it while missing my girlfriend while I was in California for a month. In general, CASE allows us to delve into our deepest feelings as we are all reflective individuals.

 

You guys are starting the recording process for a full-length project now. What are we going to expect from this project?

We’re about three quarters the way through the writing process. Since we started recording and releasing, we’ve had many songs in the works that highlight different members of the band. You can expect an extrapolation of the sound we’ve been building in our past singles with a more refined and diverse approach. Ultimately it’s just a lot more of CASE and possibly a side of us people haven’t really seen yet. We’re really excited about it.

How important is the live show to you guys?

Live shows for us are looked upon as opportunities. There is nothing greater than escaping crowded basements and exposing our ideas to new ears. Playing live allows us the chance to connect with our audience on an emotional level and hopefully have them feel as much passion as we do. We know that moments are temporary and that memories are all you have of yesterday but those memories are what is important to us. There is no substitute for raw, unfiltered emotions that live shows generate and the spontaneous creation of something bigger than ourselves. We don’t set foot on stage to play for the “big break” but for each other and the happiness, it brings both us and those in the crowd.

Going into 2018, who are some acts you would love to collab with in Chicago?

I don’t know if we’re necessarily trying to collaborate with anyone musically at the moment. We haven’t given it a lot of thought. That being said, we’re definitely very interested in developing our relationship with musicians and artists. We have a show January 4th with Manwolves and Ric Wilson who are two artists we’ve begun to talk to. Seamus has started playing the violin for Ric on some of his songs too. We’re also playing a January 6th show at Beat Kitchen with The Slaps. They’re a band we definitely vibe with a lot and we’re super stoked to play with them.

What impact are you trying to create in the music scene?

Right now, we really love just being involved. Manwolves and Ric have really supported us by promoting our music and letting us hop on some of their shows. We really hope to continue connecting with artists in Chicago in any way we can. As far as our impact, we want to branch out of what is solely “indie rock” and utilize our various backgrounds to fuse jazz, folk, rock, and pop. We want to be known for our live sets and we want our shows to create a reflective atmosphere for our listeners.

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