Heard It Here First

Dubstep & UKG phenom, Casey Club, is one of the most innovative, meticulous, and straight-up filthy producers out there. The first time I heard one of his tunes, I was completely taken aback at how clean, yet gross and grimey his tracks are. His sound bridges the gap between UK and American-style dubstep, and with his own distinctive edge. I recently had the wonderful opportunity of sitting down with Casey Club at  Lightning In A Bottle festival after his set to chat about his artistic background and the evolution of his project. 

Rob Watson, also known as Casey Club, brings an infectious energy and a signature vibe that you just won’t find anywhere else. Originally from the U.K, Watson comes from the birthplace of classic UK garage and dubstep. Coming from a place that’s so immersed in bass cuture, it’s no wonder Watson has developed a deep passion and understanding of these genres. As dubstep and UKG have continued their widespread popularity all around the world, Casey Club has brought his craft to a countless number of big time stages. He’s been on a roll lately, playing shows in Japan, London and multiple huge cities across North America. He’s showcased his music at massive festivals like Shambhala, Coachella, Boomtown, and more!

As his project’s momentum has been skyrocketing, he’s landed collaberations with major artists like the tune “Onslaught” Hamdi and “Sofa Soup”  with Mary Droppinz. Casey Club also recently announced an upcoming track with the iconic UKG artist, Flava D, which many fans are stoked to hear about!

Casey Club is someone you absolutely need to have on your radar. The more tracks of his you’ll hear, the more you’ll realize he is going to keep pushing the boundaries of bass music. His sound is honestly a breath of fresh air, and I have so much respect for his craft. It was so lovely to catch up with Casey Club at Lightning In A Bottle and I hope you enjoy reading this interview! 

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HIHF: Hey everyone, this is Eliza with Heard It Here First. We are in beautiful California at the incredible Lightning In A Bottle festival! Today we’re sitting down with Rob also known as…

Casey Club: Casey Club!

HIHF: Yeah, well you just killed your set! That was incredible. So, first question I’m going to ask is, how have you been enjoying the festival?

Casey Club: Yeah it’s been amazing like, such good vibes here. Everyone’s just on the level. Everyone’s chilling, everyone’s grooving.

HIHF: Have you seen any sets that have especially stood out to you?

Casey Club: I saw borne’s set earlier. Borne’s my homie, he’s so good. I loved it so much.

HIHF: Awesome! So, tell us your story as an artist. How did your project begin and evolve?

Casey Club: So, I had an old project called Kiddah, where I did like drum and bass, and breaksy stuff. Very kind of like underground UK stuff. And then, me and a girl named Chelsea started Casey Club. Shoutout to Chelsea by the way!

Casey Club: Basically, my old alias was called Kiddah with a “K,” and her’s is Chelsea with a “C.” So, it’s like “K, “C” Club. Like spelt phonetically. And then yeah, we just basicallt started posting on social media loads, like writing and releasing loads of music. And it just escalated so quickly. So, Casey Club’s like two and a half years old now, and its just been like crazy the whole time.

HIHF: Yeah, for sure. It blew up! What was that like getting recognized?

Casey Club: It felt, like, different. I always imagined it, you know you’re like DJing at home and you’re picturing the crowd in front of you. And then now I’m like, oh, It’s actually happened.

HIHF: That must be a crazy feeling!

Casey Club: Yeah, its so good.

HIHF: Are there any shows in particular where you were just like “wow, I made it” and got very emotional?

Casey Club: Honestly, yeah. I did Rawhide a couple of weeks ago in Pheonix, Arizona and that was like a big one with Crankdat. Shout out to Crankdat as well. And yeah, there was a lot of people there. I was like, like is crazy. And then yeah, there’s been like a lot of ones. I did a back-to-back with Hamdi in Bristol as well. We just did like a 140 cap and just did it on a Monday and it sold out. It was so much fun. There’s so many good ones, yeah.

HIHF: Well you’ve been on a roll lately, you’ve played in Japan, so many cities in the US. So, how do you stay grounded throughout all of this?

Casey Club: It’s hard, so you have to kind of like just take everything at arms length. I think that is the best way that you do it. But I’m so used to just living out of a suitcase, and just living in hotel rooms. I’m literally never in the UK anymore, which, I love the UK, but you know, I want to do the shows. I love it, I love every single part of it. I love writing the music. I love touring. I love all the social media stuff. I love all of it, I always feel so fulfilled doing the whole thing.

HIHF: You’re mean’t for this! So, tell us about your collab with Hamdi.

Casey Club: Yeah, so, I’ve known Hamdi weirdly since like 2019, so like seven years now. There used to be this group on Facebook called Langoland, and like all of the UK bass producers would be in it. So like, Notion was in there, Oppidan was in there, I try to think who else. Flava D was in there, Sammy Virji was in there. It was just everyone’s like personal accounts and I knew Hamdi from that, because everyone would post shaky phone videos of their laptop playing their new tune. And that would be like the way that people would blow up then, it was crazy.

Casey Club: So yeah, I knew Hamdi through that, because he would, you know, DM me and be like, “oh, can you send me this, can you send me that?” on my old project. And when it came down to like me launching Casey Club, I think I had like ten followers and in the first ten followers on Soundcloud, Hamdi was one of them. Because he knew my old project. It just got to a point where he just kept going “give me a tune, give me a tune, give me tracks, give me tracks,” and I was like, “why don’t we just write something,” and he was like “okay!” and so we just did it. And yeah, It turned out so good. It always goes off in my sets and I know he says the same, like it always goes off in his sets. It’s so much fun.

HIHF: So, we do know that you have an unreleased collab with Flava D. Tell us about that!

Casey Club: I do! So, Flava D is like, for me I love her so much. Basically, the way I got into electronic music was that I went to a house party and there was a track playing. It was “In The Dance,”  by Flava D. There was a guy with a guitar amp and a little controller set up on it, and I remember hearing that track. I was like “what is this? This is crazy! This is so good.” And then, I remember just annoying the guy with the controller like “what does this button do? What does that do?” haha, I was that guy!

Casey Club: So, Flava D, I’ve seen her live so many times, like especially when I was young I used to go to all of her garage shows and yeah. It just developed and we started talking and chatting and stuff. And now we’re friends and stuff, which is amazing. And then, yeah, we were just chatting and sending ideas back and forth. It just kind of developed and we just kept sending the project back and forth, and yeah, we’ve got a collab now.

HIHF: Yeah, your two sounds compliment each other so well! We’re so excited for it. So, like, how would you describe your sound?

Casey Club: It’s UK dubstep, but with like an American kind of like, spin on it.

HIHF: Honestly, you have one of the most unique sounds I’ve heard. Like how you felt hearing Flava D is how I felt hearing your sound!

Casey Club: Thank you so much! But yeah, I kind of think like, I was of an age where we had like, the deep dubstep stuff, with like Scream and Benga, and all of those guys. But then, I remember listening to Skrillex as well. So like, I had both. And so, I kind of took both parts. A lot of people will take either the UK-UK stuff or the American stuff. I’m kind of trying to bring both of them into the same kind of thing.

HIHF: Very cool! So, my last question is, what would you tell your younger self before you blew up, and what advice do you have for other producers who are emerging?

Casey Club: Definitely start producing as early as you can. And just produce as much as you can. And don’t listen to your parents! You’ll make it eventually.

HIHF: Awesome, well thank you so much for sitting down with us Rob!

Casey Club: It’s been my pleasure!

Huge shoutout to Casey Club and his team for chatting with us and be sure to stay locked in on what’s next from this rapidly rising stars!