By DJ Gabby Mack – Host of Fish Food
Cassie Ramone is a songwriter, musician, and visual artist who first came onto a lot of people’s radars as a founding member of Vivian Girls, starting in the late 2000s, and later with The Babies, as well as through her solo work. She grew up in New Jersey, moved to Brooklyn in the early 2000s, and has spent years moving between different scenes, projects, and ways of making music.
Her most recent record, Sweetheart, has felt like a really reflective moment in that long arc. Cassie was able to stop by WKDU ahead of her show at Philly Style Pizza with Colleen Green and Jess Urwiler, so we caught her for a quick in-studio and interview!
WKDU (DJ Gabby Mack): How are you doing today?
Cassie Ramone: I’m great! I’m having a very good day. I stayed in a hotel with a fireplace in the room last night. It was awesome.
WKDU: I didn’t even know hotels did that.
Cassie: It’s funny, because just the other day I said, “I wish we had a fireplace in our hotel room.” I’m on tour with Colleen Green, one of my closest friends and an incredible musician, and we joked that it would be way too crazy to actually happen. And then it did. I feel very grateful.
WKDU: I feel like you manifested it.
Cassie: It was really wonderful.
WKDU: Is there a favorite song you played, or maybe one that you didn’t get to play, that you love to play live?
Cassie: I love playing “Joy to the World” live. I think it’s actually better live than on the radio.
WKDU: That’s from Sweetheart, right?
Cassie: Yeah, everything I just played is off Sweetheart.
WKDU: That record came out in 2024. Do you have any memories from recording it that really stand out?
Cassie: Yeah, like a year and a half ago. Two years ago, I was recording it. Fond memories. I remember going to Target a lot, going thrifting, checking out all these cool motels. I spent a lot of time driving around, listening to whatever version of the song was most current and taking notes. It was really cold. I don’t like the cold, but I love the cold. I feel like the best parties happen in the winter.
WKDU: It brings people together.
Cassie: Yeah, you can’t just up and leave. In the summer, you can go to any other party, right?
WKDU: I’m sure as a songwriter, it gets you more in the headspace. There’s something in the air when it’s colder.
Cassie: Totally. Plus, I was born in the winter, so.
WKDU: You also made a full-length music video to go along with Sweetheart, which I loved. It felt very homemade and personal. I was wondering what made you think of doing that? What was that like? Would you do it again?
Cassie: I would do something like that again. I filmed the whole thing on Instagram stories that I didn’t publish. I just saved them to my phone. I thought it was fun that way because you’d be seeing them through the filters.
WKDU: Shoutout Rio De Janeiro.
Cassie: Yes, so that’s how I filmed it. We didn’t have a record label, and the album was getting close to being done, and me and my friend Dylan White, who produced the album, thought that it was really special. I was mulling over in my head if we’d shop it around to record labels and it comes out, who knows when, or we release it soon and get it into the world. We decided to get it out soon, but I wanted to do something that’s never been done before by an artist of my size.
Beyoncé did Lemonade, but she had a massive team. Plenty of artists have made visual albums, but I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who acted in, directed, filmed, and edited a full-length music video for my own record. I wanted to make a splash.
For three months, I filmed every day. It became a habit, like brushing your teeth. It was sick.
WKDU: Do you think more people should do that?
Cassie: If they want to, absolutely. It was cool to document my life that way. I taught myself Final Cut during the process, which was kind of insane. I don’t think I could do the exact same thing again, but I’m really glad I did it.
WKDU: Obviously, you make amazing music, and you did the visualizer for the album. You’re clearly someone who makes art in a lot of different forms, including your own merch, cross-stitching, videos, and even a personalized tarot deck. What’s been inspiring you lately?
Cassie: I made a really cool shadowbox for my merch recently. It’s huge and has lights. It’s pretty sick. I’ve also been getting really into learning about building and maintaining houses. I’d love to build and take care of my own home someday.
WKDU: From scratch?
Cassie: Honestly, yeah. Maybe not fully by myself… maybe with the help of a strong man. [laughs] A log cabin or something. I think that’ll be cool.
I’ve mostly been trying to make some sense of my demos. I’ve written a hundred or so songs or parts of songs in between Sweetheart and now, so I’m trying to parse them and make sense of them now.
WKDU: Is it mostly demos now, or is there a hint of something dropping soon?
Cassie: There is a hint. It’s demo-esque. It is a demo, but that’s all I’ll say. I’m also trying to learn Ableton, which is annoying, but I guess I have to do it, yeah.
WKDU: I’m very excited for that, whenever that may drop! You’ve been touring pretty consistently since your last album came out. How’s it been?
Cassie: I’ve been on tour for like so many months, I feel like. I love touring. It’s so different from what it was 18 years ago. It’s been great, honestly. I feel good doing it.
WKDU: Any highlights from this run?
Cassie: Yeah, we had a lot of fun! We went to a great art museum in Columbia, South Carolina. They had a Keith Haring exhibit. We went to the biggest Buc-ee’s I’ve ever seen. I lost my wallet and then got it back. I also temporarily lost one of my most prized possessions: a ring that used to belong to Iggy Pop.
WKDU: Wait, what?
Cassie: Yeah, my uncle’s friends with him, so it’s a really weird story. When I was 21, it was Christmas, and my family decided to embarrass me. They basically forced me to play Vivian Girls songs for them. It was so embarrassing. Afterward, my uncle came up to me and said, “Cassie, have you ever heard of Iggy Pop?” Yeah, duh…
So he takes me into the attic, and he pulls out this box, and he’s like, “This is Iggy Pop’s stuff.” He had this one ring with a skull on it. It’s a family heirloom and a rock and roll heirloom. Thankfully, I am getting that back to me.
WKDU: Thank god! Speaking of Vivian Girls and touring, Vivian Girls are playing Mosswood Meltdown this summer, right?
Cassie: Yes, we’re opening for Pavement, which is so exciting.
WKDU: That’s unreal. I wish I could go!!
Cassie: You should come, take a flight!
WKDU: I’d ditch every responsibility to get to go to that, to be honest.
Cassie: That’s my modus operandi. Iggy Pop’s playing too.
WKDU: Really? Does he know you have his ring?
Cassie: He’s gonna know. He’s gonna know because I’m gonna find him and tell him!
It feels so far away, I have so many plans until then. Before I turn 40 on March 17th, I have to play shows in Arkansas and Wyoming. I hit all 50 states before I turned 30, and I toured through most of them as well. Now I’m almost 40, and I want to have played a show in all 50 states.
WKDU: Where are you at right now?
Cassie: I have three left: Maine, Arkansas, and Wyoming.
WKDU: I can’t wait to see what you’ll do for your 50th.
WKDU: Well, we’re nearing the end of the hour, but I have one last question for you. If you were an animal in the Amazon, how far down in the food chain would you be? I would probably be those frogs that change colors to look poisonous, so it’s pretty far down, but it’s still pretty powerful.
Cassie: Well, what’s the top of the food chain in the Amazon?
WKDU: The jaguar, the green anaconda.. The large capybara, there’s monkeys, there are a lot of weird ones. Porcupine?
Cassie: Do other animals eat porcupines?
WKDU: Probably at least a few.
Cassie: I feel like I’d be far down the food chain. But at the same time, I’d be the kind of animal that’s resilient and crafty.
WKDU: I feel like a porcupine fits. They’re pretty out of the box with the spikes.
Cassie: That works. I’m a Pisces, so I feel like the kind of fish I am is a sea urchin. Really spiky outside and really soft inside, and I have to have the spikes, otherwise people are just going to squish me.
WKDU: They’re smart for that, and they’re a beautiful purple.
Cassie: Exactly, and apparently they’re really delectable!
Cassie Ramone played Philly Style Pizza on January 30th with Colleen Green and local Drexel artist and my good friend Jess Urwiler! I’m DJ Gabby Mack, and this has been Cassie Ramone live in-studio on WKDU Philadelphia, 91.7 FM.
Be sure to also check out the recorded Cassie Ramone LIVE in-studio on WKDU Philadelphia’s YouTube channel here. Until next time, commit radio warfare.