Casio Bastard on Rocket Shop

Words By Justin Landau, Photo by Juliet Degree

Recently Justin Hoy of Casio Bastard appeared on Rocket Shop, and I was able to sit down and speak with him about the band. Casio Bastard consists of Justin on keyboards and vocals, Jason on Bass, John on drums, Kevin as the percussionist, and Silas on Guitar. The band started roughly four years ago, and got their name "because the root of the music I and a lot of other musicians in my generation started on a Casio keyboard, and Bastard comes from the idea that our music is bastardized punk, not in the abandoned child sense, but in a naughty stepchild sense." "Our song, "I Love my Casio," uses the Casio as metaphor for coming of age, and finding sexuality for the first time, and loving oneself in private."

Each of the members have varying influences, ranging between Rush, Motown, Herbie Hancock and the Who. Justin described the bands playing as "funk fusion space." The members originally all hail from the Burlington/Montpelier area, and have been working on recordings, with a demo CD recorded so far, partially because "It is hard to decide what to put into CD form, because the music is always in flux and developing based on our emotions and the audience." Casio Bastard recently played their first show at Nectar's opening for 14 West, and have another show at Nectar's on February 12th opening for Kung Fu.

"My favorite venue that I have played at is Positive Pie2, and as the owner of Halogen Records, I always like Higher Ground, and small intimate venues. Our song "Answer The Phone" was written and inspired by my dealing with phone companies and the disconnection of people in general. Overall, the goal of our music is to get a reaction and evoke an emotion. If you hate it, we have done our job, and if you love it, we have done our job as well."

[podcast]http://www.bigheavyworld.com/audio_mp3/rocketshop/2011/RShop20110105_JustinHoyCasioBastard.mp3[/podcast]