We were lucky to catch up with Cassandra Houston recently and have shared our conversation below.
Cassandra , appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
The most meaningful project that I’ve ever worked on was my short film for my music video “Face”. I wrote, and recorded this song hours before I was supposed to play at the Metro Music Hall as an opener for a drag show in Downtown SLC, UT. It started as me just finding inspiration, and ended hours later with me scrambling to get the live performance mix done to play on stage right before I was supposed to leave to the event. I was so in love with the way the song blossomed in just those few hours and I knew I’d have to at least try it out on a performance to see how my crowd reacted. I remember feverishly flipping through my journal entries trying to find something meaningful and almost poetic. I flipped open to a page I’d just written after a hard breakup, where I was aggressively affirming to myself that the time for self love and care was NOW! Being my own worse critic, I was sure that the crowd would be able to hear how last minute put together it was, however it ended up being received well with praises and compliments from my fellow artist friends. Months later, I was in the middle of coordinating the music video, but everyone who had originally agreed to be there, didn’t show up. Instead of letting it disappoint me that so many people didn’t come, I decided to continue filming. This was when the vision really came to life. I filmed everyone’s face next to mine to represent the duality of being seen and not heard, and to embody the feeling of that familiar face that you always see, but the name you never knew, and the story behind each person’s face. Not too long into filming, I thought to myself ” is this self love? Me, going against all odds and making these things happen?” And it made me think of the journal entry that I read to accompany the song. I thought, ” is this an act of love to myself? As a matter of fact, what is self love? ” So I turned on my camera, pressed record, and proceeded to ask my friends as well as anyone I could find, ” What does self love mean to you?” From families walking by, to transient folk holding signs at the entrances of grocery stores. When we finally got done filming, I had so many beautiful answers that I decided I didn’t care how long the video was, everyone should be able to share. And that’s how my most meaningful project, ” Face: A Self Love Story by The Pho3nix Child.” Was born.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
The Pho3nix Child is a multi faceted rapper singer and poet that brings truth and experience as a black bisexual and bipolar female born and raised in Salt Lake City thru my music. My mission in my music and art is to be a force for femininity in hip hop music, and advocate for true feminine lyricism that isn’t purely based off of the sexualization of the feminine perspective. I also work as a catalyst for new and up and coming artists in my home town to network and connect with the music community. I got into music after growing up in a family of visual artists, musicians and DJ’s. After writing poetry and timidly sharing it with my musician friends and family for many years, my late best friend and mentor Christopher Crews asked me to perform for the first time. He passed away from a medical issue in 2017 and left a hole in the heart of the Salt Lake City hip hop music community because of the inspiration, and impact he had on so many of us. After his tragic and unfortunate passing, I knew that music was my calling and I had to tell my story and the stories of my loved ones who wanted nothing more than to see me accomplish my dream of becoming The Pho3nix Child and making sure the world knew what SLC had to offer. We aren’t all conservative and LDS around here like so many people think. In the 7 + years that I’ve been involved in music, I’d say one of my proudest accomplishments was performing at the very first Juneteenth show in Salt Lake City. The performers were curated via an open mic sign up sheet, however when I got to the show the list was full. I had to put up a fight to get on that stage to perform a single track. But, still to this day people remember seeing me perform at that show. There were probably 2500 to 3000 people in the crowd. Biggest show I’ve ever done. I hope to continue to show the world that you don’t have to follow the norm to spread your message to the mass, and that it’s okay to let people think what they think about you. The most strong, powerful and influential faces of our time were told to dim their light and they never did. It is my life mission to follow suit and tell my story authentically and originally.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I feel that the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is when my message really resonates with somebody. My music is a very personal journey, and the stories a craft are based out of my darkest and lightest times. It means the world to me when that random person in the crowd comes up to me and explains to me how the story I shared had a personal impact for them, took them back to that special place in their memory, or even gets them thinking about their loved ones who have passed on, or those.in their lives who have truly helped them shape their reality. We heal and grow as one.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
The best thing society can do is stop following the group! In my opinion, the biggest reason why so many artists can’t reach their goals in huge part is due to the fact that we are all used to being told what is trendy, cool, fashionable, “in”, etc. Stop listening to entertainment media and realize that there’s a whole world of undiscovered creatives out there. Share your friends art, comment on their posts, buy your next workout outfit from that local designer in your city, rather than those popular online stores we all know. Go to more local shows and put the same energy and effort that you do into traveling across state to go to that festival, or buying VIP tickets to concerts with artists who are already well established. And that’s with all respect to the hard work that those popular artists have put in. If we lead as one, we can win for sure, but as a collective that’s how we takeover.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @thepho3nixchild
- Facebook: The Pho3nix Child
- Youtube: The Pho3nix Child
- Soundcloud: The Pho3nix Child
Image Credits
Lakyns Photography
Mousley
The Pho3nix Child
Groovy Lex