Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Robert Casavant. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Robert thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

To me, art represents fragments of the soul, expressed outwardly and released into the universe. For this reason, it’s impossible for me to pick one project I’ve been a part of as the most meaningful.

I pour all of my energy into each project that I work on, and that energy along with the energy of those I’m collaborating with, is forever encapsulated within. For better or worse, with perfections and imperfections, these projects become representative of life at the time of their creation. Every time I play one of those records, I am able to vividly step back into that time of my life.

I have to believe that the same energy bringing me back in time is in some way felt by anyone else who listens to the same record, in whatever translated form it arrives in through their perception at that moment. There’s a reason that songs have the power to make you feel, change your mood, alter your perception, transcend your current environment and reshape your pre-existing state of mind. Maybe there’s multiple reasons for it. But that’s an existential one that I choose to believe in.

So, limiting the most meaningful project I’ve worked on down to one project would be like limiting my life experiences down to a singular point in my life, and that’s not something I’m able to do. With that said, I do hold three projects in special regard, each significant for unique reasons that, together, define my creative journey.

For me to properly explain the significance of these projects, I have to briefly explain the relationships that were built prior and those that developed further as a result of them. This is because I view relationships as the heart of any collaborative process behind the creation of art, and the core tenet of my passion for music.

Those who know me know the story of my relationship with my brother Marcus, and his passing in 2016 – the severe and lasting depression I spent trapped within a dark oblivion, which, upon finally breaking through, ultimately led me to pursue a creative career.

I met Sean, who went by Seanny M then and Baby Illinois now, at The Recording Workshop in Chillicothe, Ohio. We attended classes together in December of 2016, and he’s not only been one of my closest collaborators but also one of my closest friends ever since.

Despite attending the Workshop whilst deep within what was only the beginning stages of a limbo-like depression, I still managed to make many lasting friendships and musical collaborators. I also happened to meet Navi there, who I’ll talk about a little later on.

The first multi-song project in which I was involved on each song was entitled Psychedelic Prince. It was released in 2018 by Seanny M, now known as Baby Illinois. This project was created very early in both of our musical careers, and yet to me, it has stood the test of time better than even some of my most recent projects. Of all the projects I’ve been blessed to have been able to work on, to me this one most strongly represents the encapsulation of energy within music I spoke about earlier.

A dark, jarring, gritty and brutally honest EP, Psychedelic Prince perfectly reflects the space I was in at that time of my life, as I continued to struggle to adapt to a new world without my brother, the most important person I’ll ever know in life.

During the creation of Psychedelic Prince, I was at the peak of my grief and depression. That project was my only form of emotional release at the time, and the content is exemplary of the place I was in. The subject matter of the project very much resembles the pervasive thoughts I was unable to avoid at that point in my life. Sean must have been going through his own things, fighting his own demons at the time, but I also know that he knew what I was dealing with and could sense my pain. I don’t remember ever directing him lyrically beyond feedback or minor tweaks, and yet his lyrics speak deeply and profoundly to my state of mind at that time in my life. The creation of this album was very much therapeutic, as it provided a means for me to more deeply understand, process and release my grief.

Together, our pain and our demons bleed through Psychedelic Prince.

While it isn’t pleasant, I am grateful to have had that energy encapsulated. While the project reflects a dark, negative, hateful energy, it reminds me of where I was, and provides perspective to where I am now.

Another project I am able to single out as particularly meaningful for me is Meet Me Outside. Released collaboratively by Navi the Terrible and myself in 2022, this debut full-length album encapsulates the collaborative process at the center of my passion as a creative.

Not only was this the first full-length album I got to produce for, it also earned me both my first executive and exclusive production credits as well. Created over the course of 2 months during the height of pandemic lockdowns and perfected over the following 2 years, this was also the first project I’ve worked on in which the entire process was able to be done collaboratively, in person.

With the outside world shut down, Navi and I locked ourselves in the studio and became fully engulfed in the creative process. The creativity seemed to flow endlessly. When it was lacking from one of us, the other instinctively compensated for it and reinvigorated our collective effort. We were in an extended state of collective, heightened focus. The music seemingly flowed freely through us both harmoniously and singularly, divinely and willingly from start to finish of this project’s creation.

Meet Me Outside perfectly reflects my idea of collaboration and its significance within the creation of art, exemplifying why it is such a critical principle of my production style.

Lastly, JETLAG, released in 2021, also by myself and Navi, occupies a special part of my credit list. To me, it marks my arrival as a professional within this industry.

While it is only a two-track single comprised of “JETLAG” and “EUROSTEP,” each of those tracks received some of the most attention to detail and time spent within a session of all of the songs I’ve been lucky enough to work on at this point in my career – “JETLAG” in particular.

After spending one and a half months eating, sleeping and breathing nothing but “JETLAG,” it came out as the cleanest and most polished song I’ve ever worked on. It’s also the song in which I was most heavily involved throughout the creative process. I composed, arranged, produced, tracked, notated, mixed and mastered the song, which was created as my final project prior to graduation from Full Sail University.

I was blessed to have Navi’s willingness to write and record over the instrumental we came up with. His contributions to the track are ultimately what brought the entire song together and perfected it. Jet lag is a great concept to structure a song around, and the wordplay he was able to capitalize on and run with off of it was excellent. The melodies and vibe he was able to bring out of the instrumental and enhance with his content and delivery perfectly represent and encapsulate the energy and emotion around our collective state of mind at that time. To this point in my career, I view “JETLAG” as my magnum opus. It absolutely wouldn’t have happened without Navi, which is again exemplary of the power behind the collaborative creative effort in which I truly live for.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hello CanvasRebel readers! My name is Robert Casavant. I’m a music producer and audio engineer who goes by the stage name of “Robby Cash,” a play off my last name and a reference to Johnny Cash. I’ve been producing and engineering professionally since 2016 and 2020, respectively.

Music has always played a central role in my life and development, but apart from a short stretch playing drums and a couple of mandatory choir classes around middle school, I didn’t really involve myself in music creatively until near the end of high school. It wasn’t until two years into a journalism degree at Ohio University that I decided to switch lanes and eventually pursue a career in music.

I owe my love and passion for music to two people: my brother and my dad. My earliest memories of music come from my dad listening to jazz and blues, sometimes playing along on his trumpet. I realized the significance of music and the effect it’s capable of after my older brother, Marcus, played a Red Hot Chili Peppers record for me in his car. As I mentioned earlier, he passed away in April of 2016, which sent me into the darkest period of my life, a deep and lasting depression. This ultimately led to a period of self-discovery and reinvention. I found solace in music. The studio became my safe haven; the only place I could find peace. When I finally overcame my depression, I made the decision to work toward making a living from music, what I had discovered to be my true passion. I would not have come to that decision and realization if it weren’t for my father, and especially my brother.

For those interested, I spoke about my journey to this point in much greater detail during my previous interview with Voyage Ohio, which you can find here. – https://voyageohio.com/interview/check-out-robert-casavants-story/

I’ve been credited globally on over 85 musical releases with 19 artists as a producer or engineer. I’ve executively produced eight projects for five different artists, two of which I produced exclusively, including one debut album, with another artist’s long-awaited debut album on the way. I also spent two years as the front-of-house mix engineer for an 80’s classic rock cover band based in Ohio, Katie and the Red Hots. Lately, I’ve been focused on engineering, working on mixing and mastering a couple of projects as well as lots of individual tracks for a few artists.

The role of a modern music producer is extensive and ambiguous, with expectations ranging from simply creating an instrumental for an artist to create a song independently, to the slightly more traditional (but not original) role of a producer in guiding an artist to a finished record. Guiding then becomes a subjective term entirely dependent upon an artist’s specific needs, according to their skill set and the resources they have available to them. This means modern producers have the responsibility of being highly diverse and filling multiple roles to assist artists on their journey. This could involve assistance with lyrical structure, rhyme schemes and storytelling, musical arrangement, recording or tracking vocals, mixing and mastering services, developing cover art, distribution, marketing assistance and more. While I’ve been involved with all the above in varying capacities at one point or another so far in my career as a producer, most of my work has revolved around instrumental composition, musical arrangement, tracking, mixing and mastering.

Sometimes, the extent of my work will be composing an instrumental for an artist who creates a song with it on their own. To me, that’s not so much producing as it is composing or beat-making, though, and it’s not where I find my true joy as a producer.

At the center of my passion as a producer is relationships, built through collaborative process. I view my primary role as a producer to be helping an artist throughout the creative process, turning their artistic vision into a reality. This means filling different roles dependent upon the artist I’m working with, and requires developing a relationship with that artist to comprehensively understand each way I can best help them reach their full potential. Developing those relationships, and using them to enhance the collaborative creative process, is where I truly find joy within music production. I believe I have a unique ability to connect and empathize with others, and that combined with my approach to relationship-based collaborative production differentiates me from many other producers.

I like to say that I don’t see collaborators as clientele; I see them as family, and I really mean and live by that. Some of the most important people in my life, I would’ve never met if not for musical collaboration. Relationships I’ve built through music have coexisted outside of music, and relationships built outside of music have strengthened and fortified through music. I’m very proud of all of the amazing art I’m so grateful to have been a part of, but I find so much more lasting joy within the relationships built from and enhanced through musical collaboration.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

There’s so much to find gratification within as an artist. As a producer, I find that the most rewarding parts of my role revolve around collaboration. As a creative, the most rewarding aspect is two-fold, but ultimately comes down to creation itself. Creation of art and creation of relationships.

From an artistic perspective and within how I view my role as a producer, collaboration is at the heart of everything I do and why I do it. I see the music I help create as a byproduct of the relationship developed through collaboration between each individual involved. Properly producing a record into the best final product it can be requires understanding how to best assist an artist without getting in their way.

My ability to empathize and connect with others paired with the gratification I receive from collaboration provides me with a competitive advantage to excel in this area of production.

There’s no feeling quite like that of listening back to a new finished song with those involved in the creative process. Appreciating the realization of an idea turned to reality in the form of a polished product, the result of your combined creative energy, intelligence and effort. It’s like solving a complex puzzle made up of your united creativity. It provides a euphoric rush and palpable energization. Reaching the finish line of a song or a project is a very rewarding feeling. But knowing that I helped someone else reach their artistic vision and watching as their art transforms from an idea into reality is what brings me true joy.

As I spoke about earlier, I consider myself a spiritual person and I believe there’s something to be said about the encapsulation of energy that is put into the creation of art, and its subsequent release. I truly feel as though the energy that is exerted in the creation of a song is in some way absorbed by and translated through that song. The feeling that comes from listening to a finished work of art, developed between yourself and others as a result of your combined creativity, energy, perspective and life experience, is unmatched.

Meanwhile, I find lasting joy in the relationships developed through the collaborative process. In turn, those relationships are engrained and exemplified through the energy encapsulated within the music created together; the same music that could go on to affect countless numbers of people in the future.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I have many goals for myself within the music industry that motivate me, ranging from reaching a self-sustaining income exclusively through freelancing, to winning Grammys and selling diamond records. But at the center of it all is simply my love and desire to create lasting art with others through collaboration. At the end of the day, understanding what collaborative art means to me and the profound impact it has on my well-being is the only driving force I need to continue my creative journey.

Both listening to and creating new music have always been simultaneously and seemingly contradictorily my escape from – and connection to – reality. I began making music out of necessity. Understanding that I still very much rely upon both listening to and creating new music for my own self-expression, emotional release and attachment to the world around me, being able to provide for others what I was able to find when I needed it most is a driving force in my creative career.

The strongest driver within my creative journey is simply my understanding that it is quintessential to my continued development, ascension, sense of purpose and enjoyment within this world. Simply put, my creative journey is what drives my journey in life and will to live, subsequently re-energizing my creative journey.

Music saved my life, and continues to be a heartbeat for myself. Being able to create art that not only empowers me but has the potential to empower others as well is a motivating and inspiring force. I feel that my purpose is to create music. Creating music keeps my blood pumping. It is a necessity for my well-being. The thought of music I played a role in the creation of providing that same lifeline to others is what drives my mission as a creative and provides me with a sense of purpose.

The idea of manifesting what saved my life to in turn pass that on and inspire others keeps me motivated to continue creating. Beyond that, I know that music remains a crucial outlet for me in finding inner peace.

The biggest goal driving my journey is simply the journey itself. I’m so grateful to be able to be involved in the creation and release of amazing art while developing strong bonds with incredible people around the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://robby.cash
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robbycashedout/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RobbyCashedOut/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertcasavant
• Twitter: https://X.com/robbycashedout
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@robbycashedout
• Other: https://solo.to/robbycash

Image Credits
Owen McCormick