Interview: Cash Cash - 28/05/09

Jon managed to sit down with drummer Anthony Villacari, vocalist Jean-Paul Makhlouf and bassist Sam Frisch of Cash Cash before their first performance in London at Kings College supporting Cobra Starship.

The guys spoke to Alter The Press! about their first trip overseas, their debut record 'Take It To The Floor', coming together as a band and more.

Alter The Press: How did Cash Cash come together?
Cash Cash: (Jean Paul) Sam and I were in a band in high school called 'The Consequence' in 2002 and from then till 2008 we changed our name to 'Cash Cash'. It was for legal reasons, there was a rapper called Consequence, he sent these letters to us when we got signed, all this legal garbage, so we had to change the name. We had the song title first 'Cash Cash', and after everything going on with Consequence, we just decided to call our band that. We had pages and pages of names but in the last five minutes of everything, the label was getting angry, as well as management, and we just decided the name 'Cash Cash'.

ATP: How did you guys get discovered?
Cash Cash: We're from New Jersey, and being so close to New York, it’s a hot industry scene. We were out pushing our music, creating a buzz in the Jersey scene, just playing shows for years. People knew who we were, but we really worked everything out in New York City, and from all the demos we passed around, we started getting a huge buzz from them. We spent a lot of time working on them in our home studio and when we were done, we sent tones of press kits out, mass e-mails to industry people and got hot in New York. It was being played at Pete Wentz's club a lot; that brought hype. There was a big stir about it. We'd go to clubs to drink but keep backpacks full of CD's and pass them about.

ATP: How did you management, Ozone, come into the equation?
Cash Cash: We've known Boys Like Girls for a while and they have been good guys. They've always been a good helping hand and told their management about us.

ATP: How was your debut record, ‘Take It To The Floor,' received when it came out?
Cash Cash: It went well. First we did an EP, whilst the record was being mixed, as we needed something we could take with us on tour with Metro Station. It was an EP with a few of our favorite songs and we pretty much sold out. We sold it only on tour, just pressing 5,000 copies. It got buzz going for when our CD came out and we got great feedback on our MySpace and blogs. After that tour, we were on a direct support tour and there were more people singing our songs than we ever thought. On the Metro Station tour, kids were just signing our one single, on our MySpace page, but on later tours, they would sing all the words.

ATP: When did the EP come out?
Cash Cash: We did it in October in the same recording session as the album. The whole record was done in August but we got all the mixes back and weren't happy with how it came out so, we decided to put out a couple of the songs and figure out what to do with the rest, later. We put it out and did one of the songs acoustic, to put a little extra thing on it. Surprisingly, we ended up mixing the record ourselves, once we were happy, we put it out.

ATP: As soon as the record came out, did you go straight on a headline tour?
Cash Cash: No, we did a support tour with The Millionaires, and have been on tour ever since. After, we did a tour with Kevin Rudolph but that got cancelled half way through. Then we jumped on tour with Sing It Loud and Forever The Sickest Kids.

ATP: How has your first visit overseas been so far?
Cash Cash: Amazing. All the shows are sold out and we are touring with our good friends, Sing It Loud and Cobra Starship. This is a dream come true. We go way back with Cobra Starship and, being here with them, brings a little piece of home with us.

ATP: What has been the best night so far?
Cash Cash: The Slam Dunk Festival for sure. It was the best show; it was huge and we knew nearly pretty much every band that day, like We The Kings and The Audition.

ATP: Managed to get any downtime at all?
Cash Cash: Not really, we went to Stonehenge and maybe get to go to Abbey Road tomorrow morning.

ATP: What's planned straight after the tour?
Cash Cash: Going to go home, relax for a few days then go on tour with Every Avenue and Valencia, then Warped Tour until the end of the summer. We have a few things being thrown around hopefully; we can do something in the Fall, in the UK.

ATP: Have you started writing a new record, or is there still a lot of ground to be covered with the current release?
Cash Cash: There is still a lot more work to be done with this new record but we are always noodling around with our computers. We might do a few covers for our MySpace or an EP maybe with a cover song, an acoustic song or a new song; just something different.

Cash Cash's debut album 'Take It To The Floor' is out on Universal Republic US now.

- Jon Ableson