Casxio’s Lucas Guerin on getting in heels, his band’s groovy sound and wacky portraiture at Norwood.
Let it be known: Lucas Guerin, frontman for groovy L.A. electro-rockers Casxio, doesn’t make a bad-looking (or moving) disco queen. The video for the group’s infectious single, “Seventeen,” features Guerin donning a wig, shimmying in sequins and a white fur coat, made-up to the hilt and generally swaying like Donna Summer at Studio 54. (Watch the video HERE!)
But it wasn’t Summers he was channeling. “I looked up some Madonna videos and studied the way she moved,” Guerin says. “I did my research and we went in and I had someone do my makeup and wardrobe. I would’ve looked like a f—ing clown if I had attempted my own make up.” (In addition to getting into the full female experience by shaving and wearing high heels, — “it’s totally hard! I don’t know how you ladies do it!” — there was one other method of preparation: downing a few beers.)
It’s CMJ week, and Guerin’s currently out of the heels but tackling something that often can be just as grueling: a loooong day of press. The day after one of the group’s four CMJ shows (last night’s gig was at Pianos), he’s spending the day doing round after round of interviews, albeit while ensconced in the cozy confines of the plush private social club, Norwood.
“There’s a photograph here in the hallway of a guy dressed up in Batman pajamas but with his cock hanging out,” Guerin says as we chat on the phone. “I keep indirectly walking towards it. I’m gonna change hallways now.”
Weird Batman photos aside — CMJ is Casxio’s first foray into playing New York. The L.A. foursome came together about two years ago “through the good fortune of friends,” Guerin says. “In addition to him, the group is rounded out by guitarist Eric Saez, drummer Zack Schrock and keyboardist/PhD student Andrea Choe.
The sound of their first EP, also called, Seventeen, is pure fun, free-wheeling, neo-disco, simultaneously smooth and bouncin’. The group is currently polishing off their first album , which was recorded in downtown L.A. at Studio 1018. “We took our sweet time with this album – we’ve been working on it probably nine moths now,” Guerin says. “We’re into the third month of mixing. That may sound excessive but I think it’s gonna be something … special. I want it to be something special. The time is now.”
Guerin notes that despite the Madonna homage in the video for “17,” he’s not going for a specific vibe or genre when it comes to writing and making the music behind Casxio.
“I just wanna convey a feeling. I want to write from an authentic place and not have any expectations of time,” he says. “When I perform, it changes every night. It could be for a girl one night or it could be to a candlestick in the back of the room. I wanna make it so like when I perform, I want that candlestick to be the most important thing in my life.”
He then tacks on words that could be a great song lyric or life mantra: “it doesn’t matter what the objective is, as long as you really want it.”