Today we’d like to introduce you to Robert Casavant.
Hi Robert, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
For as long as I can remember I’ve been drawn to music. It’s played a major role in my life and has helped shape me into the person I am today. My most vivid memories and life-changing experiences revolve around music, and I can’t imagine who I would be without it. Underlying my entire life has been a passion and drive toward music, which has taken me to where I am in life today.
My earliest experiences with music came from my father. When I was a baby, my dad would frequently sing lullabies to me – in the morning, during car rides, before bed. As a toddler, he introduced me to jazz, blues, and classic rock, music he was into. At some point, my dad brought out his trumpet, which he would play along to songs on the radio. I have strong memories of my dad playing trumpet to a number of songs, the most vivid being Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.” My dad would play his trumpet right up to the repeating line every time, and then he would put his trumpet down and belt “What a wonderful world!”
In part because of those experiences, I tried my hand at several instruments at a young age but never stuck with any for long. Eventually, I settled on drums, which I played for a few years, but that eventually faded too.
Then came the most defining moment in my musical journey, which I owe to my older brother, Marcus. We actually share the same birthday, eight years apart, and he has played a tremendous role in my growth and development into the person I am today. Driving with him one afternoon, he decided to play me a record. By this point in my life, around age 10 or 12, I knew I enjoyed music, but I had not yet discovered the passion and love for music that I would soon find. Saying something along the lines of “I think you’re really going to like this band,” he put a CD in, and on came “Around the World,” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. A rush of intense energy came over me, filled with joy, presence, understanding, and love. I vividly remember experiencing feelings of inexpressible euphoria and a deep connection to something much larger than myself. I felt alive. That was the moment I discovered the power of music, and I fell in love.
As far as I can remember, from that point I became inseparable from music. Throughout middle school and high school, you couldn’t find me without a pair of headphones, which I would wear any and every opportunity I got. I became obsessed with discovering new music and expanding my musical library. I would spend countless hours after school downloading, as much music as I could possibly find and fit on my iPod. Complete discographies from artists in every genre. I would come to realize that while I enjoyed almost all genres of music, I was most drawn to the lyrical storytelling within hip-hop.
By my sophomore year of high school, I had still yet to return to playing music myself but was slowly becoming more interested in the creative process. My attention had turned to vocals and lyricism. My brother, a talented singer who spent time in high school choir as well as an a cappella group in college, actually pushed me to pay more attention to and find greater appreciation within the instrumentation behind the vocals I had become so drawn to. He would play a song and instruct me to ignore the vocals and instead focus on one instrument at a time. Then he would replay the song, instructing me to listen to everything together and focus on how each instrument would play off each other and combine to create a complete song. Teaching me to listen more critically, he showed me that instrumentation was the foundation behind every song I loved so much.
I realized that while my attention tended to focus on vocals, the instrumentals were what was quietly driving my love and passion for music all along. The powerful emotions music made me feel were coming from the music in its entirety, not just the lyrics. While the lyrics and vocals complete a song and catch a listener’s attention, they would be stripped of their power without the backing instrumentation. This realization sparked a new interest within me and renewed my creative desires.
I began researching the creative process behind song development and discovered music production. It seems silly to me now, but at that point, I still assumed that a song’s development was done from start to finish by the artist or band from whom it was released. I never stopped to consider the process behind developing a record, or the influence others might have on the final result. I learned that in fact, almost all music is made by a team of collaborators and that one of those collaborators is known as a producer, someone who works to help bring an artist’s vision to life. I also learned that much of today’s music, particularly hip-hop, pop, and r&b, began in the hands of a beatmaker, someone who creates instrumentation for artists to expand upon.
Armed with my newfound appreciation for instrumentation, I was drawn to begin experimenting with making beats. This proved to be extremely frustrating! While I had spent countless hours listening to music, I had only recently begun truly paying attention to the music I loved so much. I never learned any theory, and never spent long enough learning an instrument to develop a sense of how music was written. Simply put, I didn’t know what I was doing. I never realized how difficult it might be to write music and would spend hours on end trying new things, only to delete them. After four hours working on a beat, I would have nothing. I was naively expecting the process to come to me naturally, given my affinity for listening to music and the sense for music that I assumed I already had, but that was very much not the case. I would keep after it, though, and over time, I slowly, very slowly began to see improvement. It eventually became a hobby I really enjoyed, but it was a hobby. It was never something I saw as a potential career path, just another way for me to appreciate music beyond consumption. I would go on to study Journalism at Ohio University.
Then came the worst day of my life. My brother passed away, and I was sent into a deep, lasting depression that I couldn’t overcome. The darkest time in my life eventually led me into deep self-discovery and a rediscovery for my passion toward music. I found writing music to be the only way I felt comfortable releasing all of the emotions I had been bottling up. My studio became my safe haven. A place where I felt able to connect with my brother once again. A place I found peace. I began to feel music was my true passion, and chasing a career in anything else would be a wasted opportunity. I knew I had to try to make it work, or else I would always regret falling in line with a career I was no longer convinced was my true calling. Towards the end of 2016, I made the decision to drop out of Ohio University and pursue a career in music.
This career was jumpstarted by my time at the Recording Workshop, an audio production school in Chillicothe, Ohio. My first experience with serious, like-minded individuals from all over the world pursuing a musical career led to many lasting relationships that continue to this day, and a confirmation that I was on the right path. Working creatively with others, I began to experience flashes of excitement and enjoyment that I hadn’t experienced since my brother’s passing. It was there that I learned the creative process behind song development and artistic collaboration. I took the next step in my journey, learning how to turn instrumentals into complete songs. I’ve continued to collaborate and grow with a number of artists I met at the Recording Workshop, and they’ve become some of my closest friends in the process.
Following the Recording Workshop, I began to develop my brand, adopting the moniker “Robby Cash” as my artist/producer name. The name was a combination of a play on the beginning of my last name, Casavant, a reference to my nickname in high school, and an ode to Johnny Cash. I was finally becoming comfortable with my production skillset and began to see potential in a future career. Up until this point, I had been making beats, but not really producing, as I had few connections with artists to produce for. I was always much more interested in the idea of producing records and collaborating with others, rather than simply making beats by myself, so it was a joy for me to finally create songs through collaboration with other artists. Through connections made at the Recording Workshop, I finally had a group of artists to collaborate and build with. I gained invaluable experience on how to connect with an artist and what roles I might be expected to play to best assist them through their creative process, and my production career began.
A few years later, I would go on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Production from Full Sail University, in Orlando, Florida. During my time in Florida, my artistry grew exponentially. I learned how to become a creative professional. I started a business and learned how to expand and manage it. I cemented my brand and began more aggressively marketing my services and networking with other creatives, both online and in person. I expanded my reach and soon began selling beats consistently and finding new artists to work with at an increasing rate. I met many more collaborators, and my catalogue of released music grew. Opportunities for growth continued to present themselves. I built a professional studio and began holding recording sessions in my apartment.
Towards the end of my degree, I was given the incredible opportunity to executively and exclusively produce the debut album of one of my closest friends and collaborators, Navi, who I met at the Recording Workshop. Navi is one of several artists I work with that I see immense potential in, so it was an absolute honor to be so heavily involved in his debut, full-length studio album. At Navi’s suggestion, I was listed as a collaborative artist on the release, which meant the world to me. After a long, two-year rollout process, “Meet Me Outside” by Navi the Terrible and Robby Cash was finally released on all premium streaming platforms on June 14, 2022.
After graduating in 2021, I moved back to Columbus, Ohio. Today, in addition to my freelancing business, I also work as a front-of-house mixing engineer for an 80s rock cover band, Katie and the Red Hots, and as a sales associate for Sound Ideas, a pro audiovisual company. I have been credited on over 75 musical releases, executively produced seven projects for five different artists, and am currently executively producing another artist’s debut album. I look forward to my continued growth as a music producer, and can’t wait to see what the future holds.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My musical journey hasn’t always been smooth or straightforward. Starting out was most difficult, for a number of reasons. When I first began exploring music production, I had almost no knowledge of the underlying process behind song development. I had little experience with any form of artistic creativity and no understanding of music theory. Over time, I finally developed a skill for creating quality instrumentals but had no contacts with artists to get them to.
Finding artists to collaborate with became my next struggle. My beat catalogue was growing, but they were stuck on my hard drive with no one to use them. I enjoyed writing instrumentals and creating beats, but I knew my true passion was actually for the collaborative process of developing songs with other artists. I felt untapped potential and knew I could be doing more than I was. It took a lot of networking and social media engagement to eventually find a group of consistent collaborators. Now that I’ve developed a track record of successful collaboration with artists across multiple genres, throughout the United States as well as multiple European countries, it’s become easier to continue to expand my reach and find new artists to produce for.
Like all creatives, I still experience writer’s block from time to time. This used to be very frustrating for me, but over time I have grown to become more comfortable and understanding of that reality. I’ve learned how to minimize its impact on my work, find inspiration through other means when it isn’t coming naturally, and maximize my time when I am feeling creative. I’ve found alternative ways of being productive when I’m lacking creative inspiration, and strategies to find inspiration and continue creating even when it isn’t naturally flowing.
Today, while I’m always looking for new artists to work with, I have no shortage of consistent collaborators. My biggest struggle now is finding the time to work on all of my ongoing projects. Working two other jobs, I have less time to focus on my freelancing business than I would like, and opportunities are coming in faster than I am able to complete them. I’ve had to learn new time management skills, improve my efficiency, and speed up my workflow to keep up with my clientele, without sacrificing the quality of my work.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
The role of a music producer has changed drastically over the last 100 years, adapting to an evolving industry. Today, the term ‘music producer’ is a very wide-ranging, generalized, and over-used term. What started as wealthy businessmen simply bankrolling the creative pursuits of artists they saw potential in, eventually evolved into more creative individuals steering artistic direction, tweaking musicians’ ideas, and implementing their own to develop more complete creations through collaboration. The producer became responsible for seeing an artist’s vision come to life. Soon after, some producers began to expand their role and take larger control of the creative process, instructing their artists on what to play and how to perform.
As technology advanced and music creation became more electronic and self-contained, beatmakers were born, creating instrumentals with the intention of another artist later performing vocals overtop. Many beatmakers consider themselves to be producers, but they aren’t truly producing a record, rather creating a starting point for an artist to build from, which is an equally important role in its own right.
But in the last 20 years, the two roles have blended together in many cases. Producers have become increasingly responsible for beat-making, and beatmakers have become more likely to assist an artist throughout the entirety of the creative process. Additionally, particularly within the underground world of music creation, many producers have become responsible for assuming the role of engineer, recording the artist in the studio and then mixing the recordings into a final, polished product. This requires the modern producer to be very flexible and adaptable to the wants and needs of each artist they work with.
My work includes all of the above. I do create instrumentals which I provide to artists to create their own songs from. Sometimes that is where my role ends, with the artist taking the rest of the process into their own hands, or working with another producer they are more familiar with. What I enjoy most, though, is assisting artists reach their vision. I like writing instrumentals, but I find the collaborative process with an artist to be by far the most rewarding part of my job. Watching an artist become inspired through hearing an instrumental (whether it’s from me or someone else), seeing sparks of various ideas – themes, emotions, deliveries, rhyme schemes, flows – and then helping them find the bigger picture and put it all together is what I love most about being a music producer. From there, I’ve become increasingly involved in the mixing process. After creation, it becomes time for a song to be mixed and mastered into a commercial-ready product. Frequently, songs I’ve produced will be sent to an audio engineer for finalization. But many artists I work for as a producer, especially lately, have chosen me as their engineer as well, in which case I get to continue working on the song until the very end.
So, while today’s music producer has a wide range of responsibilities, what I am most drawn to is the traditional role of a producer, helping artists bring their ideas to life and reach their full creative potential. My ability to understand others and connect with them musically is what sets me apart from other beatmakers, producers, and engineers. I genuinely care about the relationships that are built through the collaborative process, and my willingness to build that relationship is what ultimately leads to successful results.
The more chemistry and rapport I am able to build with an artist, the more likely I will be to understand their goals and help them reach their goals. I truly want others to succeed and reach their full potential, and my understanding of what my role truly is allows me to fulfill that. It’s very important for me to understand what an artist needs from me, and what they don’t, and I make sure to not overstep my role. I’m there to see their vision come to life, not my own. Whatever they need from me is what I will provide, whether that is an instrumental, a mix, feedback, and advice, or all of the above. I can be very involved in the creative process, directing an artist through all of the details from structure to lyrical content, or I can be very reserved and more or less invisible, handling background tasks and setting an artist up for success, but leaving the creativity to them. It is up to the artist to determine what role they need me to fulfill. Sometimes they know what they need from me, and sometimes they don’t, and I have to sort of feel out what they need and what I can provide.
The importance I place on relationships with my clientele is what really sets me apart from other producers. Building those relationships is one of the most enjoyable parts of the creative process for me, and it’s incredible how close you can become with someone, and how well you can get to know them, through the creative process. Some of my closest friends today have come from creative collaboration. My ability to connect with artists on a personal level allows me to assist them in the best way possible and provides me with a skillset and advantage other producers may lack.
I take great pride in my ability to place myself within an artist’s creative mindset, understanding their vision and helping them realize it. Many times, artists will have a generalized idea of where they want a song to end up, but they will have trouble getting there. They might have a theme they want to cover but can’t come up with a place to start. They might have a verse written, but aren’t sure how they want to employ it, or where they want to take the rest of the song. They might have several parts written, but are struggling to arrange them into a structured song, not sure what to make the chorus, or where to place the verses, or how to conclude their story. Sometimes, I will find an artist’s encompassing idea before they do, taking their subconscious ideas and bringing them to their awareness. That’s always incredibly rewarding, to see an artist consciously put everything together. To me, the most fun part of the creative process is combining those fragments of ideas into a complete, structured song, putting each piece of the puzzle together.
We love surprises, fun facts, and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I think something most people might not realize about my job is how involved throughout the creative process I am, and how flexible and versatile I can be in assisting an artist reach their goals. Lots of people hear the term producer today and think of a beatmaker. But to me, making beats is a very minuscule role in the job of a producer. Really, it’s a separate job altogether, but one that has become consolidated into a subrole of a modern producer. Making a beat is like the tip of the iceberg; there’s so much more to production that others don’t see or realize, and those are the parts I’m most passionate about.
Another thing that might surprise people is the emphasis I place on developing relationships with the artists I collaborate with. To me, the art I produce is a byproduct of the relationships I develop with collaborative artists, not the other way around. The more I can understand and relate to an artist, the better I can meet their needs and lead them to the final result they are envisioning. Insight into someone’s thoughts, feelings, and beliefs lead to better insight into their musical tastes, styles, and goals. Communication is vital to successful collaboration, and the stronger relationship I have with an artist, the easier it is for us to communicate. An artist needs to be thoroughly comfortable with their producer for any collaborative process to reach its full potential, and developing that level of comfort is my first and most important role as a producer.
I take great pride in my work, and the art I’ve been lucky enough to be part of, but I take even more pride in the relationships I’ve built with individuals I never would have met if not for music. Some of the most important people in my life today were introduced to me as musical collaborators. The connections I’ve developed with numerous artists remind me of the bond I shared with my brother. I don’t treat anyone I make music with as a client, a co-worker, or even a friend – I treat them as if they were family, as if they were my brother.
Pricing:
- Basic Mp3 Beat Leasing – $15 per beat
- Premium Beat Leasing – $50 per beat
- Exclusive Beat Licensing – starts at $250 per beat
- Mixing / Mastering Services – $40 per track, with 3 free revisions included.
- Studio Time – $50 / hour
- Other services, including custom production, are also available with more information listed on my site, https://robby.cash
Contact Info:
- Website: https://robby.cash
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robbycashedout/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RobbyCashedOut/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/robbycashedout
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxgyTHXJmZELK_Ew7r4eMKw?view_as=subscriber
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/robbycashedout
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3oQhQZv8mhLFaimLXi38fK
- Other: https://solo.to/robbycash
Image Credits
Owen McCormick
