Cassy: fearless and free

This is not DC10. Outside, the many clocks of this chocolate-box city are striking 7.30pm. We’re inside the prestigious Vienna Konzerthaus, built in 1913 in a unique combination of historicism, secessionism and art nouveau architectural styles. On stage the world renowned Hagen Quartet are performing a blend of Shostakovitch and Schubert, an intriguing classical pairing of dark Russian drama and light Austrian romantic passion performed by four players at the very top of their game. Our host, Cassy, bought the tickets two months previously. “This is the best thing to do in Vienna,” she whispers. She knows precisely how much glamour to bring to the table: already tall without high heels, she arrives in a classy black dress holding a hand-made clutch bag designed to look like the children’s book, Heidi. Let’s put it this way: it’s not the kind you find in a second-hand store.

Age brings many things, but independence and perspective are two of the most important. When you’re 20, getting your foot on the work ladder is incredibly important. When you’re 30, it might be your first home. And if you’ve really grown up, you might consider having (whisper it) children. Now 42 and a mother to beloved son Rocky, Catherine Britton AKA Cassy has a decidedly different perspective to most of her peers. While most DJs love adulation and all the surrounding trappings, Cassy is a singer/songwriter/producer with a soft spot for Russian composers who also happens to be a DC10-trouncing house and techno DJ.

Born in England and raised in Austria to an English mother and a Barbadian father, Cassy came through the ranks thanks to early support from Miss Kittin, Luciano and Ricardo Villalobos to become one of the biggest DJs on the planet. Indeed, one look at her globe-straddling DJ calendar will see dates from Half Baked in Barcelona to Panorama at Randall’s Island in NYC alongside Arcade Fire and Kendrick Lamar, not to mention another summer at Circo Loco in Ibiza. (You might remember her crazy good Circo Loco-centric Mixmag cover CD which dropped precisely five seasons ago: she’s still pretty proud of it too). As a result, she’s been instrumental in paving the way for a new generation of open-minded female DJ/producers, from Laura Jones and La Fleur to B.Traits and Dana Ruh, all of whom have observed her emphasis on playing quality music in quality clubs to a crowd who aren’t after a quick fix of the hits. La Fleur, who also recently became a mother for the first time, has found inspiration beyond the music too: “Its so inspiring to see her in the zone while also being a mother and also staying true,” she says.

And now Mixmag is in Austria for 24 hours. This is Cassy’s old stomping ground. Her parents still live here and she feels at home here. The mix that comes with this magazine was as inspired in part by Vienna past and present: it opens with a track on local label Cheap and also features Peter Kruder of legendary duo Kruder & Dorfmeister, so it makes sense to get caught up in this most historic of European cities and see how it shaped her. As we drive to the hotel, she says she doesn’t understand why producers often insist on making mixes with so much upfront material and no nod to the past: roots are important in everything Cassy does.

Filing into the concert hall, we can’t work out whether the mainly septuagenarian audience are normal and we’re the freaks – or vice versa. It doesn’t take long to figure out that we’re the weird ones in this particular environment. But before we get to that, what’s her poison? “I drink champagne whenever I can,” she winks. “It’s on my rider. I am a diva in attitude, I like speaking out, someone has to do it!”. Yet, when Mixmag arrives, she comes to pick us up from the airport: hardly diva behaviour.

Cassy sets high standards for herself and her work, talking passionately about her new album and how important it was “not to just pull ten club tracks together”; she even moved to Philadelphia with her partner Danny and son Rocky for the duration of the process to work with legendary Philly producer King Britt. When she arrived, his studio buddies (as well as local hero Josh Wink) all made the same point about her: that she was a Philadelphian in all but postcode. This clearly means a lot to her, since her musical roots took in everything from local songwriting legends Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff to classic Philly soul. But what does she think they meant? “I don’t really call myself down to earth – so maybe approachable, no nonsense?” Along the way, King called in instrumental favours from the likes of Sade songwriter/saxophonist Stuart Matthewman and players from D’Angelo’s band. She also covered one of Prince’s best songs, the wonderful ‘Strange Relationship’ from ‘Sign O’ The Times’. We speak about Prince for quite some time: like almost everyone in music, she was stunned by his sudden death. She played ‘Mountains’, from his 1986 album ‘Parade’, as her final song, in tribute to him, at Coachella. Of course, he was also instrumental in the mid-80s career of Cassy’s soul heroine Chaka Khan, having gifted her the song ‘I Feel For You’. “Chaka Khan was the most important singer I ever listened to. Her voice is such an instrument and so powerful,” she says. “Quincy Jones once introduced her on stage as ‘the voice of life’ and that’s very appropriate.”

Growing up, Cassy was exposed to many cultures. She went to music school aged five before joining a local children’s choir. As a young girl she met jazz musicians including Sun Ra, who stayed at her parent’s countryside home on their way to play an Austrian jazz festival. “He was this mega cosmic guy. These people must have been a big influence on me. They left a trace behind of somewhere I knew I belonged. Without knowing how to get there.”

Always influenced by her parents, she was a child of the 80s and listened to the likes of Sade and Spandau Ballet. In her teens she attended singing lessons and studied music at a very conservative all-girl school, with the focus on guitar. “At that stage, I felt like I was way too shy to do it properly. I didn’t believe that I could be a musician like the ones who came to stay at my parents inn, but it was my deepest wish.” Did she work hard? “I wasn’t bad at school but I wasn’t into studying hard, I wanted to make as little effort as possible but with the best result possible. When it mattered, I worked hard. Because I felt as though I stood out so much, I mostly just wanted to blend in. Yet I remember my mum buying me a Burberry coat at Harrods and wearing it with real pride. I was a very naughty girl at boarding school because I would never shut my mouth. I was quite loud. I’m still very loud!”

In the early 90s Vienna started developing a strong club scene, and Cassy particularly loved a soul/funk night called Soul Seduction, which led to her discovering UK selector and rare groove legend Gilles Peterson and his influential label Talkin’ Loud. “Before I went off to drama school to London for three years I put on a farewell party at my parents’ for about 150 people,” she recalls. “Kruder and Dorfmeister played the whole night. That was one of the best nights ever, it was seriously good... 1994. Seems like an eternity ago!”

But then it was time to head to London and get her head down. “The serious study years for drama training,” she nods. “I learned a lot… but I realised it wasn’t my path.” So she came back to Vienna and went straight back into the music scene. “It was around then I started singing to electronic music, and soon I started DJing. I got obsessed and didn’t want to stop!” Her first gig was at Flex in Vienna with Electric Indigo, who, alongside Acid Maria and Miss Kittin, became Cassy’s first proper mentor. Kittin, aka Caroline Hervé, was especially instrumental in those early days. Through her, Cassy moved to Geneva, where she first met Luciano and Cocoon mainstay Sonja Moonear. But in 2003 she moved again, this time to Berlin, and began an intriguing underground music career that culminated with a prestigious residency at Panoramabar and a killer compilation CD for Ostgut Ton which joined the dots from Detroit techno to New Jersey divas.

And then Cocoon came knocking. Cassy’s reputation as a must-see DJ perhaps owes most to those years on the Amnesia Terrace for Cocoon. Although she was only a regular part of the Ibiza team in 2009 and 2010, she brought several key elements to Väth’s camp, including being the first woman to grace their iconic Amnesia billboards alongside Sven, Ricardo and Richie Hawtin. Her soul-infused sound, mainly played on vinyl, brought a whole new flavour to the Terrace, and she played alongside former Berlin mentor Villalobos on the best dancefloor on the island. Although she would later switch to the Circo Loco camp, there’s no doubt that she helped open the door for future bookings like tINI and Maya Jane Coles.

Britton has a sharp feminist perspective that remains focused at all times. Even though in 2016 there are possibly more women making and playing great electronic music than ever before, the friendships forged along the way, with women like

Miss Kittin, are vitally important to her. Cassy is particularly effusive about the Italians who book her for DC10. “I think that’s the only home I have,” she says of Circo Loco. “I love Andrea and Antonio, and they matter to me. I’ve seen how they cared for me in the past and they book me because they appreciate who I am and what I’m doing. They booked Tania [Vulcano] years ago. They’re Italian and they’re probably macho in some ways but I have never sensed anything sexist with that crew, quite the contrary.”

If there’s one thing that Cassy can’t abide, its bad manners. She’s seen a lot of it of late, and we’re specifically talking club culture here. And while she’s not naming names, her arrows all hit the mark. Appropriate behaviour is important to her. “Some young DJs, they’re making so much money and yet they behave like spoiled brats. I hate that,” she says. “They forget what’s important, which is the music they’re playing. This isn’t rocket science, we’re not doctors and you’re not the American president. You have a privileged position and you have to keep your dignity and be friendly to the people you work with. It’s hard when you’re young, but really, what we’re doing is not that important – and I can see that some people feel important. But the people I’m talking about aren’t artists who have made hits that were played around the world! None of the guys I’m talking about have done any of that. We’re very lucky. We play nice music. So chill out!”

She says that club culture needs people who are responsible for creating the right infrastructure for the future. “There’s too much bullshit going on,” she says. “There’s space and time for everyone to play and for everyone to be successful. Obviously it’s an amazing rave, but I checked the line-up for Timewarp this year and Nina Kraviz and Nicole Moudaber had a set time of 90 minutes and all the guys afterwards had two hours – what the fuck? Those two sell a lot of tickets and have proven that they’re big stars!”

Becoming a mother has not mellowed her. “On the contrary. If something is BS, I get even more crazy! If my son behaved like an idiot, I would react the same.” In the end, we suggest, what she’s looking for is a career with longevity and meaning. “That’s my goal: to love what I’m doing for as long as possible. Chaka Khan continues on her path as a performer and singer and that’s what I admire the most. Sade is herself. When you think of Sade, it’s not tied to her being twenty years old. And that goes for everyone.”

In the morning we meet again for breakfast to discuss some other elements of her life that offer us further insight. So what else does Cassy like? “I like drinking French rosé! And movies: all sorts. I used to work in a video store at the end of the 90s in Vienna. The guy who owned it worked at the film festival here and it was an international store so it started off with NTSC and PAL tapes and all the expats would come. My dad and I would get videos every weekend and copy them! I worked there for three years and that was my favourite job ever – I got to watch everything for free. My favourite director is James Ivory, who made A Room With A View. I’ve seen that film a hundred times. I’m also big fan of Mike Figgis and One Night Stand: Natasha Kinski and Wesley Snipes together is a perfect combination, both of them have so much on-screen charisma!”

Charisma: maybe that’s it. Independence and perspective and courage are important, but it’s her charisma that marks Cassy out from the pack.

Cassy’s album ‘Donna’ is out now on Aus Music

Ralph Moore is Mixmag's Editor-at-large, follow him on Twitter