Multimedia maestro Matt Cascella has amassed a beefy portfolio in a relatively short span of time. Commencing his career in the 2010s as one-half of NYC indie-rock duo Brooms, Cascella also recorded on his own as Owlbiter before a pandemic-induced relocation to Portland, Maine. Beyond music, his Big Shins Films released its first feature, the quirky, Cascella-directed comedy Hangdog, last year with a script by his wife, Jen Cordery, and a soundtrack by the Walkmen’s Walter Martin. Cascella has also worked as an editor and director on a handful of acclaimed documentaries and shorts produced by HBO, National Geographic, Vice, CNN and others.
“A lot of folks in my orbit are in heavy parent mode or have been following a tight career path,” says Cascella. “The life of a freelancer is a bit more ambiguous. I sometimes envy the stability of others, but it’s not the path I’ve chosen.”
“Wait For The Mystery” is the latest round of friendly fire from Pretty Darn Pretty. The self-released debut from Cascella’s misty-eyed folk- and country-leaning side project, Schmoon (a childhood nickname), is available December 13.
“It’s absolutely harder to get excited by things the older you get,” says Cascella. “Keeping the spark is definitely the crux of this tune—and maybe the whole record. Unsurprisingly, we get stuck in our daily rhythms in adulthood. And it’s harder to shake ourselves out of the humdrum. When you do, it’s a total victory.”
For Cascella, working with friends is one sure way to generate some of that elusive excitement. “I initially had a very simple guitar pattern for the tune,” says Cascalla, thinking back on the evolution of “Waiting For The Mystery.” “When (producer) Brendon (Thomas) and I started rummaging around with the recording, he started playing this pretty variation on the electric. We ironed out the groove together in the studio—him on guitar and me on drums. It was a keep-it-simple approach. I’m not one for frills.”
We’re proud premiere Schmoon’s “Wait For The Mystery.”
—Hobart Rowland
