Meet Cassie Holt

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cassie Holt.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I’ve been singing since my earliest memories. During high school, I started playing open mics and singing hooks for different hip hop artists. Then it turned into solo sets in line ups. We built a studio and had a bunch of songs written and recorded (Self-Storage Records). But literally the night before we were supposed to move out of the storage unit studio into a real one, we were robbed at gunpoint for everything….all my songs…equipment…all of it. We all went our separate ways, I went back to school, graduated and started teaching high school. the entire time, I kept doing shows. We formed a band, “Cassie Holt and The Lost Souls” and were blessed to play around Dallas/Fort Worth continuously. They are an amazing group of talented humans and I love them with my whole heart.

I put out a concept album, sevens, with the help of my friend J Rhodes, and a vinyl release of the band’s album, Gritty Soul, with the help of Ty Macklin. I was also extremely blessed to release a single produced by S1, Leavin You. 

I would come out here on spring break to the ASCAP expo and worked on trying to build my network here in LA. I finally worked up the nerve to quit my job and make the move. I spent a year driving Lyft, Airbnb’ing out my apartment (until we got caught), and any other odd jobs for people, like helping them pack to move, and a few vocal jobs. I filled all of the time between that driving to wherever I could get in a writing session with someone.

I’ve been blessed to meet a lot of my musical heroes in these last two years. I can’t even begin to explain how it has happened but I’m grateful that it did. I went to every panel, every mixer, every summit, every anything I could, anywhere in the area, just to soak up information and learn. I keep going for my students back home that believed in me, for my friends and family that always have, and for the people I grew up with who didn’t live to make it out. I have no idea what the future holds, and that is a beautiful thing. I just know I want to continue to give back and help women get out of the same situation I was in, and that I never, ever forget what it was like. 

I want to make a living writing songs and traveling around trying to bring a little hope to some women who may really need it. I’m not “LA” but I love it here. I’m loud, I’m super direct, I say “ya’ll”, and I still eat carbs. I came out here with enough money to last a month, and in June it was officially two years. Life is really fucking beautiful when you just let go and jump.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Hahahahhaha. Not one single thing has been smooth, but everything we go through makes us who we are, right?!

You have to be just a little fucked up to choose the entertainment industry. It’s like a lifelong dysfunctional relationship. Like…here…take all my money and time, and maybe I might see the return. Or never. Lol.
Like I mentioned in the last question, early on, we were robbed at gunpoint for all of our equipment and recordings and had to start all over.
I was severely beaten by my psycho ex (who I met in the studio) and came within minutes of losing my life. I spent years hiding, bottoming out, and recovering from it. That is why it means so much to me to sing at the domestic violence shelters. It is how I let it go and stopped being angry at him.

I was dropped from a deal before it started. 

I was in a car wreck that wrapped my car around a pole and they had to remove me from it. I spent over a year recovering from that, but by the grace of God (whatever that is to different people), I walked away relatively ok.
Moved from Dallas to here without a plan, job, or shit to my name. I just knew I wanted to write songs and make it happen.

Worked 3 jobs the first year I was here. 

My dad had a stroke six weeks after I got here.
Last summer, I had blood clots in my lungs and legs and was hospitalized. They said if I had sleep on it that night, I would not have made it to the next morning.

Again, I feel like the universe had a plan for me. I got a call to play Hotel Cafe (thank you Josh). I remember barely making it through the set because of how worn down I was from just getting out of the hospital, but I had waited a year to play there and wasn’t going to pass it up. The musicians that played with me were incredible, so that helps! lol

I’ve had a few other traumas that I don’t feel comfortable discussing, but they have definitely shaped my music and the path I am taking with the nonprofit mission.
I’m 5 and 1/2 years sober and that is a miracle. 

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I am in the works of getting my nonprofit “Write So You Can Breathe” off the ground. We take writing therapy and music performances into shelters, sober houses, and treatment centers. We’ve been doing it for over a decade, just out of our own pockets. It started with just me and some other artists back in Dallas showing up with guitars and singing to raise money for different charities. Now we are trying to go through branding and getting the website up to reach more people.

I also have a few singles that are waiting to be released and a video in the works with Malone Pictures for one of them. I’m also excited to have recently joined the roster with Gravelpit Music. They are pretty awesome and I’m excited to build and see what we can do together. I know something big is coming, I feel it and I have faith. It is just a matter of when. 

I’m most proud of just figuring shit out. Even when 500 doors may slam in my face, I keep it moving and with a smile on my face.

What sets me apart from others is my resilience. I will keep going as long as I am breathing. I fully believe I am still alive for a reason. I just love the shit out of people, out of collaborating, out of creating. I don’t know how to be anything but who I am, and I make no apologies for it. You can never please everyone, and I breathe a lot easier now that I let go of trying. There will be people that criticize you for being positive. There will be people who make fun of you for sharing your struggles. People will talk shit, period. But like they say in the recovery community, “What people think of me is none of my business.”

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Everyone has such a different idea of what it is. To me, it is not this thing you reach. It is the act of actively chasing goals and dreams, and being present in your life. It is being open to everything and enjoying the process. 

Personally, I feel successful having been blessed to have sung on stages since I was in high school. No, it wasn’t for millions of people and no, I’m not a household name, but I still did that shit and have kept doing it for more than a decade. Watching my students celebrate their successes and walk the stage at graduation also made me feel successful. It is all perspective. Being able to help someone else reach a goal, that feels like success. Keeping my word, that feels like success. Showing up when someone needs you, that feels like success. Creating something where there wasn’t something, that feels like success.

I could die tomorrow knowing I did every single thing I could to work towards my dreams to the best of my ability. 

But shit….my dream was to be a songwriter in LA and live within walking distance of the ocean, and I’m literally living that right now. I’m still renting and I don’t make shit as a songwriter, but I’m loving every minute of it. If you take social media out of the equation, I’m pretty sure everyone would feel more successful. lol

I think people just being themselves and doing what makes them happy is success. People are never more beautiful than when they are truly doing what they love.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @soulfullady @writesoyoucanbreathe
• Facebook: fb.me/CassieHoltMusic fb.me/writesoyoucanbreathe
• Twitter: @soulfullady

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