Hailing from Vancouver Canada, the now 23-year-old Cassidy Mackenzie is a standout star on the rise. She started at a very young age on drums, guitar and voice. After dropping out of music school in Nashville and moving back to Vancouver in, she started posting covers of her favorite alternative records which gained the support of viewers and stamps of approval from bands featured in her covers, like Simple Plan and Mayday Parade.
“The inspiration for the song’s story came from being completely unable to get your ex out of your head post-breakup. Despite every rational part of you shouting “they’re not right for you!”, “move on!”, “they’re toxic!”, they’re haunting you at the most inconvenient times, like when you’re trying to move on with someone new.”
Her TikTok audience is now heading to half a million strong and she’s releasing her first original song that is a mix of pop and alternative set to hip hop beats. At the end of 2021, Cassidy traveled to Los Angeles to begin writing original songs. Initially, she began recording rock and punk songs, as she was most well-known for covers in that style that had amazed tens of millions of plays.
“Musically the song takes huge inspiration from early 2000s pop/punk/rock acts like Avril Lavigne, Simple Plan, and Paramore, but with a modern pop spin. Guitar is the driving force of the track and I hope that it pokes at people’s nostalgia for what they had on their iPods 10-20 years ago.”
When writing with the pop producers Glashaus, who have written for Selena Gomez, Wiz Khalifa, and Rachel Platten, they decided for the first time to combine all of her eclectic musical influences into one song. Her debut single “Leave Me Alone” is a combination of big pop vocals, rap rhythms and her signature guitar loops that tells the story of how you just want to move on from a breakup but their presence still haunts you even when they are long gone.
“The music video opens up the box containing more of the true story of the song, revealing images of bisexuality, the emptiness of trying to move on with the wrong person and what happens when you get too curious about what your ex is up to now (and if they miss you back).”
