If you haven’t heard of Kiwi singer-songwriter Cassie Henderson, she still might look a little familiar. Back in 2013, the then-14-year-old Taylor Swift fan won hearts with her pop renditions on The X Factor NZ, blowing away the judges with her confidence and incredible vocals.
Since appearing on the show all those years ago, Cassie, now 25, left the spotlight, only in recent years returning with a renewed sense of purpose and a gut-wrenching heartbreak under her belt.
“If I were to time-travel back to being that 14-year-old, I’d be terrified,” admits Cassie. “At that point, I was so oblivious to any potential repercussions or even thinking about what audiences would think about me. All I wanted to do was sing for people.”
The repercussions, she says, came almost immediately upon leaving the X Factor stage. When Cassie was voted off, she took it hard, and she found it even harder to deal with the fact she had little to offer the real world in terms of skills and life experience.
“When I left the show, it became glaringly obvious that I was 14,” she explains. “You’re expected to be writing songs when you step into the music industry. I just didn’t have those skills at the time. I started writing songs with a producer for a couple of months. One of the songs I wrote was called The Shower Song. Another one was about a park bench. They were all pretty bad!”
It was only after turning 20 that Cassie got back into songwriting. A break-up led her to rediscover her love for music.
“It was a really, really bad heartbreak and it fuelled this crazy need to write,” she shares. “I was about 18 and I’d just started university. I was studying marketing, media and film, which is a passion for me, but I was in a strange place. To be honest, I thought I would have been a singer by now, but I wasn’t. I was living this life that was normal for all of my friends. But for me, I felt like I was meant to be doing something else. When I started writing again, the love for performing returned. From there, it just all tumbled into where I am today.”
Where she is today is promoting her singles, including Seconds To Midnight and Whatever – which stayed top of the Kiwi charts for 12 straight weeks – both inspired by her heartbreak, and the recently released track Lemonade.
“I pull from a lot of different things in life, but that one heartbreak was the tipping point for me,” she says. “I’ve started to notice that I clearly can’t get over anything. This poor guy is probably thinking, ‘Can you get over this, please?’”
Drawing from the music she listened to growing up, a lot of Cassie’s songs have a definite ’90s sound, with ’80s synth-wave beats thrown in for good measure. She admits, “I love that era of glam rock, with the Killers’ sort of energy.”
Performing at the same festival as English singer-songwriter Becky Hill, who first found fame on The Voice UK, will be a career highlight when she plays at Rhythm and Alps in Wānaka on New Year’s Eve this year. It’s expected to draw in around 10,000 music goers.
“It blows my mind that I’m performing at that festival,” she tells. “All of the names on that line-up are amazing. I went to university in Dunedin, so Becky Hill’s genre of music was my bread and butter for three years. And I’m so excited to see Wax Mustang as well because he’s such a legend.”
Starting out on X Factor at such a young age gave Cassie access to some of the biggest names in New Zealand’s music industry. It’s these people she says she has to thank for helping her to grow into the musician she is today.
“I’ve been so fortunate with the amount of people who’ve lent me advice over the years. They’ve helped me forge a path I can follow and learn from,” she enthuses. “Kaylee Bell, who I toured with last year, is one of the most hard-working people I’ve ever met.
“In a world where overnight success happens all the time, it’s nice to talk to someone who has done the grind for 10-plus years and can talk to me about how, just because one thing didn’t work, it doesn’t mean the next thing won’t. You’ve got to keep pushing and being resilient.”
Musician Mitch James was also a helpful sounding board to bounce ideas off. Cassie even wrote songs with him.
“I idolised Mitch for years because he was doing all the things that I wanted to do. Since we’ve become friends, I’ve realised that every person in this world, no matter what their career is, is just a normal person trying their best.
“This is just another job at the end of the day. Everyone who has been successful in this industry has given the same advice. As long as you believe in what you’re doing, you will find the right path.”
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