As the daughter of an Austrian mother and Barbadian father, raised in Vienna with a British passport, the appeal of Cassy as an international DJ has always matched her own global upbringing. Yet in practice, the DJ born Catherine Britton's experience as a resident DJ at Panorama Bar has led many to associate her singlehandedly with the underground Berlin scene of the early 2000s. That's about to change, with a new album titled Donna, that breaks free of the conventional European techno tropes and replaces them with rich Americanized soul music.
"Do I have the courage to be a soulful musician?" she asks herself on the Rave Curious Podcast, in a conversation that touches on her multicultural upbringing, the salad days of Berlin's minimal techno scene, and her current quest for a (semi-)permanent home.