One question you can’t ask Cassettes Won’t Listen founder Jason Drake is how the band got together—that’s because it’s all him. Although the impression is that “the band” involves separate musicians (replete with imaginary names Drake bestowed upon them), he actually plays all the instruments on separate tracks, records them and brings them together himself. 

“With the recording process, I work very well on my own,” he explains. “When I bring someone in to record or to collaborate on something, I just get really flustered... When recording, I like to lock myself in the studio and record and figure things out by myself. Everything that’s recorded on the album is strictly me.”

Cassettes’ sound ranges from trip-hop to indie rock; each track with its own distinctive sound. The dreamy synths are laid down with emotional vocals—often backed up with drum & bass—before hopping on to some other genre. Drake’s idea of a one-man act isn’t a new one—Beck and Moby did the same—however Cassettes’ sound is rooted in singer/songwriter land and stems from an unfortunate chain of events in Drake’s life. 

“Nobody’s Moving was basically me coming out of a rough patch,” he explains. “Right around the time that I was doing mainly hip-hop production, I was going through a breakup with a girlfriend of a couple of years and she wanted to leave me. I’d also lost a friend to a car accident, and around the same time, someone in the East Village put a knife to my throat and robbed me for $7. So it was like everything at once and I was like, ‘Fuck it, I gotta write songs about this; I can’t make beats for MCs about this.’ I used to do a lot of songwriting before I got into beat production. Working on beats is just not cathartic.”

But while touring, Drake prefers the company of other musicians. “In the performance game, I love to have people on stage with me. Like when I do live shows, I always have special guests. I had the bass player from Asobi Seksu. I have vocalists—I’m going to have a drummer come on for the next couple of shows. It’s a little bit difficult to perform my music as a solo artist. I love to have people play guitar. I bring on MCs since I still do beat production. I have an indie rock/hip-hop show, so I have someone rap while I play keys or guitar. Having other people in the mix is great when it’s a live setting. When it comes to the live show, it’s more a collaborative effort between me and the friends I bring onstage.”

August 31. Maxwell's, 1039 Washington St. (at 11th St.), Hoboken, 201-798-0406; 8:30, $8.