Caged Animals - Escape Artist (2018)

The minivan sputtered to the side of the road twenty miles outside of Tempe. Flares on fire, AAA on the way, and a worn down Caged Animals beginning to realize they weren’t going to make it to Austin, TX. Not on this tour. Such begins the indie-rock melodrama that birthed Escape Artist.

Just days later, the group was robbed outside their Pop Montreal showcase, losing a camera, clothes, and most tragically, the eight months of writing and recording stored on singer-songwriter Vincent Cacchione’s laptop. Only two days before his 30th birthday Vin scoured Rue Saint-Denis, realizing in the process that he was entering a new decade flat-broke and worst of all without his band’s new album.

This would have been enough to make any rocker think about throwing in the towel but to make matters starker, Cacchione had just learned his partner in the band and life, Magali, was pregnant. The joy of the news greatly clouded by this moment of uncertainty, they scrambled for solutions, and never felt so hopeless.

Days later on his 30th birthday, onstage at Brooklyn’s Knitting Factory in front of their family, fans, and friends, Caged Animals summoned the courage to prevail. They might be on a losing streak, but they would not lose their souls in the process. The music began and new wounds began to fuse.

At home, Cacchione got back to work with a passionate fervor. New songs flowed and a much stronger concept began to emerge: what do we call upon when we’re backed into a corner?

Nine months later, Cacchione was a father twice over, and viewed his prior twist of bad luck as a blessing in disguise. With his daughter Alaska in their railroad apartment, Cacchione, his partner Magali, drummer Patrick Curry, and Vin’s sister and Caged bassist Talya Cacchione set out to record these new compositions with as much grandeur as the home-studio could hold. Alaska proved a faithful supporter, smiling joyously, and silently encouraging her parent’s music as it weaved it’s way to a brand new, used laptop.

Escape Artist features the bands original lineup but benefits greatly from the addition of avant-alto-saxophonist Chris Aiello (WFMU’s Prove It All Night), a ghostly, singing saw appearance by Julian Koster of Neutral Milk Hotel, beautiful choir direction by Andrew Hoepfner (Houseworld), and the haunting pedal steel of Jon “Catfish” DeLorme (Psychic Ills).

On Escape Artist Caged Animals have distilled their musical vision into it’s most focused form. Balancing their intimate, emotional songs with a musical journey that is both exploratory and engaging.