Straight outta Essex is the glam and flamboyant Casual Wednesday. The name refers to the stage project of Natasha Petrou- an authentically fabulous DIY musician who insists on being empowering, inclusive and celebrating all the creativity the human spirit has to offer.
She is one of Punk Rock Philosophy’s favourite acts right now and it was a pleasure to catch up over Zoom to talk about how the Casual Wednesday project got started, living your best life on stage and why it is vital to keep pathways open for working class kids to explore music.
“If I could go back in time and tell 25 year old me who had just experienced the worst injury of her life and the way she thought her life would go is now not gonna happen, I would say ‘don’t worry babe, it’s gonna be OK!”
The story of Casual Wednesday doesn’t strictly start with music per se although Tash has been keen on playing music, writing songs and performing since a young age (more on that later). Instead, it starts with a Drew Barrymore film, some roller skates and being rolled out to an UBER on an office chair…
“Around 2010, my mum took me to see Whip It- it’s a Drew Barrymore film about roller derby and it stars Elliot Page and loads of cool cast members. It was one of the most empowering, incredible films I had ever watched as a young woman and it made me want to take part in roller derby! But it took me ten years to pluck up the courage to investigate getting involved myself- there were some scary looking women on that track! But I wanted to be a scary woman anyway, it just took me some time to get there! So, in 2019 I started working through a Roller Derby training programme in London, it was going really well and I had the name Tash Bandicoot.
I had been training for a few months got but then a complete freak accident happened whilst I was skating and my leg broke in four places. My career in roller derby ended there and then! My wonderful teammates put me on a wheelie chair that they borrowed from the science department and got me in an UBER to the local hospital. Next morning, I had doctors putting 10 pieces of metal and a metal plate in my leg to stop it falling part. Then a week later lockdown happened so I was stuck at home. I had nothing to do so thought I would start recording music again just for fun. I put it on SoundCloud and shared with friends and that was literally all it was meant to be- just for fun”.
Although the sense of fun definitely hasn’t changed, Tash’s sense of her potential has- no longer just for friends and a few people on the internet, a chance (online) encounter with a promoter took the project out of the bedroom and onto the stage:
“Out of the blue a promoter found one of the songs and offered me a gig! I had no idea that was a possibility or something I could do and before I knew it, I was gigging every month and supporting some incredible artists and making loads of friends. And now I have some semblance of a music career!”
Over the last few years, Casual Wednesday (as the musical project is known) is now gracing stages left, right and centre; filming music videos and releasing tracks to great acclaim. This includes the 2022 EP ‘Visions’ – five tracks of well-crafted pop, rock and glam, that includes the epic ‘Sunset Over Dagenham’ (one of our favourite tracks and on repeat a LOT). The music and the aesthetics are intertwined – both are a celebration of Tash’s authentic self and in turn, encourage that in listeners and gig goers. Tash often performs in a bikini top adorned in glitter and flowers- it’s all about putting it out there and daring someone to want you to tone it down. A phenomenon that is explored in the newest single ‘Everything Must Go’:
“I have had the term ‘too much’ used about me a lot over the years and the times it has been directed at me is when I have been standing up for myself or other people and when I am asserting myself, or when I have been excited and happy about things. It’s such a mean way to temper women’s emotions and experiences. It is a very important part of my existence to be myself in the most radical way possible and to encourage others, especially women to be themselves in the most radical way possible. I extend that to trans women and include them naturally, but it is important to acknowledge them distinctly. I want all of my trans babes living their most radical unapologetic lives! Going up on stage in a bikini top and shouting at people is the most gorgeous way of expressing my radicalness and feeling brilliant about myself and making other people feel just as brilliant”.
And Tash takes her musical inspiration from an eclectic assortment of incredible performers who all have a certain thing in common, a thing that Casual Wednesday fans will recognise as the common thread in everything Tash does. And that thing is DRAMA:
“I like music that has a lot of drama and power. I grew up listening to a lot of 80s synth pop, rock, metal, 70s psych rock- whilst it might be different in terms of genre and style I don’t like a song that doesn’t have power! I want to write songs that hit you in the face with an emotion, whatever that might be. I want you to walk away from the song feeling something…that’s how I am influenced the most. I listened to a lot of Kate Bush and her artistic licence is incredibly inspiring, she pushed the boat out and used the voice as an instrument. As I got older, I got into stuff like Beth Ditto, Amyl and the Sniffers, Mannequin Pussy, Goat Girl and they are all a bit more representative of the musical direction I wanted to head in. And of course having a female frontwoman tearing it up on stage is an inspiration for the performance side of it”.
Whilst Tash might be front and centre on stage, Casual Wednesday is not a solo project. Tash performs with a full band on stage and they – along with the producer she has worked with closely- help Tash make reality the fully-rounded, complex songs that they perform:
“Casual Wednesday is me- I have a live band I play with and I don’t want to reduce them to session musicians because they do contribute so much and the live sound has developed so much and that is because of them. They are as much a part of the spirit of it as I am! Especially Cammy who has been playing with me for years now and has one of my songs tattooed on him- I would not be here without him.
Historically, I have recorded and written everything myself with the exception of a drummer here and there until I got to ‘I Wonder If I Am High’ onwards. I started working with a producer Isaac (AKA General Waste) and he was able to add little extra bits here and there that I wanted but wasn’t able to express how to get them. He has helped sharpen up guitar lines as well because I do write a complex song! I don’t like just a really predictable structure either and I also struggle with writing a song less than 3 minutes because I have so much to say and that comes from being classically trained at school”.
Speaking of school, this was where Tash was first inspired to get involved in making music whether it was playing an instrument, singing or just general performance. She is passionate about ensuring that other working class kids get the same kind of exposure and encouragement she did. But in this economic climate where the arts are the first to get cut, she’s heartbroken and livid that new generations of children can only access a musical education if their family can afford it:
“I went to a state school and music education was widely available when I started. You did have to pay for some stuff like singing lessons but my singing teacher was incredible! There were so many supplementary musical opportunities so you got a really varied and wide music education. I was in a jazz band, two different choirs and this was all on top of singing lessons. When I left school, funding had been stripped back so much, the only thing they offered was music tech which was very limited. Before that, there was a whole plethora of opportunities. I would not be doing this now if I started school seven years later. Kicking it out of schools is the first way to knock working class creatives out of an industry”.
Those foundational lessons that Tash participated in was subsidised by Redbridge Music School. It is topical to bring them up now as Redbridge Council are threatening to kick the school out of its current venue and not provide a suitable alternative location. Redbridge provides the orchestras, choirs and the music lessons for 1000s of children across North London. There is a petition to sign to lobby the council to reconsider HERE.
And nowadays Tash has the confidence to get up on stage and perform and that DIY punk spirit is how she got started:
“The first recordings were done in my room on GarageBand with a USB microphone from Sing Star that I got from a PlayStation and I was using the guitar I got for my 12th birthday! I was just in it for the love of it so when that promoter found me, it was lifechanging because it was never a possibility in my head.
My first gig was me, a guitarist and then me pressing play on GarageBand on my laptop, this is how little I knew. Now it is a completely different project. A lot more sophisticated now, I know what guitar pedals do! But the biggest thing that has changed is now I have confidence and trust in band members and we work well as a unit and produce a wall of sound to hit the audience with”.
Casual Wednesday’s latest single ‘Everything Must Go’ is by no means the only track that is cooking in the CW kitchen, there’s plenty more ready to be unleashed when circumstances allow:
“I’ve got one more songs coming out to complete a new EP, they have taken two years to get together mainly because of money and wanting to be able to get it finished to the standard I had in mind for it. My songs are precious to me and there have been times I have not been happy with songs that have been finished and released, but I have not had the money or the understanding in order to express what I have needed so I take my time a lot more now. After that I have some songs that I have been working with my producer General Waste on and hopefully they will be coming out next year.
They are all a bit more united sound wise, bit more consistency but I am really really happy with them and what they represent. They still have that power running through them that is classic Cassy Wedz”.
Whilst we wait for the recordings, you can catch the affirming, inspiring and downright rowdy live show as Tash and co perform around the London area and beyond. And know this- when you go and watch Casual Wednesday you are helping Tash live her best life, a favour which she will return in spades:
“The shows are really fun! I do a lot of audience participation. I just want people to have fun with me. I am being shiny and colourful and loud and interactive- best way to sum up the shows! I love performing- sometimes it is still nerve wracking, but it is also the most wonderful thing as people want to let go, get a bit rowdy, let off some steam and that is what I am there for- to help them have a good time”.
You can buy/stream Casual Wednesday’s music HERE and follow on social media HERE.
