Jason Drake is the director of marketing at hip-hop indie Definitive Jux, but in his spare time, he’s making electronic pop gems with a lo-fi rock bent under the moniker Cassettes Won’t Listen.
Armed with his knowledge of the inner workings of the industry, Drake has self-released three digital-only EPs within the last couple of years—including a fun and quirky covers record of indie rock songs from the ’90s—with great success. His name has showed up everywhere from PerezHilton.com to the front page of MySpace, with praise also for his remixes of such artists as El-P, Midlake, Aesop Rock and Dr. Octagon. “What started as small turned into an avalanche of good words,” the Glendale, Calif., native says of the development.
A seven-song EP, “Small-Time Machine,” due March 11, will be Cassettes Won’t Listen’s first physical release, distributor pending, and the predecessor to his first full-length set, which he hopes will find the right label home. “I have yet to go on a major national tour . . . I’ve learned that I haven’t really needed to yet.”
