Check Out Casson Tate’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Casson Tate

Hi Casson, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Diet Smiles was started by two high school bandmates, Trent Swartz (guitar) and Casson Tate (singer), in August 2021. At the time, Trent was the primary recording drummer and bassist of Diet Smiles while Casson performed on guitar. As time progressed, Casson introduced his coworker, Sheldon Young, drummer, to Trent to hang out and jam. Eventually, Sheldon made his mark and was introduced to the group by the end of 2022. Eventually, Liz Keune (bassist) was added to the Diet Smiles lineup in November of 2023 as she was a long-time friend of Sheldon’s due to their history studying music together at Toledo School For the Arts.

Today, we have begun breaking out of our local scene while maintaining great support for the friends, fans, and family that have supported us up to this point. It is difficult to break out when we have a DIY approach to music, as our goal is always to give back to our community. At the beginning of 2024, we took the opportunity to open a small venue called The Gräge to support the fans and artists in our town who want more control over the live experience. It was our way to up our own live sound and ability to understand live performance engineering while supporting our community. It is crucial that we give back in a meaningful way to the people of Toledo and those passing through so doing so in a way that fulfilled a dire need we were excited to fill felt best. As we continue to grow both online and in opportunities to play live performances elsewhere, we’re committed to helping local acts with access to The Gräge and our home studio, where we record our music.

“From the beginning, I offered my house to record and play everything. We’ve never really given up on sticking true to our roots and playing from the comfort of my house. But, we’ve made major upgrades in equipment since, permitting the night and day difference between our releases prior to July 2023 and those after.” – Casson

Sheldon Young: 24 years old
Casson Tate: 23 years old
Liz Keune: 22 years old
Trent Swartz: 22 years old

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
As a group, we can all agree the road we’re on is full of bumps but it makes the journey so much more satisfying when we have our small successes. We’ve improved our sound tremendously but fought against the grain outside of music a lot to get to where we are now. Everyone in Diet Smiles is a young adult, and that comes with struggles like navigating college, relationship problems, and financial issues. Finances are generally the most challenging thing for all of us, but we always support one another while we save up to pay for equipment and travel expenses. Additionally, we’re an LGBT-friendly band and have had to stand our ground firmly to foster a safe environment for ourselves as well as our fans who identify as LGBT. Nonetheless, we’d all do it over and over again to say we worked hard enough to earn our place and how we want it. There’s a LOT more moving forward that we have to do, and we’re all willing to keep fighting for our community and ourselves to get there.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We make surf punk music, but our sound has undertones of garage rock and grunge. In the area, we assume we’re known for our outreach on our social media as we’re very active on TikTok and Instagram. We’re most proud of each other as a whole. Our perseverance is what sets us apart from others. Being self-assured is by far our biggest strength. Our mindset is that we cannot win if we don’t play. So, we’re constantly engaging with music. At the least, we move 1% forward every day. Whether recording, mixing demos, configuring equipment, rehearsing, networking, or outlining our online schedule, we always work hard, even if we’re discouraged. It helps a lot to engage with other local artists in a way that allows us to help them with the connections we’ve gained or what we’ve learned about the music industry so far.

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
COVID-19 taught us the importance of community. Our local scene was obliterated due to the shutdowns, and we’ve tried to help rebuild and improve the old scene since the world started moving again. Also, we learned the importance of feeding into the online aspect of music as a business. When we started Diet Smiles, it was still the height of lockdowns, so our only option was to make an online presence our only presence. That being said, it helped us form relationships in areas where we succeeded with video content creation and photo editing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://DietSmiles.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dietsmilesband/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dietsmilesband/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dietsmiles
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0FUzjdIS9gt625bSVmQoEy