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27-year-old Cailah Ashlee Skinner, better known as CAS, has decided to pack up the office and leave the workforce to focus on her journey to stardom.

It wasn’t until her EP Problem With Manners was released earlier this year that she decided to fully commit to her original work. “I know it’s a late decision. I always wanted to, but never thought it could happen.” To get a clear definition of the genre of her music is tricky, so we asked her if she could help us out. “It’s a bit of a hybrid,” she says as she describes her music as underground RNB electronica. “It’s a mix of everything that I love,” calling hip-hop her favourite genre.

Trained in classical piano, (with who she confesses she has a romantic affair with), Cailah started songwriting when she was around 13 years old and performed for the first time at the age of 16.A poet at first, Cailah couldn’t seem to transform her poetry to lyrics. But, it wasn’t until she met her producer Lee Bradshaw that she began to understand the conventions of songwriting. Problem With Manners is a 23 minute soundscape that is said to “evoke feelings of relentless emotions coupled with ‘live through this’ style lyrics.” It is, therefore, designed to allow the listener to relate to the music by ‘manifesting’ his or her own thoughts.

Upon hearing it the first time, its uniqueness stood out as a song would turn from a heartfelt RNB song with big bassy beats to a quiet melodic instrumental by a grand piano that leads into the next track, again different. It definitely is designed to catch the listener by surprise.“I wanted to push the boundaries,” she said. The third track on the EP titled, Broken, is a song that had always stuck in her mind for years. After tossing it three and a half years ago, the melodies were still buzzing around in her head. A character appeared in her hand, one with a rebellious nature and she recalled that the character was familiar but she couldn’t pinpoint it. Time had passed and CAS was unpacking boxes at her new house only to find a letter that had fallen out. It was written by her mother that Cailah had saved from when she was 16 years old. "My mum is an amazing writer," as she described the moment when she read the letter again and made the clear connection between the character in her mind and the 16 year old Cailah with who the letter was written to.

Currently, she performs regularly with her cover band Hey Charger at Southbank’s PJ O’Brien and is often road tripping to Geelong for other regular gigs.Now that she has packed up ship and decided to leave her full-time job, Cailah hopes to continue developing her craft and work with as many artists as she can. She hopes to one day work in the songwriting industry and write songs for other artists.

Follow CAS on:

Website| Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Soundcloud

You can also download her EP on: iTunes | Google Play