Calgary alternative artist transforms West Edmonton Mall’s pirate ship into a cinematic world of sirens, self-discovery, and inner strength.
Calgary-based independent alternative artist Cas Jade dives into the darker corners of human nature with her latest single, “Animal,” accompanied by an ambitious cinematic music video filmed aboard the ship at West Edmonton Mall.
Created with an Alberta-based cast and crew, the video brings the song’s themes to life through a striking siren-and-pirate storyline. Rather than suppressing the darker, protective parts of ourselves, “Animal” encourages listeners to confront and understand them, transforming an internal struggle into a visually compelling story of self-discovery.
The independently produced project highlights Cas Jade’s creative vision and commitment to storytelling, blending alternative music with cinematic imagery to create an experience that extends beyond the song itself.
First off, care to introduce yourself to our readers?
I’m Cas Jade, a singer, songwriter, and musician born and raised in Calgary, Alberta.
Music is how I make sense of what I’ve lived through and gives shape to things I can’t always explain in conversation. It gives me somewhere to put my questions, my fire, my faith, and my desire to do something meaningful with my life.
I create because I want to reach people. A song can meet you in a moment when nothing else seems to, help you recognize something in yourself, or give you the courage to move forward. That’s the kind of connection I want to build through my music. I want people to feel alive, understood, and empowered to trust who they are.
“Nothing was wasted. Become all that you are” is at the heart of what I stand for. I’m learning to take everything I’ve experienced and turn it into something I believe in. My ambition is to take that music as far as I can while staying connected to the purpose behind it: creating something honest that brings strength, hope, and a little more good into the world.
“Animal” feels like a defining step forward in your sound and artistic identity. What changed for you creatively between “Freak of Nature” and this release?
With “Animal,” I wanted to go further into the relationship we have with ourselves. The things we embrace, the things we hide, and the things we are afraid of people seeing.
Creatively, that meant giving myself permission to explore contradictions. There is power, vulnerability, beauty, and darkness in the song, and I wanted to let those things exist together. I am interested in making music that feels truthful to being human.
“Animal” gave me a way to express what it means to face those hidden parts of yourself and decide how much power they have over your life. That feels like an important step in understanding what I want my music to say.
You worked with Russell Broom on “Animal.” What did he bring to the song, and how did the track evolve once you began working together?
Russell co-wrote and produced “Animal,” and he also produced my debut single, “Freak of Nature.” He has been an important collaborator on these first releases.
Russell has really helped me channel the truth in my voice, both in the studio and as an artist, challenging me in ways that leave room for growth, vulnerability, and new ideas. He has been a huge part of allowing me to find my sound and strengthen new ideas.
What mattered most to me was expressing the emotional tension at the heart of “Animal.” It needed to carry the struggle of confronting something within yourself, along with the strength that comes from facing it.
For me, the purpose of the production is to make that experience something the listener can feel, to give words weight and bring the world of the song to life.
The music video for “Animal” was filmed at West Edmonton Mall and incorporates fantasy-inspired visuals, performance, and VFX. How did you develop the concept, and what was it like bringing such an ambitious vision to life?
The meaning of “Animal” gave us the emotional foundation for its visual world. The song explores facing your shadow, and fantasy gives us a way to make that inner experience visible.
I grew up watching a lot of fantasy television that created a sense of deep nostalgia and interest, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Even in my dreams, I often have that same imaginative quality. It’s a language that comes naturally to me.
Sometimes, when I am struggling to work through something in my everyday life, imagining it through a mythological or fantasy-inspired story helps me understand it. Giving that experience a character or a world makes it feel more tangible, something I can confront and move through. That’s where the fantasy elements of “Animal” come from. They are connected to how I process things and find healing.
We developed the concept with a lot of trust and faith, but bringing it to life also challenged me to think practically. In my imagination, I can see something and feel exactly what it means. Making that meaning clear to someone else requires structure, logic, and collaboration.
That was uncomfortable at times, but I am grateful for how much it taught me. I brought ideas from my own creative world to the team, and they helped shape them into a story the audience could follow. I had to let go of some creative control and accept that every idea wouldn’t work exactly as I had imagined it.
At the same time, so many things that seemed impossible became possible through the team’s creativity and problem-solving, but also through my persistence and faith. Seeing that happen was incredibly empowering.
It taught me the value of working with people who believe in your vision and who can also approach it differently from you. The team’s perspectives helped take the project further than I could have taken it alone.
We all had different personalities and ways of seeing things, but we shared a love for the art and a commitment to sharing it with people. Bringing “Animal” to life was deeply rewarding, and it allowed me to grow as both an artist and a person.
Were there any unexpected moments during the video shoot that ended up making the final cut?
We followed the script closely. There was one moment, however, that was unplanned and made the final cut, and it was at Lundbreck Falls.
I was on a rock in front of the waterfall, moving my hands in these ethereal gestures, and I became completely present in the character of the siren. Those movements came naturally in the moment, when the fantasy world felt like reality.
Conor, our director, actually mentioned in his interview on my YouTube channel that it was his favourite shot. What made it so special to me was being able to embody the world we’d worked so hard to create.
There is so much planning and strategy involved in being an independent musician, and sometimes you can become consumed by everything that needs to be done. That moment brought me back to the joy of expressing something so freely and trusting what came through was meant to.
Preparation helped us bring the vision to life, but leaving room for instinct gave us something we couldn’t have scripted. For me, that is an important part of being an artist: allowing yourself to express something honest before you feel the need to explain it.
You’ve now performed more than 200 shows across Western Canada. How has that amount of time on stage shaped you as both a performer and a songwriter?
Performing keeps bringing me back to why I make music: connection and truth. You spend so much time thinking about your career and where you want it to go, but standing in front of people brings you into the present. You have an opportunity to show the audience who you really are and give them something real.
Through more than 200 shows, I’ve been learning how to fully inhabit an emotion and trust myself enough to express it. I want people to see that your past, your fears, and your weaknesses don’t have to define what is possible for you.
Sometimes the parts of yourself you’re most afraid of sharing, even the messy, unresolved parts, can become a source of strength and connection.
That time onstage has helped me understand how I want to present myself as an artist. Questions that I once felt were uncertain, like how much stage production to incorporate or how I wanted the sound to be, have now become clearer through experience.
I am discovering what helps bring the visual world of Cas Jade to life, what supports my performance, and what feels right for me. Each show gives me a better understanding of who I am and the experience I want to create.
It has also taught me discipline and the importance of taking care of my health. My voice, my body, and my energy are part of how I express my art.
A great mentor once told me that being a professional musician is like being a professional athlete: you need the drive to compete and the discipline to train, recover, and look after your body.
That means eating well, getting enough sleep, and treating those habits with the same commitment you bring to rehearsals and performances. I’m learning that taking care of myself is part of building the career I want and being able to give my best onstage.
Looking after them is a responsibility that comes with the ambition to keep performing and growing. I want to build something I can sustain and give my best to for as long as possible.
As a songwriter, performing makes me want to write words that I can stand behind when I sing them to someone. I value the craft while also giving myself permission to follow my own instincts and express things in an unconventional way.
Art comes from the soul, and we each articulate that differently. A listener might find a meaning in my words that I hadn’t considered or connect with the emotion before they understand the story.
I love leaving room for that. Something that begins as a deeply personal expression can become a shared experience, and someone else can find comfort, strength, or a piece of themselves in it.
You’ve shared stages with artists from several different corners of Canadian rock. What have you learned from watching and connecting with other artists along the way?
Sharing stages with artists like PRISM, Harley Olivia, Black Pontiac, and more has given me the opportunity to see different people express themselves with conviction. It keeps reminding me how important it is to believe in what you’re creating and commit fully to it.
Watching Al Harlow perform with PRISM really stayed with me. He seemed so unmistakably himself, letting his passion flow through the performance with an energy and ease that were incredible to witness.
Seeing someone with decades of experience still give so much of himself onstage made me think about what is possible through years of dedication, persistence, and love for your craft. The things that feel out of reach now can become abilities you grow into.
I want to learn from other artists while continuing to develop something that feels unmistakably my own. That takes self-trust and work. I’m learning to respect my instincts while taking responsibility for developing the skills necessary to bring my vision to life.
Those experiences also make me think about the kind of person I want to be as my career grows. I have big ambitions, and I want to pursue them with kindness, integrity, focus, and respect for the people around me. How I build this matters deeply to me.
“Animal” is centred partly on reclaiming the pieces of ourselves we may have been taught to fear. As you move into this next chapter, what parts of yourself are you most excited to explore through your music?
I am excited to explore who I am when I trust myself more fully. There are dreams, instincts, and parts of my personality that I’ve held back out of fear of being misunderstood.
After writing “Animal” and immersing myself in that world, I want to give myself the freedom to explore those things honestly and see where they lead creatively.
“Animal” touches on facing your shadow, and I’m interested in what comes after that. How do I find freedom, take responsibility for my choices, and build a life that reflects what I believe?
Faith, ambition, clarity, love, and self-worth are all things I want to explore more deeply. I’m especially interested in pursuing a big dream while remembering that my worth exists before I achieve it.
I am living those questions, and music gives me a way to work through them. I am also excited about the parts of my creativity I don’t fully understand yet.
I can hear this whole world of sound that feels like Cas Jade, even though I don’t always know how to turn it into music yet. There’s something exciting about having a vision that asks you to grow in order to express it.
I look forward to exploring those ideas with the people I’m already creating with and finding new people to collaborate with who help me connect with that vision.
I want to immerse myself more fully in the world I’m building and give listeners a way to enter into it with me, to bring their own stories, find their own meaning, and feel free to explore who they are, too.
Now that “Animal” is out in the world, what can listeners expect from the next evolution of Cas Jade?
Listeners can expect more original music, collaborations with other musicians, and covers that I have reimagined through my own creative lens.
I love taking a familiar song somewhere unexpected, changing its arrangement and exploring how it can feel in a completely different musical world. It’s another way of sharing who I am as an artist while connecting with something that already means a lot to people.
In my original work, I want to keep exploring freedom, faith, resilience, and what it means to become yourself. As my life changes, I want those experiences to deepen my writing.
I love building an imaginative world around a song, and I want the world to bring listeners closer to its meaning. Whether the music is powerful and expansive or intimate and stripped back, I want people to feel that I mean what I’m expressing.
“Nothing was wasted. Become all that you are” is something I want to keep growing through my work.
My ambition is to reach more people and give them music they can carry into their own lives, something that helps them feel stronger and more hopeful, but with truth.
The next evolution of Cas Jade is about finding new ways to express that purpose and bringing people further into the world I’m creating.
If you could choose any animal to represent your personality—on stage or off—what would it be and why?
I have always been drawn to cheetahs, but I think a tiger best represents the energy I’m learning to embody, onstage and off.
To me, it symbolizes strength, conviction, and the courage to move into the unknown. I want to keep creating when I’m uncomfortable, when something doesn’t work out, or when I don’t know exactly how to take the next step.
That’s what fearlessness means to me: trusting that what I have to express is worth the courage it takes to share it.
I believe that everyone has something within them worth expressing. I want my music to encourage people to explore that, to keep discovering who they are and give themselves permission to become more fully themselves.
“Nothing was wasted. Become all that you are” speaks to that belief. Everything I’ve experienced has given me something to learn from, understand, or bring into my art.
The tiger represents the courage to carry those experiences forward and keep becoming.