Catching Up With Cassandra Lucas (Of Changing Faces)!

Over 20-years later, Cassandra Lucas’ is still as beautiful as ever and her voice is as amazing as you remembered it.

The 90’s had a hell of a run for R&B talent. As a biproduct of that talent, we were provided some of the greatest music of that genre during those times. Male and female groups were common. “Changing Faces” were no exception to the rule. Two beautiful ladies from New York, came with the looks, the vocals and the sensual visuals to stand apart in a crowded talent pool. That was on full display on their debut single, “Stroke You Up,” from their self-titled album which was released in 1994. In 1997 the duo hit big again with their single, “G.H.E.T.T.O.U.T.” They showed off their range while addressing cheating spouses on, “G.H.E.T.T.O.U.T.” from their All Day, All Night,” album. Group member, Cassandra Lucas has remained quite busy, releasing several singles and in April of 2019, dropped her solo project, “Long Way Home-The Intro!” Her solo album shows off the experiences gained from a 25-plus year career and she doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.

During my recent conversation with, Cassandra Lucas, she explains the difficulty of separating her name from the group to create a solo brand, her musical journey as well as pursuing her master’s degree!

You are as beautiful as ever. You said you just finished a workout. Do you credit your looks to working out or genetics?

Cassandra Lucas: Aww. Thank you! No, working out is the key. Let me tell you something, I wish it was genetics. For my sanity to my physique. My sanity first. I noticed that, if we don’t get this anxiety out in some kind of way, it will come out in another way. So, for me, working out is that flush. Flush all those toxins out. Even if it’s negative energy, you gotta get that out some type of way. And that’s what it does for me first and foremost. Secondly, it allows me to be able to… I love food (laughing). So, it allows me to be able to eat what I like. My family is from the south, so we love food. Every time you get to a table it feels like you can’t eat anything. Everything is balance, I feel like. Everything is about balance.

I’m from Louisiana, so I know about balancing my love for food with my love/hate relationship with working out.

Cassandra Lucas: You got it! That’s what it is for me. It’s just balance.

You have been around this music game for a long time. You have experienced the cassette tapes come and go, cd’s come and go and now we are at the point where it’s all about streaming and digital ways of getting music. What keeps you motivated musically?

Cassandra Lucas: Isn’t that crazy? Well let’s go back to before I was in it. From your parents crates with the 45’s and 8-tracks. I was standing on tip of the big furniture that we used to have that was your record player. That was my stage when Soul Train was on with the brush in your hand. We have seen the transition. We are now to absolutely nothing, right. You just open your computer or grab your phone and there’s the music. It’s insane. I think that’s the part for me, the transition kind of keeps you going. It’s a ride. You don’t know where you’re going to be in this new kind of world. I think the love for music keeps you going first. Just because you love it and you can’t go without it. Whether you’re doing it for your own entertainment or others entertainment, it’s just a part of me. At this point in my life, there is no way I can go without it. If I’m singing it in church, or down at the local pub, I’ll be doing some type of music. I think that’s it. I think you like to see how you will navigate in the different setting. I think now it’s just real different. We have a whole bunch of independent artists and so much music at your fingertips. It’s like a library that never ends.

Everything you just said makes perfect sense, so I have to ask you, was there ever a time where this navigation was scary to you because it’s so different than what you came in on?

Cassandra Lucas: It’s scary right now, Percy. That’s the thing. It’s scary right now because we are over saturated musically. Now I realize, okay, why was the 90’s so hot. Everyone says, “I love the 90’s.” It was because I think that the record labels took their time to make sure that they signed quality acts, I wanna say. That’s what I feel. Just take girl groups; you had SWV, Brownstone, TLC and Changing Faces. Each one of those groups were nothing like the other. Everybody just tried to have their own. LaFace had TLC, Big Beat Records had Changing Faces, RCA had SWV. There wasn’t five of them. I think that’s what made it so great. You can go to a concert with all of those people and it wouldn’t sound like one long record. Everybody had their own thing and you appreciated it.

You are preaching. I have a 19-year old son and he always comes to me with new music that he thinks I would like, and my response is always, “Didn’t you let me hear this before?” A lot of it sounds the same, no shade. Just true.

Cassandra Lucas: Oh my God. I get that, “Listen to this one,” and it sounds like the same thing. “What artist was that again?” It’s like, ‘There is this new artist out and you gotta hear her.” And I’m like, “Okay, I thought it was the other one that I just heard.”

I listened to your, “Long Way Home-The Intro” album, amazing album. As difficult as it is for rappers to fit in today, it had to be tough on R&B singers because a lot of them almost rap or I’ll say have a flow now to where real voices and singing is almost a thing of the past.

Cassandra Lucas: Yes! It is so rough. I’m grateful to God that these true R&B blogs go out and some of these sites go out and search for it. And they call you and, “I love your album. Can you perform here?” People have a craving for it. It’s such a void that needs to be filled and people are not getting it. Again, that’s what makes it scary, Percy. Going back to that because everything is so much of the other stuff that’s out there, you’re hidden under all that. And people don’t know you’re out there and they don’t get to hear it and that’s the scary part.

Absolutely! Do you feel like you are also still in the process of separating Cassandra Lucas from “Changing Faces?”

Cassandra Lucas: That’s a process in itself. The separation. I was like, “Damn, Beyoncé did that!” Now that I look at it, it takes years to do that. If you think about it, it takes years to stop saying, Beyoncé from Destiny’s Child. Now, you say Beyoncé. She actually succeeded in doing that. It’s a hard process. It’s like a bad divorce. You try to change your name on all your credit cards and your driver’s license. You have to go through every single step to just be this new name. Does that make sense?

Absolutely!

Cassandra Lucas: And that’s where I’m at. It’s always that for me. It is what it is and I’m grateful. That’s how I entered the industry through “Changing Faces” and I’m blessed to have the accolades that come with being in the group, but you’re right, it is a task to separate yourself. But that’s a great task. I don’t have any problems with being associated with my group, but it’s a hard one to be separated from.

The internet does help people like me who were looking for you and new music from you, but yes, still a process indeed.

Cassandra Lucas: I think that might be our generation. I’m kind of getting that too because you just want what you know. You’re not sometimes allowing people to grow musically. Before “Changing Faces,” I was Cassandra Lucas and she was Charisse Rose. I went to LaGuardia High School and I sang solos. We just happened to get together as a group. You can allow people to grow. I loved when Jodeci all did their thing and we got to see K-Ci and JoJo. You get to see different sides of everybody. I just feel like sometimes some people get so stuck in that, that you’re not able to allow artist to grow. That’s how the record label kind of makes you feel. But you don’t want your fans to make you feel like that. The record label makes you feel like you got that one hit and they want that one hit ten times on every album. They want that same hit over and over again. You want your fans to be able to allow you to be free and give them all types of you.

You remind me so much of Coco from SWV who I love. Who are your musical inspirations?

Cassandra Lucas: Oh, you do? That’s funny because back in the day, Coco used to be like, “That’s my sister.” Sometimes people would think she was serious and that we looked alike or whatever. She is the sweetest. But Coco is everything. My inspirations are more… because she is in my age group, my inspirations were more of what my parents listened to. I was more on Anita Baker, Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, Phyllis Hyman, Marvin Gaye was all inspiration. So, a lot of my inspiration came from gospel and stuff like that. If you’re talking about nowadays, it’s different, but if you’re talking about my inspirations from entering music, it’s the people I just told you.

We discussed streaming music and it being at the palm of your hand, when you look on YouTube and see, “G.H.E.T.T.O.U.T.” has 4.1 million views, and “Stroke You Up” is at 5.1 million views. How does that make you feel being those songs came out in 1997 and ’94 respectively?

Cassandra Lucas: That is so humbling to be honest with you because you wouldn’t think people are listening to it anymore. You would get stuff from when it played on the radio, so you would think that it just went up in the sky somewhere. But people are actually still listening to the songs and what more can you ask for? You just gotta thank God and be like, “Thank you Jesus,” you know. I can’t believe it.

Do you recall the first time you heard yourself on the radio?

Cassandra Lucas: Oh my God. It was like, The Five Heartbeats. Literally like The Five Heartbeats (laughing). It was in the middle of the night. Because we had a slow song, I don’t know how it is in Louisiana, but in New York, the slow songs came on, “The Quiet Storm.” So, that would be nighttime… 12-1 in the morning. The phone rang and it was like, “Your song is on the radio.” And you’re trying to wipe the cold out your eyes (laughing) like, “What are you talking about?” You turn it on and wake up the whole house because our song was on the radio. And because it was, “Stroke You Up,” it was played at that hour. That’s when they were testing your record to see how people would take to it. And then from there, it had a life of its own, and again, God is good.

For “Stroke You Up,” to be released in 1994, did you feel that was not only a risqué song, but risqué title as well because times were different then?

Cassandra Lucas: I’m telling you, the beginning of “Stroke You Up,” was like a talking interlude like, “Come in,” you remember that part (laughing)?

Absolutely!

Cassandra Lucas: It was talking with the music playing in the back and I’m telling you, it probably took us a whole hour to do that. We laughed so hard because it was like all this sexy stuff. It was like, “Oh my God,” but it had to go with the song. So, it did feel like we pushed the envelope, but we did it in such a genuine way. It wasn’t something that we were going overboard with because we came from a sensual place not a sexual place. That’s what made everybody feel it the way they did because if you come from sensuality which everybody has a little of that in them. You can be sexy or not, but sensual… everybody can have a little sensuality. So, I think that’s what you hear in the song.

I understand you are taking a course or courses at Harvard University. How is that going?

Cassandra Lucas: Yeah! What happened is, this freaking whole Covid thing has your mind all over the place. I’m sure you have been dealing with anxiety like everybody else and stuck in the house. So, I have been trying to tap into different things. It’s going great. It’s something where I was like, I already have my bachelors in Sociology from before we began, Changing Faces, so maybe now while I had some time and everything is basically online, to tap into that. To educate yourself further and go to school. So, that’s what I’m doing now. I started off with a class. I want to go back for my master’s while I’m doing all this stuff. So far so good. Some days I ask myself, “Oh God, what did you get yourself into?” With school, you have to get back acclimated. I did it before, went all the way through, but when you step away from it, it’s like, “Oh my God, this is a lot of work.” But I’m having fun.

It’s been an honor and I hope this isn’t the last time we do one of these interviews. Thank you for your time. Is there anything else you want to add?

Cassandra Lucas: I appreciate you. It’s been an honor speaking to you as well.

Be sure to download Cassandra’s album, “Long Way Home-The Intro,” which is available on all major streaming platforms.

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