Oklahoma City-based musician CAJ came to Lazy Circles Brewing to talk about his music and upcoming set at Norman Music Festival. CAJ will be performing at 7:10 p.m. on Saturday April 27 at the West Stage.
When did you start making music?
I’ve been doing music, or had an instrument in my hand, since I was like seven. I play a couple of different instruments—if it makes noise I can make music with it, that’s kind of my rule. I've always been going through a lot of phases of music ... smooth jazz, rock and just different tones. A lot of different areas of rap stuff, punk rock stuff. I really don't have a dislike towards any genre, as long as the song sounds good. I really don’t listen to a lot of music today—it's in my head.
Who are your influences?
Growing up I really liked Jimi Hendrix, I liked Prince, Michael Jackson. On the rap side Wutang—just the energy of it all. I was a death metal kid—Suicide Silence, Born of Osiris, The Devil Wears Prada—big influences on my music a lot. Even on my hip hop side that metal aggression really kind of translates over to it as well.
What do you hope people get from your music?
Just find something authentic in it, as within themselves at the same time. Just something they can resonate to on a true level about the life we’re in.
A good friend of mine said we don't always gotta to give the audience two plus two equals four in the songwriting, so I do like to write where I know what I'm talking about, but people can really ... its direct and vague enough that they can take it.
What is your favorite part about being a musical artist?
Live shows. I love live shows—I love performing live. Just crowds, energy, I love running up and down, really just giving it my all. I’m pretty well known for really prominent live shows. Last year at Norman was insane and I look forward to this year, it’s going to be a lot of fun.
And then also just the freedom of expression. Especially like with my guitar—my guitar is kind of a language that transcends normal dialect between us humans. I can play the guitar and no matter what language you speak, you’re going to hear that the same.
Formative moments as an artist.
I would say the most recent ones last year—Norman 2023, that was huge, that went crazy ... (the crowds) went from the (West) stage to the ferris wheel and the tracks. And for me, I did 18 songs in one hour, so I was pushing myself as an artist. They're not slow records; rapping and running and jumping ... even just where I was as an artists at that time, to have an audience and to hold an audience for an hour, for that long, who didn't even know who I was at the time and for them to have such a good time and such a good time; it was amazing. I couldn't have asked for a better show.
Definitely performing my first arena—that was great, that was about 10,000 people. That was in Corpus with my good brother Gorilla Zoe; shoutout Gorilla Zoe. We were working for quite a bit the past few years and just working on records. Lil Wayne was in town in Corpus doing the show and he got invited and we have some records together, so we did it, and the crowd loved it.
What are some of your favorite spots in Oklahoma City?
I like Ponyboy on 23rd, I usually have a good time when I'm over there. The Deli down here in Norman—I've had some great times there. There's a place called culture coffee—it's like right by my house, so I'm kind of biased, but I like that coffee spot a lot. I'm also just super basic—just black coffee, so if you mess that up—I don't know. I guess recently I've been doing Sunnyside Diner.
What does Norman music festival do for you as an artist and what do you think it does for the community?
When I first moved down here, I had heard about it, and I didn't go for three years that I was down here. And then the first year I went and I actually got to see what it was like—I was like oh this is tight, this is really great.
For people who don't know any of the artists, what would you say to get them to go?
It's just a good environment, it's just fun. If you're not too much into music—cool, go shop through … you're gonna stumble across something you're gonna wanna watch, you're gonna stumble across something that's gonna entertain you.
