September 29, 2025 • 22 mins
Meet the dazzling Cassidy!
The Melbourne based DJ is dressed to impressed and will win you over instantly with her charm, but before you fall head over heels for Cassidy, be aware that she is concealing something, and there are clues everywhere...
She has lived a Disney like dream and has balanced the best of both worlds.
Can you figure out who Cassidy is?
Instagram: instagram.com/concealedwithartsimone/
Tik Tok: tiktok.com/@concealedwithartsimone
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Oh, thank you for being here today. It's me Art Simone,
and yes, I do love the limelight. It looks so
good on me, but I'm actually so generous and I'm
sharing my limelight with other let's just say, not as
glamorous people. Oh. I know they may be a bit drab,
but trust me, it's worth sticking around for because they're
(00:28):
concealing something from us. I don't know what it is,
but I promise it'll be good. This is concealed with
Art Simone. Hello.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
My name is Cassidy La Crem. I am a DJ,
a speaker, a woman of a few different talents, but
I am concealing a whole other side of myself that
you'll only know depending on where I am in the world.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Hello, Cassidy, how are you Hello? Oh we have to
come clean. I know exactly who you are, cassid La Crem. Yes,
oh hello, I know. I wanted to play along, and
I wanted to pretend that I've never seen you before
in my life. But I can't lie.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
I can't live in this face.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Once a couple of times, very excited to have you
sitting in front of me than you We're very Marilyn
today aren't we we are.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
That may play a little bit into what we're It
could be a.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Little beautiful red sequin head to toe and I mean
head to toe. We've got a beautiful pillbox hat on,
beautiful Marilyn esque blonde hair, very very nice, vintage, a
red glitter lip, and more jewelry than me today, which
is saying something you out did me. So we have
got a necklace, we've got bracelets, we've got rings, we've
(01:53):
got more jewels. And so you're a DJ. What's favorite song?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Oh, we like to party the you know, you put
me on.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
My spot Of all the songs in the world, I
don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
The vibes are high.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Today was extremely Marilyn.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
See, I told you a multifact.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
There's a lot of different things to you. Okay, and
did a speaker? What's your favorite word?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Super color, fragilistic, exper Okay, I won't get you to
spell it because please don't, no, please don't.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Okay, time for that now. I'm not going to reveal
how we know each other just yet, because I feel
like I know a lot about you. We've known each
other for many years, but maybe you're hiding something that
I don't even know. Maybe I so to find out.
I'm going to ask you three questions, and from the
answers to those three questions, we have to work out
what it is you're concealing from us here today. Are
you ready?
Speaker 3 (02:48):
I'm ready?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Okay, okay, all right, Cassidy la crem. The first question
I have for you is what is a sound you love?
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Can you gaga sound?
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:03):
A round of applause.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Around applause.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
I know you like those two?
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yeah? Look, you know, like they say, drag queens are
like tinker Bell. If you don't get applause, we die.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
That is very true.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah, so there have been a lot of drag queen
deathes of recent Now. Question number two, who would play
you in a film? Oh?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Hillary Duff in a twisted version of the Lizzie McGuire.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Okay, oh, sing po? And question number three, what's something
you did as a kid that you still like doing? Now?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Can I say? Playing dress?
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Dress up? Okay? I wouldn't get that from you now,
quite a surprise, the subtlety so dress ups dying drag
queen applause, Hillary Duff, DJ Vinger busy all right, Okay,
I'm rounding about Okay, glitzy lamb dressing up.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I'll give you a riddle and see if you can
get it turned the tables back on you.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
When we first met, I was a vixen who performed
for veterans, also known as Marilyn Monroe. But now I
have graduated into performing for royalty, and instead of a
double M, I'm now known somewhere as something triple M.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
But it's the most beautifully written. It's very clever. Yeah,
it's very clear. Okay, triple M, vixen, veterans, Marilyn applause.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And where I am in the woods.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Lizzie McGuire, Hillary, all the good.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Things, very gay?
Speaker 1 (05:04):
All right? Should we put them out of their misery?
Should we tell them what you're concealing from us?
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Here today, Triple M stands for Marilyn Monroe Malaysia.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
For those of you playing at home, I have a
little Malaysian flag I had hiding in the back of
my dress, never.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Had again in front of me. Marilyn Monroe, Malaysia. What
is this? Hold up? Hold up? What do you want about?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
I am known in Malaysia as a famous pop star
for singing in Malay and speaking in Malay, but I
also sing in eight languages, So.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
You are an ultimate cunning linguist. You know all the
dialects and your bloody famous. You are the ultimate Handna Montana.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
I am because I can go around Melbourne and one
knows who I am.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
How did it all begin?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
It began as a day I was working and living
in Singapore as Marilyn Monroe Universal Studios, and I wasn't
allowed to sing, so I started like singing with bands
outside of work, and a lot of those people were Malay,
so I didn't speak Malay, but they dared me to
sing in Malay, yes, and just mimic the language. And
(06:28):
because no one had else had ever done it before, and.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
It was the early days of YouTube.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yes, we just made a video of me singing in
their language and it went viral overnight. It was just
this crazy thing from being like no one to the
next day like people. Literally the next day a taxi
driver stopped in the middle of the road and yelled at.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
And was like, Cassidy, I love your videos, and I
was like.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
What's happening?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
And yeah, got nominated for a music award for it,
and then it just like my life changed.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Wow, so then does everything pivot At that point, you go, right,
so I now have an audience. Something's happening. How do
I go from being Maryland over here at Universal Studios
in do something with this? Because if you've always been
a singer, I've always been a performer.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I've always been a performer since I was a kid.
I was always a bit shy to sing. But it's funny,
like my life changed a little bit overnight because in
Singapore everyone started to know who I was. But I
still worked my job at Universal Studios and it took
me years to sort of get really well known in Malaysia.
After that, it would just like I just continued to
(07:30):
sort of make YouTube videos here and there, covering different songs,
learning Malay in the background. And yeah, eventually it's sort
of just added on top of it.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
What was the thing that made you go, all right,
I'm going to give it a go. I'm going to
move over there.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
It was crazy, actually, because I kept getting offered record
deals and management deals and things like that from like
good labels too, But I was only flying there and
nothing was really fitting, and I was getting really like,
at that point, I'd made my mind up. I wanted
to be like famous over there recording artist. But I
met at the Sydney Malaysian Festival, basically like let's call
(08:06):
him there, John Farnham, he was a very big artist
from there, had flown over to do this show, mister
Amy Search, and I said to him, like, I really
want to move there. I just can't get the right label.
And he said, just move there, and I was like,
but I don't have any contacts, and he goes, just
go there and once you're there, it will happen, and
I was like, okay. Then, so I just left my
life and I think we were working together by the
(08:26):
time I just dropped everything and moved without a plan,
without a place to live, nothing. I just was like,
it'll fall into place, and within three weeks I was
signed to Warner Music Malaysia and like my dream other
record label, and then it all just like clicked into place.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
As people heard I was in the country.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
We worked a Draculas together, Yes we do.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
That was my little vixen him. That was my floor.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Name, Draculas. It's going to sound negative, but I don't
mean it in that respect. But did you kind of
feel like a bit of a fraud at the beginning
because you'd sung in this language, and then I guess
some people make it would expect you to be completely
fluent in it, to begin with oh yeah, and you're like, no,
I can sing the song literally.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
That was my entire life when I lived there. I
remember when I first moved to Malaysia. I moved there
with no plan, no contacts, nothing, and I was quite
well known at that stage.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Whenever I'd fly over to do shows, like they would.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Fly me Able to sing for the Prime Minister and stuff,
and they put my it's so weird. I'd make a
YouTube video and then it did end up on the
news there, like me covering Frozen or something would be
actual like headline news.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
You'd be like, what is happening?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
But then people would assume you spoke the language, and
I still didn't speak it. So when I would get there,
i'd do an interview and I remember the worst national
news imagine going on Sunrise, but you don't speak English
and they think that you speak English, and because.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
They're playing these clips off you singing these songs.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Exactly with the right emotion, and I'm just like mimicking
the sounds and the host comes in and just pops
his head in the back room and goes, do you
understand what I'm saying? Like he said that in Malay
and I went yeah, and then he just left and
assume that meant.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
I was fluent.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
And then he spoke in the most formal Malay you've
ever heard, and I was just sitting there. You can
you can watch the interview on YouTube. I'm panicking because
I don't remember. I don't know a single word he's saying,
and I'm just sitting there, like, and every time I'm
answering the question, you can see they're all looking at me, going,
she had no idea what we're talking about, and I'm like, yeah,
(10:24):
it happened all the time. And like the radio announcers
by the time I left Malaysia, they said, oh, it's funny.
You understand now we can tell because you can engage
in conversation. When you first came out here, you just
used to laugh at everything.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
We'd say, my god, you kept creating these different videos.
Did you branch out to different languages at that point?
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Not till I moved back.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Actually, just before I left Malaysia, I was doing a
lot of like brand events and things and I did
one for Remy martin Mulay and they wanted me to
sing in Chinese and I was like, sure, why not,
so I Atlanta sung in Mandarin later to find out
it was nothing like it. But then when COVID hit
and I had to move back to Australia really quickly,
(11:08):
then I started singing, Oh, I'm going to try a
song in Mandarin.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Okay, well I'll add one in Cantonese.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
But for me, it's no words can describe the instant
connection it seems to build with people when they feel
recognized in what you're performing.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
And in Malaysia there's three main.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Cultures, so it was like I developed this huge relationship
with the Malay culture in Malaysia, but then the Chinese
and the Indian cultures it was like they weren't represented.
So for me it became more about like the more
I understood that impact that it was having, I was like, oh,
but I want other people to feel like I've seen
them as well. And it's so strange, like I'll start
(11:45):
a performance not knowing anyone and they'll be like, there's
this chick that looks like Marilynosh's very of addressed, you know,
and then by the end of it, you're talking to
every single person in the audience because.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
They're like, oh my god, a couple of you sang
in my language. So yeah, it's really fun.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
It's like a superpower. Yes, it really seems like a superpower.
What's the culture shock? Like, I know you'd visited a
few times, but I mean you stand out wherever you go.
But that must be amplified to a billion over there,
Like what is it like being little Cassidy Cassidy the
krem walking around in Malaysia?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
You know, Oh, it's crazy, It's definitely crazy. I think
I probably didn't do it in the most intelligent way
because I moved alone, so I was always alone, so
it could be confronting at times, just being a female
traveler on your own. So that was like one side
of it. I wasn't expecting. But I thought it was
the blonde hair that people would recognize. So then I
tried like buying wigs and all that.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Sort of stuff. I could lead the house without.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Anyone knowing me, and still the uber driver would be
like look in the mirror and they.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Go, hey, Cassidy, and you'd be like, oh.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
God, you needed a body double at that stage with
a Victoria Beckham that sent like a random body double
in a car in front of her. I think she did.
That's the best coming up. Cassie tells us about her
Royal encounters and I try to wrap in play. So
(13:17):
we're here with Malaysian popstar Cassidy La Creme. You are
a popster, you're signed. What is the scene like there? Like,
what the highs the lows?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Oh? Yeah, it's different, it's very different. All obviously it's
a huge cultural difference, religious differences, but also the language barrier.
So I realized what was really hard for me is
because I was I think anyone who speaks two languages
can understand. In your native language, you can say so much,
you can be so expressive. But the biggest struggle for
me that made me feel really withdrawn from everyone is
(13:52):
that my Malay was never that great, So everything was
like Google Translate in my head, and people would laugh
at me when I tried to speak in Malay and
all that sort of stuff, which you know, I don't
never took too seriously. But there was also like Malaysian
people can be very shy, so behind the scenes when
you'd go to events, like none of the other artists
wanted to sit at the same table as you, and
you'd always just feel like such an outcast, and everything
(14:15):
was always very surface level, and entertainment can be that
way anyway. But that was something that I realized after
I left that I was like, oh, okay, these are
the things that were I guess my struggles.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Guess.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
So when you're really driven and you move overseas to
do something like that and you only think of the positives,
you don't actually anticipate a lot of the negatives, like
having no support system. After a year with my label,
things fell apart and they like dropped me by text message.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
So the ultimate bad relationship right in a group WhatsApp.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
They just said that, oh, we're going to terminate the
contract as of today or the best to you, yes,
And so I was absolutely devastating. And I had forty
eight hours to leave the country, yeah, because my visa
had run out.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
And so tied to them at all.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
So they I had been like lying saying they were
renewing my visa yes, And then when it was the
day that I, like the night before, i'd been like,
where's my past. I'd leave in two days otherwise, and
they were like hah bye, you know, just like dropped
me and I was like, oh my god. And so
then having to navigate that I had to leave the country,
I had, all these things happened, and then like after that,
it was like they basically made me unhirable. They like
(15:28):
didn't cancel any of my engagements but didn't tell me,
like they did a lot of really bad things. That's
just the way that, you know, the music industry can
work when it goes sour. But then I had to
like fight my way back into the industry, and it
took me another two years to sort of get to
like the.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Top of my game again.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
And I was literally just like I'd just been an
actress in like basically the Malaysian underbelly.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
And I was all like frigging ready to go. I
was like, I'm back, baby, I'm back. And then COVID
hit so.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
But at least I got to, you know, find my
confidence again before I left.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
But ultimately I.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Got to do all the coolest stuff, work with the
greatest people, like do really cool things like I got
to take my parents to the King's palace and all
that sort of stuff. So I mean it definitely balanced
out for a bit of loneliness.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Yeah, that's I was going to say, what would you
say was your biggest pinch me moment or experience while
you were over there? You went, how did I end
up here? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Well, the King's Palace was a funny one because I
didn't actually understand because of the translation where I was performing,
and it was the night before and I was getting
all these instructions on how to like wear my sash
the right way and how to bow, and I was like,
what are you talking about? And they were like, do
you know what you're performing tomorrow? I was like no,
and they were like, Istana Nagara is like the palace
of the country. And I was like, huh, what do
(16:50):
you get made? I was like, hey, mom and dad,
just we're meeting the king tomorrow. But for me, the
actual pinch me moment was the opera house because that
was one that I had said to my mum in
the car. We're drive by and I was like, I'm
going to perform there someday and she said in her
head she was like, yeah, sure you are, ye, yeah right,
and then I actually like two years later, she goes,
sure enough. Here I was driving to the upper House
(17:10):
and you were doing five nights.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
There and so it was really cool.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Yeah, that was the one that I was like, huh,
manifested that one.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
What's it like building connections with people back home now
that you're back here, because this is a wild story. Yeah,
how do you how does that even come up? You know, like, oh,
by the way, oh yeah, I'm pretty well known in Malaysia. Weird. Yeah, yeah,
like ultimate Hannah Montana. It's literally, you know, secret superstar.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yeah. I mean I don't really.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I just don't talk about it really unless it's for
work purposes. But like you know, my friends, a lot
of my friends are the friends I had before I left,
so I didn't have to really form new ones in
the sense that it was like people sort of didn't
quite get it. I didn't have a dual life in
that way. I sort of just kept my few close friends.
I think that was the new thing for me, sort
(18:03):
of adjusting to being like, oh okay, now I work
at a winery and you know, it's just a different
headspace to be in and being like, oh my god,
all my dreams were just ripped away. Is that life
over now? I definitely went into like major depression, and
I sort of realized how unhealthy living away from all
of my family and everyone was for me. So I
(18:24):
sort of went through that like healing process of being like,
oh my gosh, I was actually really miserable. When I
was there, I had everything I thought I wanted. Yeah,
and then when I moved back, I realized, oh, that's
why none of it was making me happy because I'm
coming home to an empty house at night. So I'm
like performing at the King's palace or whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
That's a big opportunity.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
And then I literally come home to an empty apartment
and I struggled to like find good friends over there.
That got me because of the difference. So yeah, coming
home was a big culture shock. But I will reverse
culture shock, I guess. But then at the same time,
it was like I got to learn that I was like, oh, cool, well,
moving away from my family is non option again, so
I'm just gonna have to like pivot.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Yeah, so it's good. It made my family be like, oh,
she loves you.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Don't know what you got till it's gone exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
So yeah, that was that was, I guess transformative in
a way that I didn't expect.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
I love it. It's what's my favorite story about you?
That it doesn't define you at all, But it's such
an exciting thing to be like, Oh, let's catch it.
She's a famous in Malaysia. It's wild and like what,
it's so exciting, it's so like and a bit of
mystery to it as well. It's so heaven It really is.
It really is.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Like I remember I was doing a show recently.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
I was doing an Adele show and the first person
to walk in and come and sit down he's so
supportive of me was the Malaysian Consulate, like.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Bought a ticket to come and see my show.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
And I was like, how do I explain to people
that this incredible man is the consulate of Malaysia.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah, it's like this bit. Groups that shouldn't connect with
meet each other ever.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Yeah, and then you're like, oh wait a minute, Yeah,
they're all intertwined. So I think it's been interesting to
try and navigate my path now that I've decided to
stay in Melbourne.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yes, so you've you've come back to Melbourne. What what
is your day to day life now? What entertaining you doing? What? Performing?
Speaker 2 (20:20):
I guess now I'm singing and DJing at the same time.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
I've been doing that for like the AFLW and stuff
like that.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
I have been starting my own women in business, women
empowerment business called the Fearless Entrepreneur, which is like a
new sort of speaking avenue for me.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
And then yeah, a bit of everything, doing some writing.
I'm doing some everything. Days never looked the same, that's
for sure.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
And then a bit of like cabaret, quick change, whatever
it is.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
I just like to mess it all together.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Yeah, yeah, this makes it fun exactly.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I always say I would love to be if, like say,
Mel Robbins and Christina Aguilera had a baby Kindred Spirit.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
I think it's only fair that you taught me a
line one of it from other songs? Maybe what was
the famous one that really kicked it off for you?
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Oh, that'll be a hard one to teach you, I think.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Perfect.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Can I teach you a rap line?
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Yeah, yeah, okay, I'll teach you a Malay rap line.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
So the song is called have OC. You can say
have have OC, Yes, have OC, have up?
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Have OC have Yeah?
Speaker 3 (21:30):
That's it, that's it.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
And then you say, can guager done?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Done?
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Wait?
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Can a da Sorry good, chuck up, cano, chuck up, goad,
chuck up. Yes, maybe I'll be.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Viral now you want to become a rapper.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
I've put this on the socials and who knows, it
could go crazy.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
I think it will.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
We could be TikTok superstars. Yes, I'll just do that
one line over and over again.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
That's all there is in the chorus.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
So you're oh, so that was Cassie La Cram, a
real life Hannah Montanna, which I guess it's just like
the life of a drag wing. Really see the real
(22:19):
lifestyle for yourself. On the Socialism
Oh, thank you for being here today. It's me Art Simone,
and yes, I do love the limelight. It looks so
good on me, but I'm actually so generous and I'm
sharing my limelight with other let's just say, not as
glamorous people. Oh. I know they may be a bit drab,
but trust me, it's worth sticking around for because they're
(00:28):
concealing something from us. I don't know what it is,
but I promise it'll be good. This is concealed with
Art Simone. Hello.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
My name is Cassidy La Crem. I am a DJ,
a speaker, a woman of a few different talents, but
I am concealing a whole other side of myself that
you'll only know depending on where I am in the world.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Hello, Cassidy, how are you Hello? Oh we have to
come clean. I know exactly who you are, cassid La Crem. Yes,
oh hello, I know. I wanted to play along, and
I wanted to pretend that I've never seen you before
in my life. But I can't lie.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
I can't live in this face.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Once a couple of times, very excited to have you
sitting in front of me than you We're very Marilyn
today aren't we we are.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
That may play a little bit into what we're It
could be a.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Little beautiful red sequin head to toe and I mean
head to toe. We've got a beautiful pillbox hat on,
beautiful Marilyn esque blonde hair, very very nice, vintage, a
red glitter lip, and more jewelry than me today, which
is saying something you out did me. So we have
got a necklace, we've got bracelets, we've got rings, we've
(01:53):
got more jewels. And so you're a DJ. What's favorite song?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Oh, we like to party the you know, you put
me on.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
My spot Of all the songs in the world, I
don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
The vibes are high.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Today was extremely Marilyn.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
See, I told you a multifact.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
There's a lot of different things to you. Okay, and
did a speaker? What's your favorite word?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Super color, fragilistic, exper Okay, I won't get you to
spell it because please don't, no, please don't.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Okay, time for that now. I'm not going to reveal
how we know each other just yet, because I feel
like I know a lot about you. We've known each
other for many years, but maybe you're hiding something that
I don't even know. Maybe I so to find out.
I'm going to ask you three questions, and from the
answers to those three questions, we have to work out
what it is you're concealing from us here today. Are
you ready?
Speaker 3 (02:48):
I'm ready?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Okay, okay, all right, Cassidy la crem. The first question
I have for you is what is a sound you love?
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Can you gaga sound?
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:03):
A round of applause.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Around applause.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
I know you like those two?
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yeah? Look, you know, like they say, drag queens are
like tinker Bell. If you don't get applause, we die.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
That is very true.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah, so there have been a lot of drag queen
deathes of recent Now. Question number two, who would play
you in a film? Oh?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Hillary Duff in a twisted version of the Lizzie McGuire.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Okay, oh, sing po? And question number three, what's something
you did as a kid that you still like doing? Now?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Can I say? Playing dress?
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Dress up? Okay? I wouldn't get that from you now,
quite a surprise, the subtlety so dress ups dying drag
queen applause, Hillary Duff, DJ Vinger busy all right, Okay,
I'm rounding about Okay, glitzy lamb dressing up.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I'll give you a riddle and see if you can
get it turned the tables back on you.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
When we first met, I was a vixen who performed
for veterans, also known as Marilyn Monroe. But now I
have graduated into performing for royalty, and instead of a
double M, I'm now known somewhere as something triple M.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
But it's the most beautifully written. It's very clever. Yeah,
it's very clear. Okay, triple M, vixen, veterans, Marilyn applause.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And where I am in the woods.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Lizzie McGuire, Hillary, all the good.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Things, very gay?
Speaker 1 (05:04):
All right? Should we put them out of their misery?
Should we tell them what you're concealing from us?
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Here today, Triple M stands for Marilyn Monroe Malaysia.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
For those of you playing at home, I have a
little Malaysian flag I had hiding in the back of
my dress, never.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Had again in front of me. Marilyn Monroe, Malaysia. What
is this? Hold up? Hold up? What do you want about?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
I am known in Malaysia as a famous pop star
for singing in Malay and speaking in Malay, but I
also sing in eight languages, So.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
You are an ultimate cunning linguist. You know all the
dialects and your bloody famous. You are the ultimate Handna Montana.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
I am because I can go around Melbourne and one
knows who I am.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
How did it all begin?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
It began as a day I was working and living
in Singapore as Marilyn Monroe Universal Studios, and I wasn't
allowed to sing, so I started like singing with bands
outside of work, and a lot of those people were Malay,
so I didn't speak Malay, but they dared me to
sing in Malay, yes, and just mimic the language. And
(06:28):
because no one had else had ever done it before, and.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
It was the early days of YouTube.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yes, we just made a video of me singing in
their language and it went viral overnight. It was just
this crazy thing from being like no one to the
next day like people. Literally the next day a taxi
driver stopped in the middle of the road and yelled at.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
And was like, Cassidy, I love your videos, and I
was like.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
What's happening?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
And yeah, got nominated for a music award for it,
and then it just like my life changed.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Wow, so then does everything pivot At that point, you go, right,
so I now have an audience. Something's happening. How do
I go from being Maryland over here at Universal Studios
in do something with this? Because if you've always been
a singer, I've always been a performer.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I've always been a performer since I was a kid.
I was always a bit shy to sing. But it's funny,
like my life changed a little bit overnight because in
Singapore everyone started to know who I was. But I
still worked my job at Universal Studios and it took
me years to sort of get really well known in Malaysia.
After that, it would just like I just continued to
(07:30):
sort of make YouTube videos here and there, covering different songs,
learning Malay in the background. And yeah, eventually it's sort
of just added on top of it.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
What was the thing that made you go, all right,
I'm going to give it a go. I'm going to
move over there.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
It was crazy, actually, because I kept getting offered record
deals and management deals and things like that from like
good labels too, But I was only flying there and
nothing was really fitting, and I was getting really like,
at that point, I'd made my mind up. I wanted
to be like famous over there recording artist. But I
met at the Sydney Malaysian Festival, basically like let's call
(08:06):
him there, John Farnham, he was a very big artist
from there, had flown over to do this show, mister
Amy Search, and I said to him, like, I really
want to move there. I just can't get the right label.
And he said, just move there, and I was like,
but I don't have any contacts, and he goes, just
go there and once you're there, it will happen, and
I was like, okay. Then, so I just left my
life and I think we were working together by the
(08:26):
time I just dropped everything and moved without a plan,
without a place to live, nothing. I just was like,
it'll fall into place, and within three weeks I was
signed to Warner Music Malaysia and like my dream other
record label, and then it all just like clicked into place.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
As people heard I was in the country.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
We worked a Draculas together, Yes we do.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
That was my little vixen him. That was my floor.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Name, Draculas. It's going to sound negative, but I don't
mean it in that respect. But did you kind of
feel like a bit of a fraud at the beginning
because you'd sung in this language, and then I guess
some people make it would expect you to be completely
fluent in it, to begin with oh yeah, and you're like, no,
I can sing the song literally.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
That was my entire life when I lived there. I
remember when I first moved to Malaysia. I moved there
with no plan, no contacts, nothing, and I was quite
well known at that stage.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Whenever I'd fly over to do shows, like they would.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Fly me Able to sing for the Prime Minister and stuff,
and they put my it's so weird. I'd make a
YouTube video and then it did end up on the
news there, like me covering Frozen or something would be
actual like headline news.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
You'd be like, what is happening?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
But then people would assume you spoke the language, and
I still didn't speak it. So when I would get there,
i'd do an interview and I remember the worst national
news imagine going on Sunrise, but you don't speak English
and they think that you speak English, and because.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
They're playing these clips off you singing these songs.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Exactly with the right emotion, and I'm just like mimicking
the sounds and the host comes in and just pops
his head in the back room and goes, do you
understand what I'm saying? Like he said that in Malay
and I went yeah, and then he just left and
assume that meant.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
I was fluent.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
And then he spoke in the most formal Malay you've
ever heard, and I was just sitting there. You can
you can watch the interview on YouTube. I'm panicking because
I don't remember. I don't know a single word he's saying,
and I'm just sitting there, like, and every time I'm
answering the question, you can see they're all looking at me, going,
she had no idea what we're talking about, and I'm like, yeah,
(10:24):
it happened all the time. And like the radio announcers
by the time I left Malaysia, they said, oh, it's funny.
You understand now we can tell because you can engage
in conversation. When you first came out here, you just
used to laugh at everything.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
We'd say, my god, you kept creating these different videos.
Did you branch out to different languages at that point?
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Not till I moved back.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Actually, just before I left Malaysia, I was doing a
lot of like brand events and things and I did
one for Remy martin Mulay and they wanted me to
sing in Chinese and I was like, sure, why not,
so I Atlanta sung in Mandarin later to find out
it was nothing like it. But then when COVID hit
and I had to move back to Australia really quickly,
(11:08):
then I started singing, Oh, I'm going to try a
song in Mandarin.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Okay, well I'll add one in Cantonese.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
But for me, it's no words can describe the instant
connection it seems to build with people when they feel
recognized in what you're performing.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
And in Malaysia there's three main.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Cultures, so it was like I developed this huge relationship
with the Malay culture in Malaysia, but then the Chinese
and the Indian cultures it was like they weren't represented.
So for me it became more about like the more
I understood that impact that it was having, I was like, oh,
but I want other people to feel like I've seen
them as well. And it's so strange, like I'll start
(11:45):
a performance not knowing anyone and they'll be like, there's
this chick that looks like Marilynosh's very of addressed, you know,
and then by the end of it, you're talking to
every single person in the audience because.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
They're like, oh my god, a couple of you sang
in my language. So yeah, it's really fun.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
It's like a superpower. Yes, it really seems like a superpower.
What's the culture shock? Like, I know you'd visited a
few times, but I mean you stand out wherever you go.
But that must be amplified to a billion over there,
Like what is it like being little Cassidy Cassidy the
krem walking around in Malaysia?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
You know, Oh, it's crazy, It's definitely crazy. I think
I probably didn't do it in the most intelligent way
because I moved alone, so I was always alone, so
it could be confronting at times, just being a female
traveler on your own. So that was like one side
of it. I wasn't expecting. But I thought it was
the blonde hair that people would recognize. So then I
tried like buying wigs and all that.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Sort of stuff. I could lead the house without.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Anyone knowing me, and still the uber driver would be
like look in the mirror and they.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Go, hey, Cassidy, and you'd be like, oh.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
God, you needed a body double at that stage with
a Victoria Beckham that sent like a random body double
in a car in front of her. I think she did.
That's the best coming up. Cassie tells us about her
Royal encounters and I try to wrap in play. So
(13:17):
we're here with Malaysian popstar Cassidy La Creme. You are
a popster, you're signed. What is the scene like there? Like,
what the highs the lows?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Oh? Yeah, it's different, it's very different. All obviously it's
a huge cultural difference, religious differences, but also the language barrier.
So I realized what was really hard for me is
because I was I think anyone who speaks two languages
can understand. In your native language, you can say so much,
you can be so expressive. But the biggest struggle for
me that made me feel really withdrawn from everyone is
(13:52):
that my Malay was never that great, So everything was
like Google Translate in my head, and people would laugh
at me when I tried to speak in Malay and
all that sort of stuff, which you know, I don't
never took too seriously. But there was also like Malaysian
people can be very shy, so behind the scenes when
you'd go to events, like none of the other artists
wanted to sit at the same table as you, and
you'd always just feel like such an outcast, and everything
(14:15):
was always very surface level, and entertainment can be that
way anyway. But that was something that I realized after
I left that I was like, oh, okay, these are
the things that were I guess my struggles.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Guess.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
So when you're really driven and you move overseas to
do something like that and you only think of the positives,
you don't actually anticipate a lot of the negatives, like
having no support system. After a year with my label,
things fell apart and they like dropped me by text message.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
So the ultimate bad relationship right in a group WhatsApp.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
They just said that, oh, we're going to terminate the
contract as of today or the best to you, yes,
And so I was absolutely devastating. And I had forty
eight hours to leave the country, yeah, because my visa
had run out.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
And so tied to them at all.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
So they I had been like lying saying they were
renewing my visa yes, And then when it was the
day that I, like the night before, i'd been like,
where's my past. I'd leave in two days otherwise, and
they were like hah bye, you know, just like dropped
me and I was like, oh my god. And so
then having to navigate that I had to leave the country,
I had, all these things happened, and then like after that,
it was like they basically made me unhirable. They like
(15:28):
didn't cancel any of my engagements but didn't tell me,
like they did a lot of really bad things. That's
just the way that, you know, the music industry can
work when it goes sour. But then I had to
like fight my way back into the industry, and it
took me another two years to sort of get to
like the.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Top of my game again.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
And I was literally just like I'd just been an
actress in like basically the Malaysian underbelly.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
And I was all like frigging ready to go. I
was like, I'm back, baby, I'm back. And then COVID
hit so.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
But at least I got to, you know, find my
confidence again before I left.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
But ultimately I.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Got to do all the coolest stuff, work with the
greatest people, like do really cool things like I got
to take my parents to the King's palace and all
that sort of stuff. So I mean it definitely balanced
out for a bit of loneliness.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Yeah, that's I was going to say, what would you
say was your biggest pinch me moment or experience while
you were over there? You went, how did I end
up here? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Well, the King's Palace was a funny one because I
didn't actually understand because of the translation where I was performing,
and it was the night before and I was getting
all these instructions on how to like wear my sash
the right way and how to bow, and I was like,
what are you talking about? And they were like, do
you know what you're performing tomorrow? I was like no,
and they were like, Istana Nagara is like the palace
of the country. And I was like, huh, what do
(16:50):
you get made? I was like, hey, mom and dad,
just we're meeting the king tomorrow. But for me, the
actual pinch me moment was the opera house because that
was one that I had said to my mum in
the car. We're drive by and I was like, I'm
going to perform there someday and she said in her
head she was like, yeah, sure you are, ye, yeah right,
and then I actually like two years later, she goes,
sure enough. Here I was driving to the upper House
(17:10):
and you were doing five nights.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
There and so it was really cool.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Yeah, that was the one that I was like, huh,
manifested that one.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
What's it like building connections with people back home now
that you're back here, because this is a wild story. Yeah,
how do you how does that even come up? You know, like, oh,
by the way, oh yeah, I'm pretty well known in Malaysia. Weird. Yeah, yeah,
like ultimate Hannah Montana. It's literally, you know, secret superstar.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yeah. I mean I don't really.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I just don't talk about it really unless it's for
work purposes. But like you know, my friends, a lot
of my friends are the friends I had before I left,
so I didn't have to really form new ones in
the sense that it was like people sort of didn't
quite get it. I didn't have a dual life in
that way. I sort of just kept my few close friends.
I think that was the new thing for me, sort
(18:03):
of adjusting to being like, oh okay, now I work
at a winery and you know, it's just a different
headspace to be in and being like, oh my god,
all my dreams were just ripped away. Is that life
over now? I definitely went into like major depression, and
I sort of realized how unhealthy living away from all
of my family and everyone was for me. So I
(18:24):
sort of went through that like healing process of being like,
oh my gosh, I was actually really miserable. When I
was there, I had everything I thought I wanted. Yeah,
and then when I moved back, I realized, oh, that's
why none of it was making me happy because I'm
coming home to an empty house at night. So I'm
like performing at the King's palace or whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
That's a big opportunity.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
And then I literally come home to an empty apartment
and I struggled to like find good friends over there.
That got me because of the difference. So yeah, coming
home was a big culture shock. But I will reverse
culture shock, I guess. But then at the same time,
it was like I got to learn that I was like, oh, cool, well,
moving away from my family is non option again, so
I'm just gonna have to like pivot.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Yeah, so it's good. It made my family be like, oh,
she loves you.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Don't know what you got till it's gone exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
So yeah, that was that was, I guess transformative in
a way that I didn't expect.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
I love it. It's what's my favorite story about you?
That it doesn't define you at all, But it's such
an exciting thing to be like, Oh, let's catch it.
She's a famous in Malaysia. It's wild and like what,
it's so exciting, it's so like and a bit of
mystery to it as well. It's so heaven It really is.
It really is.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Like I remember I was doing a show recently.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
I was doing an Adele show and the first person
to walk in and come and sit down he's so
supportive of me was the Malaysian Consulate, like.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Bought a ticket to come and see my show.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
And I was like, how do I explain to people
that this incredible man is the consulate of Malaysia.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah, it's like this bit. Groups that shouldn't connect with
meet each other ever.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Yeah, and then you're like, oh wait a minute, Yeah,
they're all intertwined. So I think it's been interesting to
try and navigate my path now that I've decided to
stay in Melbourne.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yes, so you've you've come back to Melbourne. What what
is your day to day life now? What entertaining you doing? What? Performing?
Speaker 2 (20:20):
I guess now I'm singing and DJing at the same time.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
I've been doing that for like the AFLW and stuff
like that.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
I have been starting my own women in business, women
empowerment business called the Fearless Entrepreneur, which is like a
new sort of speaking avenue for me.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
And then yeah, a bit of everything, doing some writing.
I'm doing some everything. Days never looked the same, that's
for sure.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
And then a bit of like cabaret, quick change, whatever
it is.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
I just like to mess it all together.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Yeah, yeah, this makes it fun exactly.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I always say I would love to be if, like say,
Mel Robbins and Christina Aguilera had a baby Kindred Spirit.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
I think it's only fair that you taught me a
line one of it from other songs? Maybe what was
the famous one that really kicked it off for you?
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Oh, that'll be a hard one to teach you, I think.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Perfect.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Can I teach you a rap line?
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Yeah, yeah, okay, I'll teach you a Malay rap line.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
So the song is called have OC. You can say
have have OC, Yes, have OC, have up?
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Have OC have Yeah?
Speaker 3 (21:30):
That's it, that's it.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
And then you say, can guager done?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Done?
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Wait?
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Can a da Sorry good, chuck up, cano, chuck up, goad,
chuck up. Yes, maybe I'll be.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Viral now you want to become a rapper.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
I've put this on the socials and who knows, it
could go crazy.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
I think it will.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
We could be TikTok superstars. Yes, I'll just do that
one line over and over again.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
That's all there is in the chorus.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
So you're oh, so that was Cassie La Cram, a
real life Hannah Montanna, which I guess it's just like
the life of a drag wing. Really see the real
(22:19):
lifestyle for yourself. On the Socialism
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