Cash Cash

Early years (2002–07)

Cash Cash members Jean Paul Makhlouf and Sam Frisch first began playing together under the name The Consequence in 2002. As The Consequence, the band put out three releases independently, Your Own Place (2004), The Consequence (2005), and By The Bedside (2006). The band went through various keyboardists and drummers before solidifying the group with Alexander Makhlouf and drummer Anthony Villacari in 2007.

Take It to the Floor (2008–10)

In early 2008, the group coalesced under the name Cash Cash, with members Jean Paul Makhlouf, Alexander Makhlouf, and Samuel Frisch. They came up with the name Cash Cash due to legal issues that arose from not trademarking their previous name "The Consequence." In an interview Jean Paul stated, "Basically we were in a previous group growing up and never thought to copyright the name because when you're a young local garage band, you don't have the money and don't think it really matters. Well after we signed our first record deal, it kind of did matter. We got hit with a ton of legal notices about it from the person who owned the name, and had this old agent trying to screw us over, so when putting the new group together out of frustration, I was like, we should just name this group 'Cash Cash' because every one is after our cash, and we don't have any yet."

They signed with Universal Republic Records and soon after released an EP, which reached number 24 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. In 2008, the group toured with groups such as Tyga, Metro Station, Boys Like Girls, The White Tie Affair, and Forever The Sickest Kids. Their debut full-length album was released digitally on December 23, 2008 on iTunes by Universal Republic Records and physically on January 20, 2009, reaching number 31 on the Heatseekers chart. During the winter of 2008 and 2009, the group did a Hot Topic in-store tour with We The Kings and Hey Monday, performing acoustic songs and doing signings. In April 2009, Cash Cash toured with Kevin Rudolf, Hyper Crush, and Jeremy Greene on the Let it Rock tour. Cash Cash played the main stage at Bamboozle in May 2009 and then toured the United Kingdom opening for Cobra Starship. That summer they performed on the Vans Warped Tour. In fall of 2009 they toured with Family Force 5 and Breathe Carolina.

In late 2009 and 2010, the group released several singles which were not part of an album or EP release, including a cover of Cascada's single "Everytime We Touch" featuring rapper MC Oz. The group continued to tour through the winter of 2010, playing the Seattle Kiss FM show "Jingle Bell Bash" with The All-American Rejects, Cobra Starship, and All Time Low. At the end of February and into the spring of 2010, the group went on their first headlining United States tour, "The Robots in Hightops Tour." On March 9, 2010, Cash Cash released a cover single of the Alphaville song "Forever Young". The band released a new single in mid-November 2010 by Universal Republic Records titled "Red Cup (I Fly Solo)", featuring Lacey Schwimmer and Spose. Jean-Paul Makhlouf performed the opening theme to Sonic Colors called "Reach for the Stars" as well as the ending theme "Speak with your Heart" with band member Alex Makhlouf.

Love or Lust and The Beat Goes On (2011–12)

In 2011, the group parted ways with their drummer Anthony Villacari due to creative differences and continued to operate as a trio. Anthony Villacari continues to play drums in another trio, known as Moa Desert. Their second full-length album, Love or Lust, was released on April 19, 2011 by the Japanese label Twilight Records. Multiple songs off the album were featured on MTV's Jersey Shore and The Real World.

Cash Cash then released The Beat Goes On as an 11-song LP in Japan but a 6-song EP in every other country. Both formats contained the two songs "Michael Jackson" and "I Like It Loud," which were also soon after released as singles by Dutch independent dance label Spinnin' Records. The group headlined a tour in Japan as well as shows in Brazil in 2011 supporting Love or Lust, and returned to Japan in 2012 for another tour supporting their new single "Michael Jackson (The Beat Goes On)", a tribute to the musician Michael Jackson. "Michael Jackson" appeared on the album 538 Dance Smash 2012, Vol. 4. On December 10, 2012, Cash Cash had their remix of "Alive" by Krewella released on the Play Harder Remix EP. Throughout the year, Cash Cash had numerous original songs and remixes reach number one on the Hype Machine popular chart.

Overtime and Lightning EPs (2013–15)

The group slowly gained exposure in the dance community in 2012 and 2013, particularly via connections with Hardwell and Nicky Romero and releases on their boutique labels. During Ultra Music Festival 2013 on behalf of The Huffington Post, Cash Cash conducted interviews with both musicians. Cash Cash was featured on their respective radio shows, "Protocol Radio," and "Hardwell on Air." On May 20, 2013, Cash Cash released a remix of "Symphonica" by Nicky Romero that was released on Beatport by Protocol Recordings. Romero also invited Cash Cash to perform at a Protocol Recordings showcase during the ADE festival on October 16, 2013 at the Melkweg in Amsterdam with Martin Garrix, Vicetone, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, and John Dahlbäck. Hardwell included Cash Cash's remix of his track "Dare You" on Dare You – The Remixes Part 1 by Revealed Recordings in February 2014.

On April 16, 2013, the group announced on Twitter that they had signed with Big Beat Records and Atlantic Records and had begun recording new material for an upcoming release. That same date, the group's remix of "Safe and Sound" by Capital Cities was released on the Safe and Sound Remix EP by Lazy Hooks and Capitol Records. On July 15, 2013, the group released "Take Me Home", featuring vocalist Bebe Rexha, which became their highest-charting single in the United States and United Kingdom. It peaked at number 14 on the US Pop Songs chart and number 57 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and debuted at number 4 on the UK Dance Chart and number 5 on the UK Singles Chart in 2014. An acoustic version of the song, along with a video documenting the recording process, was released in November 2013. In 2013, Cash Cash launched their online podcast/radio show named "Royalty Radio" on their SoundCloud page as well as YouTube channel. Their next release was a progressive house remix of Showtek's "Booyah", featuring We Are Loud and Sonny Wilson that was released on November 8, 2013, by Spinnin' Records.

Following the Atlantic Records signing, the group released two EPs of new material. On October 29, 2013, they released their Overtime EP, consisting of six new songs, including "Take Me Home", "Hideaway", featuring British singer Ella Eyre and "Here and Now", featuring vocals from Estonian singer Kerli. On March 24, 2014, the group released the Lightning EP, consisting of a new single "Lightning" and remixes of previous songs off the Overtime EP. "Lightning" features John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls on vocals and was written by Cash Cash and Rzeznik. A remix pack for "Lightning" was released on July 21, 2014 exclusively on beatport containing remixes by Dash Berlin, EDX, Sex Panther, and Audiobot.

Alongside this, the group continued releasing singles and remixes in 2014. On January 21, 2014, Cash Cash and Adrian Lux released a collaboration called "Bullet". On April 9, 2014, Rolling Stone premiered the "Cash Cash x Valley" remix of Clean Bandit's "Rather Be" on their website. The Cash Cash remix of Katy Perry's song "Birthday" was featured at the end of the song's official music video.

The group also continued to tour through late 2013 and 2014, playing several dance music festivals. Cash Cash performed at Winter Galactic with Dada Life and Porter Robinson in New Year's Eve on December 31, 2013 at the Hammerstein Ballroom. They played the Edmonton Canada's Frequency Festival on February 15, 2014. In February 2014, Marquee Las Vegas announced that Cash Cash will take part in a 2014 residency at their nightclub and dayclub. On March 27, 2014, Cash Cash received an IDMA at Winter Music Conference for "Best Break-Through Artist (Group)." Following their appearance at Winter Music Conference in Miami, the group played an international show in Montreal, Canada at New City Gas on April 19, 2014. The trio performed at various music festivals in the spring of 2014, including the Avila Beach Party on May 23, 2014, Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) New York on May 24, 2014, Sunset Music Festival (SMF) in Tampa, FL on May 25, 2014, Firefly Music Festival on June 20, 2014, and Paradiso Festival in Washington on June 27, 2014. Cash Cash along with Candyland, Pegboard Nerds, and 12th Planet played an event together called "Beach Blanket Bingo" in Wildwood, New Jersey on June 28, 2014. The following day, the group played WKTU's Ktuphoria event with Calvin Harris, Ariana Grande, and Jennifer Lopez. Later that summer on July 5, Cash Cash along with Afrojack and Borgore played a Life in Color paint party event in Texas. That same month, the group headlined a short international Canadian tour djing at Crocks in Thunder Bay on the tenth and Uniun night club in Toronto on the eleventh. On August 1, 2014, they performed at Lollapalooza in Chicago and then returned to Canada to play a handful of festivals such as Boonstock, Ilesoniq, and Chasing Summer. Throughout 2014, Cash Cash performed on multiple dates of the Budweiser "Made in America" tour. On September 2, 2014, BPM exclusively premiered their new single, "Surrender", which was released in iTunes on September 16, 2014. On September 5, 2014, Cash Cash played in Nocturnal Wonderland in San Bernardino, California. As of 2014, EMI Music Publishing's website confirms that as songwriters, Cash Cash is currently signed to EMI Music Publishing, which is now owned by a consortium led by Sony/ATV Music Publishing. On March 21, 2015, Kourtney Kardashian made an appearance during a Cash Cash show at Marquee Las Vegas to ignite fireworks off in the DJ booth with the group. On March 26, 2015, the group will play at the Delano Hotel for the Big Beat Records and Friends Party during Miami Music Week. On March 30, 2015, Cash Cash performed an acoustic version of "Surrender" accompanied by a string section on VH1's "Big Morning Buzz Live." In April and May 2015, Cash Cash embarked on an overseas tour performing in Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, China, and South Korea. Cash Cash and Tritonal officially released their song collaboration "Untouchable" on iTunes by Big Beat Records on May 18, 2015. The collaboration features the vocals of British-American singer JHart. In support of their collaboration, Cash Cash and Tritonal embarked on a co-headline tour titled "Untouchable Tour."

Blood, Sweat & 3 Years (2016–present)

Cash Cash started the 2016 with the release of their single "Aftershock," featuring Jacquie Lee on January 29. Following some live acoustic performances with Jacquie, a music video was put out. The song was later included on the pre-order for the album Blood, Sweat & 3 Years. In February 2016, the group and Busta Rhymes played a show together in Las Vegas that was part of a tour series Cash Cash created called "Make That Cash Cash." Throughout 2016, the tour series played various cities bringing out artists such as iLoveMakonnen, Lil Dicky, Rae Sremmurd, French Montana, and A$AP Ferg.

Billboard officially announced the group's fourth full-length album titled, Blood, Sweat & 3 Years on April 29, 2016. The pre-order went live with the single "How To Love", featuring Sofia Reyes along with a few previously released songs available for instant download. The album includes songs featuring singers Bebe Rexha, Christina Perri, Dev, John Rzeznik, Julia Michaels, Michael "Fitz" Fitpatrick from Fitz and The Tantrums, Neon Hitch; rappers B.o.B, Busta Rhymes, Nelly, and Trinidad James; and groups Little Daylight, and Night Terrors of 1927. Upon the album's pre-order, a music video for the single "How To Love" was released online. That same day, the trio also launched their new radio show on Sirius XM's "BPM" channel called "Cash Cash Radio." Blood, Sweat & 3 Years debuted at number 125 on the US Billboard 200. On June 20, 2016, they released a music video for "Broken Drum", featuring Fitz of Fitz and The Tantrums. The music video was filmed throughout Las Vegas and had a guest appearance by Wiz Khalifa. On August 12, 2016, Cash Cash released a remix for "Make Me..." by Britney Spears that was included on her official remix package. That same day, a seven song remix pack for "Millionaire" was released.

Style

While playing as The Consequence and early under the name Cash Cash, the group used a more traditional band setup, with use of live guitars, bass guitar, drums, keyboards, vocoders, talk boxes, and electronics. Hip Online referred to the group's early releases as technopop, while AllMusic classified Take It to the Floor as electronic, pop rock and emo pop. AllMusic further described the album as "[f]illed with [processed] vocals, old-school synths, singalong choruses, [and] slick-as-oil vocal harmonies." PopMatters noted the album's "standard emo-pop elements" and opined that the group's style "suggest[s] Fall Out Boy with some synthy window dressing." Jean-Paul described the band's early style as an attempt to "Bring back some of that 70s funk guitar, mixed in with the life and fun of the 80s." USA Today, in a later assessment, noted that the group's early work "has always had a dance-music sensibility, but starting out, they were lumped into the alt-rock scene."

Over the course of the early 2010s, the group began moving away from standard band instrumentation and began incorporating more elements of electronic dance music. In an interview with EDM Sauce, they talk about their transition being facilitated by frequent production and remixing on the side. Cash Cash stated, "I think for us it was a slow evolution, because we were always remixing and producing for other artists and doing outside production." In another interview with Only The Beat, the group stated, "When we first started as a band our sound was "poppy", but we always had underlying electronic elements to our music. Once we started changing and growing, our sound slowly began evolving." The group's 2011 album Love or Lust was described by Under the Gun Review as "dance/power pop...full of bass rhythms, synthetic claps, techno beats, and dance/party/club themes". Following releases and remixes were also received as electronica and electropop.

Cash Cash's first RIAA certified song "Take Me Home" has been categorized by as a progressive house dance song. Dancing Astronaut described the Overtime EP's electro house qualities by stating the group is "gracing the world with a dose of electro house and dubbed-out tunes." Songs off the Overtime EP such as "Here and Now" and "Satellites" have been classified as house or its subgenre electro house. Dancing Astronaut further elaborated on the sound of the release by stating, "The EP continues with a bright feel, boosted by the unique blend of fluorescent synths and dirty bass." Other Cash Cash originals such as "Kiss The Sky" and "Overtime" along with their remix of "Treasure" by Bruno Mars have been labeled by electronic music blogs as nu-disco and glitch hop. Throughout 2014, the group's subsequent singles "Lightning" and "Surrender" were also reviewed as progressive house and electro house.

Production equipment and software

In 2013, Cash Cash stated in their The Huffington Post interview that they produce their music using Steinberg's Cubase as their digital audio workstation. In another interview with EDM blog "Notable Dance," the group stated "We use Cubase as a host for everything but we mess around in Ableton." In a studio video released in May 2013, the group discuss various equipment and gear they use, including a vintage Roland Juno-D, Avalon AD2022 preamp, Empirical Labs Distressor, Joe Meek Twin Q, and Neumann TLM 49. During the video they speak about owning a few discontinued Samson D-1500 real time analyzers. Their speaker set up consists of Adam A8X's and a pair of mix cubes that are A/B controlled by a PreSonus Central Station. The producer trio recently added a Neuman U87 to their studio set up as well.

Members

Discography