Stepping out of Hartford Public High School in the freezing cold with only a ting top and running shorts on with the wind howling like a wolf on a full moon and his jet black hair getting stuck on his face heading to the bus back from his track meet feeling like he just won a gold medal. Cass Rodriguez told the team that he is an artist and musician while showing everyone one of the songs he was currently working on. 

Rodriguez is both a Musician and Artist and what drove them to take up music they state was, ¨I’ve always grown up around music and every time I’m around my dad, he’d always pull out his computer and start making beats or little choruses. We both have different music tastes but it was always so cool watching him do that from out of anything around him.¨ 

Rodriguez isn’t sure of what strengths he has to make him a great musician but his weaknesses are school because it gets in his way from making music and playing. 

Rodriguez loves his guitar but he favors the piano, ¨There’s something about it that I enjoy, and just being amazed at those who have practiced and trained so hard for so many years.¨ He said his major passion for music comes from his family’s Puerto Rican culture and,  ¨My strong love of music drives me to be the best I can be.¨ 

What does Rogriguez love most about playing, ¨I like how not so perfect notes have to be, you can play absolutely anything and still get a good range of music from it.¨ His biggest inspirations are, ¨Watching so many amazing musicians in genres such as bachata, reggaeton, reggae, salsa, Dominican bachata, anything Caribbean, indie rock, 2000’s rock gave me a sense you can create anything out of everything.¨ 

Rodriguez’s creative process is feeling a certain way about something and, ¨listening to a song gives me an idea for a pattern I can use and create in my way. I’m not big on lyrics but my instrumentals turn out pretty good.” Rodriguez explained that some of his favorite musicians are “Romeo Santos and his incredible range, Cala Vento and Mujeres,” because he admires, ¨How much they make their music seem effortless using only his voice, guitar, and his drummer.¨ 

¨I don’t have a background much, I do vividly remember drawing all the time when I was younger. Typically drawing cars and people to the best of my ability, even bugs too¨ Rodriguez said his biggest influences in the art world are, ¨I’d say Keith Haring and Frida Kahlo, but I’d say John. U. Abrahamson and Alba Fabre Sacristan are my top favorites.¨ 

When asked what does your art represents they hesitated before answering, ¨The hardest descriptions of self-worth and what happens internally that no one or myself could even share in words.¨ What inspired Rodriguez to make his art was personal struggles would give him the motivation to let everything out in whatever medium form to create art. He choose to make this art because, ¨I create it out of my love of entomology (study of bugs and insects) mostly moths and other pieces are what displays me as a person¨ 

When asked this question Rodriguez looked at the water fountain filling up his water bottle. Saying personally, my art means, ¨It means so much to me. It’s what I strive off of if I can’t talk to anyone about anything. I can seem so confusing to others but I’ll always understand the story behind them. I’m not the most social person in the world but it’s one of the only ways I can communicate with the world.¨