THE PAVEMENT

The Pavement (stylized as "thE Pavement") is a visual album by Joshua Daniel Castillo, known as CAST, released on December 23rd, 2018. It consists of five songs and nine short films taking place in the same creative universe. All songs are written, produced, engineered, and performed by Castillo. Additionally, all the videos were written, directed, and edited by Castillo, Stefano Castro, Rohan Manvatkhar, and Victor Morell.

BACKGROUND

Produced, recorded, and video-edited in Castillo's basement, the project is considered an Illo staple and is highly regarded among CAST supporters. Writing for the songs and the visuals to The Pavement took place over the course of four years. Producing and recording the music occured during two of those years, and shooting and editing the videos took place over six months in 2018. The idea for the visual experience was spawned out of Castillo's dissatisfaction with the reception of his initial series of mixtapes; After releasing a self produced mixtape in 2016 to little traction, Castillo made a promise to himself to not release any new music unless he had visuals together.

Castillo sought to make a short project with songs starkly different from one another, yet cohesive enough to provide a foundation for future works. This vision is what inspired the title of the project; pavement is generally made of bits and pieces of varied rock/sand to form into a congealed solid. The E and P are capitalized in the stylized title to emphasize the “EP” element.

MUSIC

The first song created on The Pavement was FAST FORWARD. The instrumental was produced as a single, until Castillo began writing and found that the piece was more emotive and would be more impactful as a closer to a project. DON’T LEAVE ME IN THE DARK and MOON were both made in 2017, and were some of the first songs he worked on amid weeks in his college’s piano labs. SLEEP was the last song created for the project, written and completed in two days, after a promise made to Castro that he would have the EP’s intro ready for them to storyboard with by the time he came back from a weekend trip. The oldest song on the EP is DRY PAINT, with writing and composition beginning in 2014 (the same year Illo began). He wrote ten verses for the song and had Morell pick the best two. The song was finished in 2017 and was performed by Castillo at various open mics and artistic showcases for a year until its release with the rest of the project. He was reluctant to release the track with the rest of the EP, as he felt it was written from a perspective he no longer carries, but released it after being convinced by Morell that it was too urgent.

All tracks are written, produced, performed, mixed, and mastered by Castillo in his home studio. Genres encompass experimental hip-hop, dancehall, alternative pop, psychedelic R&B, and acoustic music. Inspirations for The Pavement were compiled and made available on a Spotify playlist called GRAVEL.

VIDEOS

The videos were scripted and recorded through the summer of 2018. Motifs and themes include clones, trains, dream sequences, running barefoot, the sickness of nostalgia, dances for omnipotent symbolism, using signs to communicate, facelessness, blank clocks, loss, and rebirth. Videos featured many students from Wesleyan University and Baruch College, Castro and Castillo’s respective alma maters.

SLEEP’s concept follows a group of friends making a music video in New York City wearing onesies. It was the first video, shot in two days with scenes taking place in Battery Park, New York and Fair Lawn, New Jersey. DRY PAINT was shot in two days in Englewood, New Jersey. The video features performances from when Castillo was a child. FAST FORWARD was made to appear as though the video was one continuous shot, but multiple takes allowed for the use of clones. MOON was filmed over an extended weekend in Connecticut. Manvatkar and Castillo stayed in Castro’s college dorm and edited every night following the day they shot.

DON’T LEAVE ME IN THE DARK was the second video made, taking 15 hours. The team shot the video in Castro’s garage in New Jersey. They created the set with an area designated for on-site editing; implementing a technique for editing while the footage was being shot allowed for Castillo to create a feeling of isolation in the visual. The dance is the only formal one in The Pavement, choreographed by Jerick Venturina.

CREDITS AND PERSONNEL

All songs on thE Pavement by CAST. DRY PAINT features additional vocals by Rebekah Han.