By Aiden Pearce
Andrew Cassara was just six-years-old when he first fell in love with music. It was this life-long love of music – writing, singing, performing – that has given his life purpose through the darkest of times.
In 2020, during a period of Covid-19 lockdown in his native Ottawa, Canada, Andrew was struggling with his mental health. Fear of failure consumed him. He spent so many nights unable to sleep. The anxiety took over his body.
Then, lockdown was over – but for Andrew, his solitary life continued.
“This fear of failure has consumed me since I started down this path of following my dreams, but I have never wanted to admit it. There were so many nights I couldn’t sleep and anxiety attacks where I couldn’t breathe anymore because the fear would take over.” Andrew writes to his 14,000 plus fans via TikTok caption.
Speaking to him one on one, his openness and his willingness to talk was no different.
“Covid left me feeling so isolated. Being stuck at home for a year, it was a really difficult time in my life.” The singer explains.
The loneliness, restlessness and lassitude of cabin fever was slowly consuming him.
“I really was not in a good place, I was deeply hurting and it was a brand-new feeling. I did not understand what was happening to me.” Andrew says.
After meeting with his new vocal coach who was also a psychologist, the pair ended up spending their vocal lessons just talking. Talking about Andrew’s life, his struggles, his feelings.
“That’s when my coach pushed me to write a song about it and so I wrote You Are.” Cassara tells me.
“I really wrote it from a vulnerable place for the first time with my music,” he says. “In my heart, I was truly feeling at my lowest when I wrote the track. Writing this song made me feel so vulnerable.” He pauses. “I felt ashamed.”
Six years on, Andrew still listens to You Are for encouragement, instilling the positive messaging into his head.
“I put these two lines: you are loved, you are strong throughout the entire song,” he says.
“It’s in the chorus, it’s in the verses, it’s all the way through. I did this for anyone listening to my music daily, like me when singing it constantly on stage and in the studio.
“I really believe that if you listen to it constantly to get those positive messages drilled into your brain, it can have such a positive impact. It has had a tremendous impact on me so it is something I wanted to give to other people who might be in a similar, vulnerable situation.
“Those feelings that I had were deep down in my soul and really difficult for me to express because I had to be extremely honest with myself and dig down into the depths of my heart.”
He got through this with his love of music, his lifelong companion. When he was a child, he used to sing along to the Backstreet Boys. Now, he is writing his own songs, with meaning and purpose, songs that helped him recover and, he hopes, other people, too.
To an impressive audience of more than 13,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, Andrew has used his platform to spread awareness about mental health. After the uncertainty and isolation covid brought to so many including himself, Cassara decided his music career needed a direction of inspiration.
“I really made it my mission to bring awareness to mental health and remove the stigma from it through my music,” he explains.
“I want to give hope to people in a similar situation to me because mental health can really take its toll.”
As a topic of significant importance to Andrew, he spent much of his career performing in his hometown Ottawa, Canada, supporting mental health non-profit organisations, before moving to the UK in 2024 to take the mission further around the world after falling in love with British culture and it’s strong music community.
Spending years of his career speaking in community centres, performing on TV and the radio for mental health shows/organisations, speaking in schools and talking to the children there about mental health in order to reduce the stigma, this is the part of Andrew’s career that he seems to be most proud of.
Building a strong community in Leicester and bringing his positivity to somewhere new has allowed Andrew to reach new heights and experiences.
Whether that is through local music conferences or touring around the UK with well-known British duo Bars and Melody, who took the world by storm in 2014 with their Britain’s Got Talent golden buzzer performance of their antibullying song, Hopeful.
Touring around Europe and Japan as the duo’s support act in September to December was a memorable experience.
“I can only describe it as exhilarating,” he says.
But that’s not all. In 2024, Andrew took on an enormous mission by performing at Ottawa’s Bluesfest festival, sharing the stage with Shawn Mendes, Lauv, and Chromeo, as well as supporting Midnight Generation in their sold-out tour around Mexico.
After Andrew’s solo, headlining tour in 2025 all around the UK and Poland, his music-making is not slowing down any time soon. Speaking to him immediately after his studio session the singer-songwriter explains he was just wrapping up a new single. I ask him about an album.
“It doesn’t have a working title yet, but I am working on the album now.” He takes a moment to think about what he can tell me. “I’m thinking it will be ready for release either late this year or probably early next year.”
Whilst the new album is far away, his new single Always You will be released in April/May.
In 2026, his career as a singer-songwriter has led to much more than singing Backstreet Boys at a talent show like he did as a child. For some people – especially Andrew, the man who wrote them – his songs have been a musical helping hand.
