“When people say we got our start from content creation, they usually think about TikTok, and although TikTok was a little bit of a jump start, our real start came from YouTube,” says Rafaele “Crash” Massarelli. “When we started posting on YouTube Shorts, that’s when everything really took off.”
“We posted music videos [on YouTube] before we posted anywhere else,” Vince “Adams” Sasso says. “The cool thing was when we exploded on all the platforms, especially YouTube Shorts, people went back to discover those initial [songs].”
They released their first track, “Astronauts”, on Spotify in 2019, but it was 2020 when they went viral, after they started parking Massarelli’s grandmother’s red velvet sofa in the middle of Toronto roads, around which they performed songs and other covers live in matching suits.
Along with harmless pranks and reaction clips, their videos started to trend on TikTok.
Nonetheless, their real social media break came as they expanded to YouTube Shorts in 2021, which helped people notice them as musicians.
Then, in January 2023, one of their videos blew up online. They had been out on the street playing their self-written tunes to strangers and asking them to rate them in one of two ways.
“If you like the song, you’ve got to follow us on Spotify. If you don’t like it, you’ve got to slap Raf in the face,” Sasso explains of the instructions they gave people, laughing as he adds, “It’s funny because it’s never me, it’s always him.”
It was humorous and fun, if a bit gimmicky. But then one of the participants, a fellow street musician, told Sasso to “keep going with the guitar” as they neared the end of their song “Caroline”.
“I had no idea what to expect, but I was just in the moment, like, ‘OK, let’s keep rolling,’” Sasso says. “He was just supposed to stand there, but he freestyle-rapped with his baby in his arms. I was like, ‘Wow, this is absolutely incredible.’ We put the video together and it exploded [online].”
In April, the duo launched their “Can You Rap in Public” series, which quickly became another internet sensation. Whether featuring strangers or up-and-coming musicians, they say it is always performed spontaneously.
While social media has changed their lives and given them the opportunity to take control of their career, Massarelli says it merely acts as a promotional tool and that music is still their top priority.
“We never approach making music [as] ‘let’s make a song this way because of social media’. I think music has to, and will always, be its own art.”
“It’s not even just about social media,” Sasso says. “It’s about – how does it make someone feel? How does it feel when it’s played live in front of people? There are so many factors that go into the building stuff.”
We really just want to raise everybody’s vibration the same way that Patch Adams did, in an unconventional way
Sitting down for an interview at the Post’s headquarters, the duo seem to have the kind of organic friendship where they just bounce off of each other. It turns out they have been friends since day one – or more accurately, age one.
“Our parents are best friends, so I really had no choice,” Sasso says. “When [Massarelli] was born, it was like, ‘Here’s your friend.’ He would come over and we’d play music and soccer together.”
Sasso started playing guitar at age 11, while Massarelli was brought up in a musical family of professional singers, pianists and record producers.
Sasso says he has always been a “tastemaker” with a keen ear for music, which he considers a “musician-specific skill”.
In February 2023, Crash Adams released their first EP, the four-song California Girl, which includes fan favourites “Give Me a Kiss”, “Destination” and “Caroline”.
In March, they released the five-track Crashing Into Your Living Room, Vol. 1. Another EP is in the works for later this year.
For now, Crash Adams continue to create music for social media in every place they visit. From Toronto and Los Angeles to Singapore and Hong Kong, they bring their high energy with them wherever they go.
But what about the band’s name? It originates from the 1998 movie Patch Adams, which was loosely based on the philanthropic efforts of the US doctor Hunter “Patch” Adams (played by Robin Williams) and his book Gesundheit! Good Health Is a Laughing Matter.
“We want to heal people in [the way we know how],” Massarelli says. “Everything about us, [from] our journey through the music industry [to] the way we make our videos, is unconventional.
“We really just want to raise everybody’s vibration the same way that Patch Adams did, in an unconventional way.”
YouTube Music Nights: Crash Adams, Oliver Cronin. Ocean Terminal Deck, Harbour City, 3-27 Canton Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Aug 25, 6pm. Free event, sign-ups required. Register at wma.lnk.to/ytmusicnight.