Catching Up With... Neko Case

Paste: Are you one of those people who love what they do?
Case: Yes, very much.

Paste: And as far as being a touring, recording musician, where do you find yourself most energized? On the road, in the studio, writing songs…?
Case: It depends on what you just started doing, that’s usually what you’re most energized about. Because when you’re on the road, you’re like, “God, I wish I was in one place” after about two weeks. You’re like, “Oh…to be in a studio! That would be so nice because I wouldn’t have to go anywhere.” But then when you’re in the studio, you’re thinking, “I need to get the fuck outta here! God, I wish I were in Cleveland, Ohio. Anywhere! I just wanna go! I wish I was at home” I’m kind of antsy, I think. But I am present when I’m doing things, so I do really enjoy it while it’s happening. I don’t prefer one more than the other.

Paste: Did you want to make this album different in any way? What was going through your head as you were writing these songs?
Case: Well, as I was writing them, I didn’t really know what was going through my head. And that’s the way it always starts out. But then, when I got a little ways in, I realized I had a bit of an obsession with tornadoes. So that was interesting to find out. And I realized I was writing popular songs, and I decided to have some choruses on this record. I also realized that since I had made Fox Confessor and done a lot of press, I’d said a lot that I don’t write love songs—I just don’t like to do it. But I ended up writing lots of love songs. If you say you don’t want to do something, you’re going to contradict yourself later. It always happens. They’re still not traditional love songs, but they’re love songs nonetheless.

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Paste: And this obsession with tornadoes, where did that come from?
Case: I really don’t know. I had a dream one night about a tornado. It was a really interesting dream, and ever since then I’ve been thinking about them. I realized that a lot of the songs have tornadoes in them without even realizing that I was doing that.

Paste: And on “This Tornado Loves You,” who is this tornado?
Case: It’s quite literally a tornado. It’s a literal story about a tornado in love with a person. That’s what the dream was about. It wasn’t me that the tornado was in love with; it was kind of a kid. But yeah, it was a strange story. But I was pretty moved by it.

Paste: It sounds like something that could have been a part of Fox Confessor.
Case: Yeah, I’m still very much interested in fairy tales. But I think it’s more about writing new fairy tales. Which, you know, I was interested in on Fox Confessor too. That’s the thing that I took away from the album that I’m still interested in. These are now fairy tales with little love stories in them, I suppose. They’re a little less cautionary and a little more personal.

Paste: So you found yourself writing poppier songs and choruses. How did you want to approach that in the studio?
Case: I think that a lot of that desire came from just playing with the New Pornographers so much and making their last couple records. Gang singing is a great effect, and it’s a really fun time. I just realized that its going to take a lot of singing and a couple of major chords, for a change, rather than just minor chords all the time.

Paste: Major chords are great when they come after lots of minor chords.
Case: Yeah, its like you just poked your head out of the water after your holding your breath or something.

Paste: Who all played on the album?
Case: The pianos were myself, Paul Rigby, this guy Ryan Boils that we know and then Blaine, Kathryn [Calder] and John [Collins] from the New Pornographers. I really wanted to have the New Pornographers on this record, so it was really exciting that it finally got to happen. Carl [Newman] wasn’t there for piano orchestra but he did some singing on another song. And I got my friend Curt Esley from The Lilies to do some singing and guitar playing. I’m a huge fan of The Lilies and Curt. I really wanted him to come and do some magic on it, and he was awesome. And my friend Sarah Harmer. Matt Ward came and played some guitars that made me cry. Dallas and Travis [Good] from The Sadies came in, and I wrote a song with the Sadies, as well, so Mike [Belitsky] and Sean [Dean] were there too. And, oh my God, there are so many people I’m going to forget. My friend Norah O’Conner came in and did a bunch of singing. Lucy Wainwright Roach came and did a bunch of singing. My friend Rachel Flotard came and sang again, and of course, Kelly Hogan who’s in my band. She’s always there, being the excellent wingman that she is. And Garth Hudson came and played the piano orchestra as well and some organ. Steve Berlin came and played the midi sax and the real saxophone. He was like, “OK, don’t be disgusted but I’m going to get out a midi sax now. You just gotta trust me on this one.” And I was like, “OK!” And I know there are way more people, but you’ll have to look at the credits because I am really bad when I’m on the spot.

Paste: You’ve said in the past that you’re a little bit of a control freak and you’ve got all of these amazing musicians coming in and so how do you balance that?
Case: Well I think my control freakness doesn’t translate into telling other people what to do so much as just having to be there for every second of everything that happens. “Control freak” as in I don’t want to miss any of the mixing, mastering—’cause you know some people give that stuff away to other people to do but I can’t. I can’t do it. The people that I ask to play on it, I don’t ever worry about them. And you know, I sometimes tell them what to do but usually it’s just “more of that!”

Paste: Do you find that that’s a time of special camaraderie when you’re in a studio environment like that?
Case: Yeah, absolutely. I’m not one of those people that can make a record in two weeks. I take a really long time so I try to make sure that it’s a fun time in my life and not just two weeks of boom, boom, boom, boom. We try and go out and have great dinners and go see movies and shows and walk around and drink tea together. I don’t know, its really fun. John and Joey from Caleixco were on it again; they always have the magic.

Paste: You’ve been in Tucson for six years now. How has the thriving music scene there affected you as a musician?
Case: It hasn’t really ’cause I don’t ever go out. I’m sure it does affect me because I record at Wave Lab and I record with Howe [Gelb] and Calexico all the time, and I know them all really well. But, I mean, it hasn’t really branched out beyond that. It was kind of this way before I moved here but I don’t really write songs about the desert or anything. It’s just a really relaxing place to be; that’s another reason why I choose to move here. I noticed I was really relaxed when I was here. Moving to the farm is going to be even slower with a lot more manual labor.

Paste: So we won’t be getting lots of farm songs after this?
Case: No, no.

Paste: Have you ever had much experience growing stuff?
Case: Vegetables, yeah. And I come from a dairy farming background. But I didn’t really live on the farm full-time when I was little. That was kind of at my grandparents’ house. And there were times when they weren’t living on the farm so it was kind of off and on. When we were rural, it was more to do with archeology than farming.

Catching Up With… Neko Case