Iconic singer-songwriter Neko Case is having a busy year.

Her memoir “The Harder I Fight the More I Love You“ hit The New York Times bestseller list after it was released in January, and her popular Substack “The Lung” brings fans closer to its creator than ever, a writer who rivals great poets like Mary Oliver by capturing the nuances of the outdoors, such as the morning sheen of a spider web or the blade of a snowflake. It feels like your older, wiser sibling’s journal you shouldn’t be reading because it’s that personal and badass.

It’s no wonder that Case’s followers are devout – if not rabid – given her hearty solo career since 1994, as well as her work with indie pop outfit The New Pornographers. Her eighth studio album, “Neon Grey Midnight Green,” recently dropped, cementing her reputation as a queen of country-noir, or something in that direction; prolific, feral and not to be caged, that’s Case for sure. Seven years in the making, this project is her first entirely self-produced recording and it’s evident. This collection of tracks is a curious, difficult, beautiful object — raw yet grand, packing expansive grief and resilience, and full of the deliberate sounds of human beings breathing and sleeves rustling. It demands attention not as background music, but as a deep, rewarding immersion into the specific, strange universe only Neko Case can build. The string arrangements bolstered by the Plainsong Chamber Orchestra are stunning and the singer’s words float high above them like embers. 

In conversation, Case is hilariously and ferociously honest. Style caught up with her in her studio via Zoom the day after her 55th birthday, her beloved dog Coco by her side.  

Style Weekly: You just shared on your Substack that you stabbed yourself with a box cutter. Do you find your injuries get more embarrassing with age? I know I do. Clumsy is the name of the game. 

Neko Case: Yeah, I was like, ‘Oh, I gotta really careful. I don’t want to stab myself with it.’ Oh well. I’ve always thought injuries are pretty funny. Even though there’s rage right at the beginning, eventually it’s like, ‘Oh my God, you’re such a baby.’

Wait … are you in a pantry right now? 

Yes, I work in a tiny little office in my pantry. Some people think it’s a background until I show them a can of soup or say, nope – there’s the dog on the floor. 

I would be in there all the time. There’s nothing cozier than a pantry. (Shifts view to show beloved mutt, Coco, on duty in the studio). 

As someone who’s such a sharp observer of nature, I have to share this fact that I learned this morning. Are you aware of what is called the prehensile penis (an appendage that can be moved and manipulated like a hand or limb)?  It makes me afraid of getting tackled by the ocean. 

Oh yeah. Walruses, orcas all have it. I don’t think any of us are in danger, though. 

Let’s talk about the album. When I saw the name of the album, “Neon Grey Midnight Green,” it gave me Northern lights vibes. What’s the backstory?

When I think of where I am on a map of the world, you know, when I close my eyes and I’m like, where am I?
Where do I fit? The first thing I see is the sky in the Pacific Northwest, which has some very specific lights to it. Like, neon gray is the low ceiling that makes you feel good about staying inside and doing something creative instead of being outside, being athletic. And then the midnight green is a color that happens at night, in the kind of the liminal part where there’s twilight. And then after that, there’s a darkness that has midnight green in it. And it’s not all the time. It’s kind of a special event.

A standout on these tracks is the string arrangement. It’s lush. Talk to me about how you wrangled all those folks and crafted damn near perfection. 

The orchestra stuff was done in Colorado. My friend Tom Hagerman did the arrangements. He’s an incredible musician and an incredible orchestrator. And he wrote the parts, and so I went and met with him at a certain point, he and the conductor; and we talked about what should happen, and there are some things that we changed and some things that we added or just moved over. But the majority of that stuff was written by Tom and he did an incredible job. One thing he told me was, he was excited that we were going to use a full orchestra because he says a lot of times people call up and they want a huge orchestra on their recording, but they don’t want an orchestra to do what it does. They want long notes and atmosphere. They don’t want the orchestra playing on it. And I was like, ‘No, I want the orchestra playing on it. Let’s go all the way.’ 

Speaking of good company, you’ve kept many of the best music folks close as collaborators over the years: Kelly Hogan, Nora O’Connor, Paul Rigby and Jon Rauhouse. What defines a solid human as someone you want to either be around or work with?

Well, they have to be decent people, first of all. That’s a good start. All of them have in common that they don’t take themselves super seriously and they’re really funny. They all still have the ability to be amazed, as well. None of them think they’re above what they’re doing or that they’re slumming it … they bring their all to everything.  

You mention pay phones a lot in your lyrics. First on “Calling Cards” and most recently on this album with “An Ice Age.” What’s the deal? 

I’m obsessed with pay phones. There were a way that I used to communicate quite often. Because I never really had a phone when I was younger. And then by the time I had a phone, I was on tour all the time, so pay phones were the thing I used. Then it eventually went to cellphones. But, you know, pay phones are, they’re kind of like mailboxes. Like mailboxes and pay phones … I’m pretty obsessed with. Two public service things that are about communication and community. I just love them. 

Speaking of community. Your Substack rules, dude. Do you ever worry about sharing too much? Kind of the same thing with your memoir. 

I’ve always been an oversharer, so it doesn’t feel inauthentic and it doesn’t feel dangerous. It just feels normal. 

When the book came out, I asked you a question at Sixth & I Synagogue: What’s one thing you haven’t done yet that you wanted to do? Your response was something like a mariner. 

To travel on boats around the world? Yes. I was I was thinking about my friend Andrea Pritzker, who is a really great writer and right now she’s focusing on community stuff and getting people ready for protest and helping people to resist. But she went on a, you know, Russian icebreaking ship up through the Arctic. And those were the kind of things I’d like to do. Is that a highlighter pen? Don’t you just love a highlighter pen? 

We are in tumultuous times and some folks feel it’s hard to go to a show and have fun. How do you survive as a creative on tour? 

I’m a ferocious human being. I just let myself feel the shittiness. Yeah. And I take it out on work. 

You hit the New York Times bestseller list. I think it’s your authenticity that resonates with people. What makes a person authentic [and integrous]? 

Well, I think people have lost it a little bit. Not because they’re bad, but because they’re just focusing on … I’m just going to say the most boring shit right now …  focusing on social media and, you know, this other ghost life that you have. The way we consume things is a little too convenient and we take it for granted. We’re just losing the art of, you know, being able to just take a breath and wait the extra couple seconds or, order the thing directly from the distributor or buy the album rather than streaming it. I don’t have a problem with streaming as a technology. I think it’s brilliant, but I do have a problem with the services, especially Spotify and I have a huge problem with Spotify. 

You’ve mentioned that previously. 

Taking money to give to AI warfare is also like the worst insult you can give a person who creates things. 

You reference cursive [writing] on “Match-Lit,” which is something that I find incredibly authentica lost art. You sing ‘But a cursive explosion’ Can you say more about that. It seems in conflict a bit. The ease of inky flow and force of well, an explosion. 

It’s the last track on the record and I think there’s a kind of flourish that we use when we light matches. It’s just, like, if you remember being a kid and trying to learn how to start a match, like, it’s not something you can just automatically do. You likely broke the match, your hand is wet. You have to learn how to do it and everybody has a cursive flick or a style. And it’s just an individual trait. 

Speaking of precise movements, when listening to the track “Little Gears” we happen upon an effortless spider that turns the ordinary into an art piece. Would you say you find inspiring rhythm or vibes in the ordinary? 

Yeah, I spend a lot of time thinking about nature, so nature’s kind of my ordinary. But in a city, there’s rhythm, too. So I tend to tune into that, like, you know, sometimes I’m home, sometimes I’m in London and both have a specific rhythm and resonance. 

Richmond is a train city, so that’s our soundtrack often down by the river. It reminds me of the musical moments in Bjork’s heartbreaking “Dancer in the Dark” specifically the track, “I’ve Seen It All.” 

I worked on that movie! I was in the set design department.

Where do you find your flow state when it comes to writing? Do you feel it’s channeled or there’s a more deliberate process? 

I think we’re always storing little bits of information. I don’t understand it until the fourth layer is on and then you see the picture and you’re like, there it is. That’s what I was trying for. Or that’s what that was supposed to become. I don’t think it’s any sort of message through the ether or anything, because it is a lot of work. But the rhythm thing you were talking about, there’s always a rhythm going in my head for sure. And some combinations of words in English just lend themselves to that. 

Where do you put your thoughts down?

I prefer to write on paper because writing with my hand triggers a lot of things like memories and images. But I will put it in my phone, if that’s all I’ve got. And it works, too. I’ll use anything. 

But, are you a pen snob? 

Oh, fully. I’m a Virgo ADHD person. That Bic Cristal with the big tip on it. Yeah,I love. It’s gotta flow and why the 1.6 tip is pretty great.

Dolly Parton has said that her most creative hours are between 7pm and 3am. What are yours? 

When I was hired to write a book, I suddenly started waking at 5 a.m. I’ve never been that person. I think it has to do with menopause. Oh God. 
Don’t get me started… I love being a morning person. But it just happened one day. Just one day I woke up at five and I’ve never stopped since. I love to go to bed at like nine o’clock. I’m like, it’s so good. 


As a writer, what are your thoughts on AI/ChatGPT?

I’m not a fan of it. It’ scary. It has its moments. I think if you’re trying to do compound research for things like trying to find, you know, the DNA strand for something that is involved in curing cancer – great. But I don’t want it used for creative things. Other people can use it for creative things and that’s okay with me, but I don’t want anything that I’m doing or thinking about to be given to me by AI, and I don’t want anything I’m doing or thinking about to be minded by AI. 

I know you’re an animal lover. What’s your critter count as of late? 


Right now, I’ve got five. We’ve got three cats, a dog and a horse. That’s not too bad. 
It’s not too bad. My horse doesn’t live at my house, though, anymore, because my other horse Norman died and you don’t want a horse to be alone because they don’t like to be alone. My other lives at my friend’s house now with her five mares. So, he’s pretty excited. 

Back to the album, because we could talk about animals all day. This album was under your command as a producer. What, if any, was that level of comfort? Do you feel you edit more or less? 

I edited a lot less than I normally do on this record, because I wanted it to be more live than it usually is. I used a lot more scratch vocal, for instance. So, maybe something will have some schmutzy sound on there that shouldn’t be there or you’ll hear a drum bleed through my headphones or something like that.
I didn’t want it to be pristine. I do like to edit, and editing is more used as a tool to make certain things shine rather than to get rid of things. It’s more about things having their moment. Like, what is the sound right here that should have the moment? What has the most emotional impact or whatever? 
So that’ll come up and the other things will be pulled away. I generally ask people who are really good at what they do, so I don’t have to edit too much. There’s overdubs and you know, everybody flubs up now and again. For the most part, not a ton. 

Let’s round this up with your part in the musical adaptation of “Thelma & Louise.” 

I was asked by Callie Khouri, who wrote it, to do it.  I’ve known her for a long time, and, you know, I trust her. It’s the only thing I think that ever would have made me do it. 

Are you going for an EGOT? 


Oh, totally going for that. I’ve never won any awards, so it’s going to take me a little while.

Real talk. Do you really dislike mayo? This is Duke’s country. 

Fucking hate it. I hate mayonnaise. Fucking hate it so much. It kills me. 
I’m mad when it’s in my fridge. I don’t have any soft feelings about mayonnaise. I just hate it. I’m a mustard guy. I don’t even like ketchup.

What’s one thing you want to do when you are in RVA? 

I gotta get my birth certificate while I’m there. [Case was born in Alexandria, Va.]. I got it once before, but it burnt up in the house fire. There’s no question we’ll have fun when we get there. We always do.

Neko Case plays The National with special guests Des Demonas this Tuesday, Oct. 7. Doors are at 6 p.m. Sounds at 7:30 p.m.. All ages. 708 E Broad St, Richmond, VA 23219 Tickets and information at www.thenationalva.com