Neko Case unplugged
Her husky voice evokes torch singers. Vanity Fair, GQ and Interview have her in their lens. She’s a self-described slob, disses Courtney Love and thinks Cher can do no wrong

"We love you,” screamed the cute artsy boy, almost deafening me. Strangely, this wasn’t a Madonna concert, but an industry showcase at the Rivoli for underground superstar Neko Case. Having seen Case live eight or nine times over the last decade, I should be used to her crazed groupies by now. They fall generally into three categories: first, the nerdy, straight, 30-something guys who could pass for nerdy fags but are actually music writers for NOW, the Globe and Mail and eye and have not-too-secret crushes on Case; then the genuine fags – a rapidly growing fan base – and the funky (and very short) nerdy lesbians who could pass for short, nerdy high-school boys; and last, the cool Queen Street chicks wearing moth-eaten vintage dresses. But almost all Case fans have two things in common: black hornrimmed glasses and a love for one of the most celebrated singers of the last decade.

Neko Case has gone from punk-rock drummer in the all-girl band Cub back in the early- to mid-’90s to collaborating with powerhouse Canadian pop-rock group the New Pornographers, whose releases are consistently among the topfive year-end lists across Europe and North America. Case’s own country-torch-pop releases have made her North America’s leading indie rock star. But it’s her acclaimed voice that’s instantly recognizable, evoking husky-voiced torch singers of the ’40s, Nashville legends like Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn, but combining them with a sultry tomboy edge. Case’s various incarnations are seldom heard on mainstream radio, but that hasn’t stopped her from doing a John Peel session on his legendary BBC radio show, or performing on David Letterman, Conan O’Brien or Jools Holland in the UK. Playboy named her the hottest indie-rock chick and the New York Times, Rolling Stone and Time have given her five-star reviews. But as I quickly found out during an interview at Zelda’s, the adulation hasn’t turned Case into a diva rock star: she’s just a tomboy who’d rather be a forest ranger hanging out with the animals than the next American Idol. (But she is scheduled to appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on March 9.)

In the midst of a whirlwind January publicity tour that culminated in features and photo shoots for Vanity Fair, GQ and Interview, Case did her first cover shoot for a gay magazine. She described fab’s fierce contingent of stylists, hair and makeup people and photographers as more fun and better than anything in New York. “I’m not a very good girl… I don’t like makeup very much and usually don’t like wearing dresses. I’m kind of a slob actually,” admits Case. “Lately, at photo shoots, I’ve ended up with girl stylists who don’t want me to try on their best outfits because they really want to take them home for themselves. The fab boys were so sweet and spent over two hours doing my makeup, only to make me look like I wasn’t wearing much.”

Case was born in Virginia; her family moved to the Tacoma-Seattle area a few years before it became known as the birthplace of grunge. “I left home at 15,” says Case. “[I] quit school. My home life was very difficult. I mean, I really had to leave.” She was determined to finish high school but being so poor made it very difficult.

“I was living in a friend’s parents’ basement and I was always starving. I’d actually steal eggs. I was very malnourished, so it was hard to retain anything in school,” says Case, who still looks Madonna-thin today. But it wasn’t all gloom, because Case just happened to grow up in a place that was to become infamous for its innovative music and freaky personalities.

“I met Courtney [Love] a few times,” recalls Case, “but believe me, I’m sure I just wanted to get away as quickly as possible. I don’t want to give her any more press, ’cause it’s not like she needs any. It was a long time ago,” she says. Despite all the music hype in Washington state (where she says there weren’t many women in bands), Case moved north to Vancouver to attend art school and joined the all-girl punk-pop band Cub. The band did very well on the indie scene across the continent. I remember when Cub came to do a live interview on my old CKLN radio show back in the mid-’90s. Case was a drummer back then, and she brought her drumsticks to the interview, tapping away while the girls chatted and played records.

Later, Case moved on to other bands including Maow, the Boyfriends and the Corn Sisters, and finally to her ongoing parttime stint with the New Pornographers. In 1997, she released her first solo alt-country album, called The Virginian, on Vancouver’s Mint Records, the indie label she has stood by since her Cub days. Her torch-singing career was off to a stunning debut and she subsequently released outstanding albums including 2000’s Furnace Room Lullaby, 2002’s Blacklisted and the live album from 2004, The Tigers Have Spoken. This month sees the release of her latest and best work yet: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. Two years in the making, the album is about an artist finding her voice and producing a career-defining record. It could launch Neko Case to a wider audience. A couple of tracks were recorded in Toronto and the rest in Arizona, where Case produced and mixed Fox with Darryl Neudorf (of Sarah McLachlan fame). The lyrics are like fantasy poetry with animal imagery and mythological creations in which Case reveals that “the most tender place in my heart is for strangers.”

“I don’t like writing love songs,” says Case, who’s now based in Chicago. “I’m not good at it. I like characters and get more into stories I’ve made up. On this new record, I’m more into a fairy-tale style, with animals that talk and strange things that happen.” Animal references abound in songs throughout her career. She likes all animals to a ridiculous degree. “I’m both a dog and a cat person, but I’ve just become allergic to cats in the last five years. I have a greyhound; he’s a former racing dog. I miss him so bad when I’m away. I just want him to cuddle with me in bed – we spoon all the time. I know it sounds sad – ‘35-Year-Old Lady Spoons With Dog’ – but he’s the best. I’ll be bringing him on my tour bus,” says Case, who will be at the Music Hall on Danforth on April 3 as part of a year-long, worldwide tour.

Acclaimed mostly for her voice, Case has a lot to say on the topic of singing. “I know I’m about to blaspheme in front of the whole gay community right now, but on the subject of Madonna… Wasn’t everybody suspicious when suddenly people who didn’t even listen to music had this mantra that she was this ‘incredible business person?’ What that means is that she’s not a very good singer and I’m not into that,” says Case, who admits, “There are a few of her songs that I love” – notably on Ray of Light. But Case would never use the Autotunes voicefiltering program that Madonna has relied on heavily of late. “If you can’t hit the notes, don’t sing it,” she says, adding, “I’m wondering if she’s one of the gateways to the complete lack of talent that you need to have. It’s gone so far that Autotunes has become an effect that you hear on everything. It was cool when Cher did it with ‘Believe’ because she was the first person to do that and she did it so over-the-top that obviously she wasn’t singing that way and it was cool. But Cher can do anything and I will love her.” Case’s blasphemy isn’t over: she accuses Céline Dion of being another Autotunes junkie. “You can hear that saccharine shit all over her records.” Case is into Alicia Keys – “she’s young and she really gives it” – and has much respect for both Mary J. Blige and Missy Elliott, but otherwise keeps lamenting the absence of great singers these days.

On the subject of men, Case seems slightly confused at the moment (girls, here’s your chance to bring her over to our team): “I don’t know what’s up with me. I’m single and relationships have never worked with me, so I don’t know what that means. I either have to come out as gay and find a lady, or I have to find a man, and neither one of those things seems to be happening,” says Case, who’s never “really” been with a woman. “I just need to fall in love with someone. I don’t care who it is – men, women, don’t care. I’ve known a lot of women who have been married and had kids and then suddenly they are gay and they didn’t know it all this time and they’ve just met their soulmates. Maybe that’s what will happen to me.” When asked about children, Case says she’d rather have a baby goat or a puppy.

Despite her relationship woes, Neko Case is very happy with where her career is at. She’s not so sure about her future but she definitely has some options. “If I ever got out of music, I’d go back to school to become a forest ranger. I’ve always wanted to be the lady with the jeep and the dog who works at the national forest service. I’d let the animals run free.”

Daniel Paquette is fab’s Tunes columnist.