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We’re super-excited to be speaking today with singer and songwriter Casey Neill, leader of the far-flung folk rock band extraordinaire the Norway Rats; greetings and salutations Casey and welcome to Vents Magazine! Before we dive into the Q&A mosh-pit, how is the last-half of 2024 treating you and yours thus far?
Things are good! I’m off the road after a pile of shows in New York, New England, and the UK. It’s nice to be stationary for a moment and catch my breath.
Major congrats on your freshly-minted new solo album time zero land which just dropped this past July 26! Starting at the top, can you talk about what inspired this absolutely beautiful, drop-the-mic LP?
Thanks for saying that. time zero land was made at the same time as the last Norway Rats record Sending Up Flares. These are songs that felt more like solo songwriter pieces. I put it together in my home studio and sold it on the merch table but at the time we really wanted to highlight the release of Flares. With my producer Chet Lyster we picked the most forward thinking songs for that one – all the big rockers and poppier songs. All that said, I didn’t want these quieter songs to get lost so I’m really happy time zero land is out in the world.
The title of the new LP – time zero land – is such an unusual and catchy moniker! What’s the VH1-Behind the Music origin story on how you came up with the title?
It is a riff on the classic Polaroid Time Zero camera. They were all called Land cameras after the inventor Edwin Land. Dreamy hazy and vintage is how these songs feel to me, so it fit. There is actually a song called time zero land that I wrote for Sending Up Flares but we quickly realized it still needed work. Then it struck me it would be a cool title for this album as these are very much songs about old memories.
We’re tremendous admirers of The Distance Ahead tune which is off of the time zero land LP! What’s the inside scoop on how this gem of a ditty found its way to you?
Mainly it’s a love song for environmental movements of the 1990s and many people I knew and still know from that time. It’s autobiographical for sure and very Gen X. So much of the 60s and 70s generation has been lionized in music for so long and as someone too young to have lived any of that, I wanted to celebrate and mythologize a different era – one I actually was a part of. I wanted the music to feel like the open expanses of the American West and hit the listener as if you’re along for the road trip.
Did you do the producing honors on time zero land and, if so, what are the pros to serving as your own producer?
Yea, time zero land is self- produced. I’ve worked with some great producers over the years – the late Johnny Cunningham, Chris Funk, Ezra Holbrook who Ice-T once rightfully called a “super-producer” and Eels guitarist Chet Lyster for the past two records of mine. It’s also a job I do for other artists. I’ve produced 7… maybe 8 records in the last few years. Chet produced my previous album Subterrene and I needed him for Sending Up Flares to keep on this path we were on with the Norway Rats. I love the artist/producer relationship from both sides and I like it to feel very collaborative. That said, these time zero land songs were so personal it was freeing to just follow them down whatever rabbit hole I wanted.
Fluff & Gravy Records is the label behind time zero land! What makes Fluff & Gravy the perfect home for you and your music?
What you want in a label is not only the work they do, but the community they create and the atmosphere around the music they release. Fluff & Gravy put out consistently high quality music and they are really catching a wave at the moment. I’ve had people at my shows in places far away from the Northwest show up in Fluff & Gravy shirts who got into my stuff because they follow the label. That’s how I used to be with Dischord Records especially but also SubPop and Bloodshot and Anti – if they released it, I’d check it out. I feel like Fluff & Gravy very much embodies that tradition today and it’s great to be a part of it.
In the wake of the recent release of time zero land, can fans look forward to catching you on the touring/performing circuit?
Absolutely. After Sending Up Flares came out I did a ton of touring with the band and solo, some openers for Indigo Girls… Lots on the West Coast and in the Northeast. Now we are working on getting to a lot of regions I have yet to perform in since before the pandemic – the Southwest, Midwest, the South. And I’m really committed to establishing a touring base in the UK so I’ll be there in November which is the third time in the past year.
In your humble opinion, what differentiates time zero land from the Distinguished Competition on the 2024 music scene?
There certainly are loads of incredible artists and songs out in the world every day and it’s hard to cut through the noise. I’ve carved out an audience with years of hard work on the road and recording. You hope each release will reach new listeners and find a niche in the culture. Even in the smallest ways it can be very meaningful and a song can do things you don’t expect. I just played a festival in the UK and with festival sets especially you feel like you need to play fast songs and grab the crowd by the nape a little. It was a late morning on a barn stage and it was raining pretty hard outside. It wasn’t on the setlist but I played ‘The Distance Ahead’ – a long loping song with no repeating chorus so you really have to follow along. They were right there with me and it landed really well.
With this new solo outing ruling the airwaves, do you have future projects lined up with the Norway Rats?
There’s one Irish song on time zero land called The Rocks of Bawn. I’ve wanted to make a whole album of traditional Irish music for a long time. It’s been a genre where I’ve done a lot of work as a sideman and while mainly rolling in indie rock and songwriter circles, I have a long history with it and have played with some masters of the genre. I’d like to pay homage to that generation of players as well as it’s influence on the rock scene in Ireland with folks like Sinéad O’Connor and The Waterboys. And there’s a really exciting young scene these days with bands like Lankum, Lisa O’Neill and Ye Vagabonds that I find hugely inspiring. I’ve written a few new songs that would be great for Norway Rats though, so who knows what’s to come.
You’re based out of Portland, Oregon. How do those particular stomping grounds inform the sound and energy of the music which you and the Norway Rats create?
There’s a song on Sending Up Flares called ‘City of Nerves’ which is very much about Portland. I’ve written a few over the years with stories about the city – ‘Sisters of the Road’ ‘My Little Dark Rose’… As for the band, we all came up from the same swamp. It’s a very nurturing music scene and we’ve all been in each others bands. Even among really studied musos there’s a punk aesthetic to how we approach things. There’s no real Portland sound. Just a perspective I think.
Any final thoughts you might like to share with readers about one of the very best album releases of 2024, time zero land?
In an interesting way, time zero land and Sending Up Flares are companion pieces. One looking inward through time and memory and one looking outward at the world. It wasn’t intentional at the time but it’s how it shook out. We’ll see what paths they find and I’ll follow.
