We had an amazing chat with Casey Neill about his latest release "Time Zero Land," sequencing the album, and something music fans should never do!
Portland, Oregon-based songwriter Casey Neill talks about time zero land (released July 26th on Fluff & Gravy Records). This album follows last fall’s Casey Neill & the Norway Rats’ Sending Up Flares, and includes two outtakes from those band sessions. Neill engineered the rest at his home studio and plays the lion's share of the instruments. It's a dreamy affair with sonic homages to Elliott Smith, Nick Drake, Sade, the acoustic side of Rust Never Sleeps, and the Brit-folk pioneered by Bert Jansch, Richard Thompson, and June Tabor. One of the things people often say about the Norway Rats is how their music defies easy genre categorization and while Sending Up Flares leans into the fruits of that collaboration, time zero land embraces the influences and craft songwriting that has been at the core of Neill's work.
A prolific songwriter and road warrior since the late 1990s, Americana and Scots/Irish-folk influences have often underscored his songwriting. Sending Up Flares hints at a European influence too, with songs that channel everything from the cinematic sweep of golden-era U2 to the dark, complex alt-rock of PJ Harvey. If time zero land is intimate and largely acoustic, then Sending Up Flares is broad, eclectic, and every bit as explosive as its title. A four-piece string section (Bizarre Star, arranged by Kyleen King) adds a symphonic punch to “How Beautiful Am I?,” the album’s tribute to Marianne Faithfull. Synths, stacked vocal harmonies, and burbling electronics run throughout “Fall Into Forever,” bringing to life the song’s bizarre storyline involving a Tokyo typhoon, Dante’s Paradiso, and pop star Britney Spears. Together, these 11 songs shine new light on a band who, after more than a dozen years together, have arrived somewhere singular and startlingly unique.
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