Neko Case: forget the hair spray and the checkered shirts. Here's just what country music needs: a dash of Patsy Cline and a dollop of Gertrude Stein

With her spectral beauty and haunting voice, Neko Case has been hailed as the second coming of Patsy Cline--and the new queen of alt-country tragedy and truth-telling. However, with her latest release, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (Anti-), Case breaks all stylistic boundaries to truly come into her own. Literary and challenging, the album is steeped in the storyteller-songwriter tradition that defies genre yet remains heartfelt--think Johnny Cash, Nick Cave, or PJ Harvey. Here, Case delves into the past, finding inspiration in everything from rural American spirituals to Ukrainian folk songs, to explore her own emotional history--and create one of the most original, beguiling, honest records of the year. MATT DIEHL: This album seems less and less about living up to the alt-country tag that you got labeled with early in your career.

NEKO CASE: I never really wanted that categorization. It's nice to be compared to Patsy Cline, but I'm no fool: I know I'm not in her league. It would be fuckin' cool to be Patsy Cline, but the world doesn't work that way.

MD: What music inspired you going into this album's creation?

NC: Gospel, though I'm not a religious person.

MD: I think what the album shares with gospel is that it doesn't sound retro but timeless.

NC: Well, thank you--don't make me start crying! Fads go back and forth, and I don't want to make records like that. I'm a big fan of classic songwriting that doesn't adhere to a particular place or time. People appreciate that because it makes the song more about them; that's what all the songs playing on the radio in the dark in the middle of the night were to me when I was little.

MD: Is there one song that really encapsulates what the new album is about for you?

NC: "Hold On, Hold On" is sort of the only real autobiographical song I have ever written; that's pretty much all me in that one. It comes together with the theme of the record, which is losing your faith--in our world, in Western society, in marriage. I don't know exactly what I have faith in; it's a constant war between our instincts and tailoring ourselves to the kind of world that we live in.

MD: Where do you find faith?

NC: I find lots of hope and excitement in works like Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, which totally questions morality, or the legend of Faust, the greatest story ever. The really crucial point in the tale--and very much what I was thinking about while writing all these songs--is when Faust is making his deal with the devil. He says to the demon something like, "I want you to tell me what love is made of." And the demon responds, "Your human brain is too small to understand it." The more you admit what you don't know, the freer you are. People need to think about those things when they are shopping at the mall and going to work in their cubicle. I am going to hold out for something greater, I'm going to hold out for something that makes me feel like I am in love for the first time. And that thing isn't impossible: No matter how much faith you lose, there's always a tiny grain left.

Matt Diehl is a contributing music editor at Interview. Above: Neko Case wears a shirt by PRADA. Styling: FISHER. Hair and makeup: ERIN COLLINS/collinsuela.com. Fashion details page 222. Photo: CLAMDIGGIN.

COPYRIGHT 2006 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning