When critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Neko Case’s house burned down six years ago, she rose from the ashes, with the release of her last full-length solo album, 2018’s Hell-On.
Having finished recording the album in Sweden when her Vermont home caught fire, she tried to focus on the positive when she returned stateside. She hadn’t lost any loved ones, or any animals, in the blaze. She still had her music, and her career, and life out on tour.
Then 2020 came, and the pandemic hit.
“The combination of the pandemic and my house burning down was really bad,” Case told Revue via phone last month. “I’m going to be paying off what happened in the pandemic for a long time. I’m still a slave to the pandemic, unfortunately, because I just lost so much money, so many resources, that it’s going to be a long time before I don’t feel the heavy weight of the pandemic, to be honest.”
Completely candid in song and conversation, Case didn’t hold back, sharing how her home still hasn’t been completely repaired, and how lockdown left her with little options for income for years.
Thus the title, and timing, of her upcoming memoir, couldn’t be more apt. Entitled The Harder I Fight The More I Love You, her memoir of her life and childhood, takes her revered voice and lyrical storytelling from the stage to the page.
Due out Jan. 28, 2025, via Hatchette Publishing, the book reflects on her time growing up as an “invisible girl raised by two dogs and a space heater” in rural Washington state. It’s both a meditation on the improbable trajectory of her rare talent, and a manifesto on punk rock spirit, and relentless self-perseverance.
“I didn’t want to write a memoir,” Case said. “I wanted to write something else. But I was going to be paid to write a memoir. So that’s what I wrote. It was fun. Don’t get me wrong. I had a really good time doing it, but writing about myself feels a little bit weird.”
Adding that she’s already pretty bare as a songwriter, Case said she felt naked when writing the memoir. But not being particularly guarded in her music either, she found the experience more interesting than invasive.
“I think I would have enjoyed writing fiction or something much better,” she said. “But, I was offered the book deal during the pandemic, and I really needed a source of income. And that was what it was. I don’t do things just for money, ever. So I did put myself into it. And I did work hard, and make hard decisions. But I’d never done anything like that before.”
Case, whose music career now spans over 30 years—including her decades working with Canadian indie-rock icons The New Pornographers—said she did take influence from some other legendary musicians’ memoirs when approaching her own.
“My book doesn’t resemble either of these, but I was heavily influenced by all of Patti Smith’s writing because she’s just completely brilliant, and her books are just incredible works of art,” Case said. “And also the Rickie Lee Jones biography, Last Chance Texaco, is particularly good. It’s one of the best musician’s memoirs I’ve ever read.”
Case herself has written her own Substack newsletter, “Enter The Lung,” since 2021. She turned to the subscription platform during the pandemic as a way to disconnect from the cruelty of conventional social media, while still finding a way to connect with her fans directly, and sharing her love of nature.
She’s also recently neared completion on her upcoming new solo album, slated for release some time next year. With the new record opening a new chapter in her life following the deep reflection of her memoir, her eighth studio album will mark her first time working with a symphony orchestra as she teamed up with her longtime friend, violinist Tom Hagerman of DeVotchKa, as well as members of the Colorado Symphony.
In a time when AI and other technology threatens to push into more aspects of the music industry, Case said she wanted real human beings playing real instruments on the album.
“This record is very much about musicians,” she said. “And I really, really, really wanted actual musicians to play stringed instruments and French horns, et cetera. Not that there’s any shade to anybody who plays those instruments on synthesizers, or with plugins, or anything. I think everything is valid, but I really wanted the musicians to be there, and I wanted it to sound very much like living people were there. A lot of times you can’t tell the difference, but I can, and I really wanted to hear the air move based on human beings sitting next to each other, and breathing, and it was so worth it.”
Case said she plans to play a few of the new songs on her current fall tour, and plans to have a very busy 2025 as well.
“Everything is so up in the air,” she said. “The book comes out on the 28th of January. The record I don’t know the exact date for yet. And then I’m working on a musical (adaptation of an Academy Award-winning film), but I don’t know if it’s going to come out next year, or the year after, so I can’t really say. But all I can tell you is there’s so much work that will bloom into something.
Neko Case
Wsg. Imaad Wasif
GLC Live at 20 Monroe, 11 Ottawa Ave. NW, Grand Rapids
Oct. 17, 7 p.m. doors, 8 p.m. show, All ages, $55+
Nekocase.com, Glcliveat20monroe.com
