People always askNeko Casehow she writes her songs.
There are tantrums, tears.
(Case named the dog Buffy, after Buffy Saint-Marie, whose music she adored.)
Ebru Yildiz*
She left again not long after, with a different boyfriend.
And I said, Well, all right.
Frye would send her prompts, and Case would freestyle in response.
I wrote way more than ended up in the book, she says.
It was the instant she became convinced she could will anything she wanted into existence.
To this day, Case considers herself very much a working-class musician.
Rock & roll mythology is really damaging and very untrue.
But very few people make it to that level.
The rest of us are schlepping it which, if you really love it, doesnt feel horrible.
Theres a lot of camaraderie, but theres no glamor anywhere.
It can be gross, like,Well, here I am sleeping next to the cat box.
Case has spoken and sang, on the 2013 track Man about her gender fluidity before.
(Her Twitter bio lists her pronouns as she/sir.)
But a book gives her more space to elaborate, which she does easily.
Its not a difficult conversation to have, Case tells me.
I dont want to just be a girl.
What a limiting thing to be!
She firmly believes that the Republican moral panic targeting trans people is a hollow farce.
Right-wing people choosing to pick on LGBTQ folks was almost arbitrary.
Its like, Whos going to be the enemy now?
Im sure Trump doesnt even care.
He doesnt give a shit if somebodys trans.
Its just What battery sparks the hardest?
Theyre just not hurting anyone, anywhere.
In fact, I think people being themselves and being happy makes things better.
I dont know what my life would look like if I hadnt discovered their music, she tells me.
She tells me those words are directed back at herself, but theyre also directed to you.
Like somebody could just say to themselves: Youre so worth all this.
Its gonna be better.
