Neko Case

Neko Case is many things: solo artist, member of The New Pornographers, thinking indie man's dream girl (she was even asked by Playboy if she'd kit-off for them a few years back, a request she had no trouble turning down) – but she's also the star of what is likely to be the single best album cover of 2009.

"Thank you," she laughs. "It was very fun to do. I just wanted to have a good time because I hate getting my picture taken, so I thought, "If I was an eight-year-old boy, what would I want to do? I would want to have a sword and a car."

It's appropriate, given that the album upon which said image is emblazoned – Middle Cyclone– is easily the perkiest solo album that she's ever made.

"That's true, it's a little more upbeat. New President!" she laughs. "I don't know if that's why, but I'm sure it has an underlying effect somewhere. See, during the election I was like, 'oh my god, it's going to take for fucking ever to get rid of Bush' and then next thing I knew it was the inauguration! I was so excited. We got Obama, and Bush got his suitcase, his money, and baby livers or whatever he's taking with him. The baby steaks that he dines on every night: hand raised, grass fed..."

Um, the album?

"Oh yeah. There's still darkness. I can't help it, I have a nasty sense of humour."

Sure, but in the past when Case got dark, it lead to songs like 'Deep Red Bells', her 2002 rumination on serial killer Gary Ridgway, aka the Green River Killer (the lines "When speckled fronds raise round your bones/Who took the time to fold your clothes" still inspire a shiver). There's not really a lot of yuks there.

"Well, no," she concedes. "There still is a sense of humour in the old records too; but I don't think it was as evident as it is now."

So what lead to the change?

"You can't do the same thing all the time. And, you know, I had more time with the songs and less of them were written in the studio so I did some experimenting. And it was the first time we were ever able to really rehearse: I'd never had a full band before that were the permanent guys and ladies. So it was a good time," she explains. "Camaraderie: it's good."

On a related subject, Case didn't make it to Australia on the last New Pornographers tour – although she's quick to point out "that's only because that album took longer to record than I thought. I was actually booked to go on that tour and then I had to stay behind, which was heartbreaking. But I'm expecting to get some demos any day now of the next New Pornographers recording, which I believe we will be recording over the summer. I'm going to see Carl [Newman, NP's leader] the day after tomorrow."

It's unlikely he'll have anything like Middle Cyclone's closing track: 'Marais la Nuit' is over half an hour of, well, frogs.

"That was an afterthought. Daryl [Neudorf, who co-produced the album with Case] and I were laughing because there were 37 minutes left on the CD, which was almost as long as the CD itself, and we thought 'let's not waste it, let's put something soothing on there'. And I had this recording I'd made of the frogs in the pond."

Well, it's a good way of punishing those who listen to the album on an iPod shuffle rather than as a piece.

"True. Vindictive, even," she snickers. "Except that it's so soothing they can't get mad about it."

Middle Cycloneis out now through Anti/Shock.

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