Why case/lang/veirs Are A True Democracy

Singer-songwriters Neko Case, Laura Veirs and k.d. lang had all met each other in passing over the years as their careers unfurled, but none were yet great friends when the trio's elder statesperson lang emailed the others out of the blue, stating succinctly, "I think we should make a record together."

Fast-forward a handful of years and the three distinctive talents have more than just bonded in friendship — egos were thrown out the window entirely to unleash a creative force majeure that's culminated in new project case/lang/veirs.

The trio's gorgeous eponymous debut album is an effortlessly elegant collection of heartfelt Americana where individual voices clearly take the reins on certain songs, but never at the expense of the collective, the album's textured arrangements offset by beautiful girl group harmonies and classy instrumentation.

"I'm really excited to be part of a collaborative process with just female voices because I don't think there's been enough of that happening in the past."

"I wanted to do a band combination like a Travelling Wilburys kinda thing," lang remembers, "and I'd been thinking about it for quite a few years, then when I moved up to Portland I met Neko and Laura at around the same time and one night it just kinda sunk into me and instinctually I felt that it was the right thing and I emailed them. I dunno, I just felt that we had differences but we had similarities that kinda overlapped and I thought it would make an interesting combination. Plus I'm really excited to be part of a collaborative process with just female voices because I don't think there's been enough of that happening in the past."

"K.d. initially thought it would be more of a girl group, a punk kind of thing, and we said, 'Yeah, that sounds cool,'" Veirs continues. "Initially we were actually going to do a covers record but then we were like, 'No, let's write it, it's going to be so much more cool if we can pull off the songs.' But then the songwriting just didn't turn into punk, it was way more like what we normally do, like indie-Americana-folk style. There's a lot of girl group stuff in there with the backing vocals and stuff, but the songs dictated it. I don't think we could just tell ourselves to do something that didn't feel like it was going to come out."

The creative side of the project was truly collaborative for the most part, with many of the songs constructed together from the ground up. "It was really scary and weird at times to be in the same room just coming up with stuff from scratch, but most of the time it was pretty fruitful," Veirs offers. "There were definitely fallow times where we were just, like, 'Agh, fucking let's go for a walk or get a bite to eat or something,' but that's the creative process, you can't always get something every time."

"We ate a lot of good food," Case laughs. "But then Laura and k.d. deserve the credit for being the rock of the project. They were like the mighty apple trees in the orchard and I was kinda like the hummingbird who would come in and pollinate some stuff, but they were the actual fruit-bearing trees."

"They were like the mighty apple trees in the orchard and I was kinda like the hummingbird who would come in and pollinate some stuff."

With three such strong and distinctive songwriters in the mix was it hard to pull back and let each other be heard? "It was difficult at times, I think we're all bosses in our own rights and in our own careers and to come in and be absolute democratic equals it took a little adjusting from all of us," lang reflects. "But I think it was essential for all of us that we all put our stamps on the song and our hearts and souls into it."

"We ran the full gamut," Case tells. "There were moments were people were mildly butt hurt, like, 'But my lyrics were good there,' but then a couple of days later you kinda go, 'You know what, the song is actually better that way.' Everybody kind of had those moments separately but we really stuck to our guns, we were really adamant about being honest about what was supposed to happen and serving the song, and we really stuck to that and I'm really very proud of us, because it's really hard to do!"

"I think we just all had to accept that if you're going to collaborate then you're not going to get your own way all the time," Veirs ponders. "It's easier said than done but we all agreed that we wanted to make a collaborative songwriting record, so we were all able to rise above those feelings of, 'What the fuck?!' when that comes up. There was no leader really, it was a true democracy which can take time and feel muddy, and we didn't always agree but eventually it's like the song said what it wanted and we all had to kinda agree and bow down to it."