Neko Case says the music scene in Canada is 'much healthier' than in the U.S.

34:41Neko Case: Why she says Canada’s music scene is “much healthier” than in the U.S.

When the American singer-songwriter Neko Case was a kid growing up in Washington state, she thought she was Canadian.

"In the '70s there weren't a lot of media outlets," she tells Q's Tom Power in an interview. "We had CBC … and so I remember being in school as a little girl and being asked what country we live in, and I said Canada because I just heard Canadian media all the time. I thought we were Canadian."

Case is best known as a solo artist as well as a member of The New Pornographers, one of Canada's most beloved indie rock bands. She recently released a new memoir, The Harder I Fight The More I Love You, which details her path to becoming a Grammy-nominated artist, and how she found her home in the Canadian music scene.

In 1994, Case moved to Vancouver to attend the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, where she found a thriving community of artists.

"It was the most positive change that I remember happening in my life," she says. "The Canadian music scene is very different than it was in the United States. If you're in a band in Vancouver, you have to just be OK with the fact that your bass player is going to be in five other bands because the population just isn't what it is in the United States. There's just less people. So there was more of a potluck sort of feel rather than a competitive feel. I think that was the healthiest thing I've ever been a part of."

[In Vancouver,] there was more of a potluck sort of feel rather than a competitive feel.- Neko Case

While it seems more typical for a Canadian musician to move to the U.S., rather than the other way around, Case says she thinks the music scene in Canada is "much healthier" than it is below the border. She's happy to be considered an honourary Canadian.

But there is a question of whether she uses Canadian or American spelling. Power notes that her breakthrough hit Favorite off her 2001 EP Canadian Amp is spelled the American way, without a u.

"I know, but my next record has Canadian spelling on it," she says. "I'm just going to say one word about it — it's grey. And I like the spelling with an e way more than I like it with an a. It just doesn't work with an a!"

The full interview with Neko Case is available on our YouTube channel and on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Neko Case produced by Vanessa Nigro.