You recorded Kit-Cat with Matt Wiewel at Deadpan Studios in Sudbury and, Mel and Neil, this was your first time being able to make an entire record in your hometown. What was the recording process like? What did it mean to you to be able to record the record in your hometown?

Mel: It’s not every day you get to make an album at a studio that is a 2-minute walk from your home! [laughs] It was really amazing to be able to make an album in our hometown this time around. We recorded our last album, Knows No Kindness, at so many great studios around Toronto such as Union Sound, Baldwin Street Sound (now Gold Standard Recording), and Dream House. We also finished some parts at Laing Street. It was very frankensteined due to cost or time constraints from busy tours and work schedules. It took almost a year and a half for that one to be completed which is insane compared to us recording this record in 6 days. Then mixing happened and we had the record back within a month or so and it was off to mastering.

Deadpan is such a wonderful space too. It has a lot of incredible gear and holds up so well to studios we’ve worked in before. Matt is also such a great friend and musician. He really understood our vision and sound. We’re excited to have him on a few shows for this album tour cycle too!

Neil: The recording process was just so easy and it was the funnest record I’ve ever made. Recording this record really felt like a team effort. We’d sit collectively and all pick out snare sounds or guitar sounds. If someone had a strong vision, we’d let them follow that vision. I think the three of us generally trust each other’s instincts and Matt was also very aligned with those instincts so it felt like a perfect fit.

You’ve said that this was your first time recording an album without touring the songs first. What was this experience like?

Mel: For our previous albums, we’d usually jam, write everything as a band, and bounce ideas off of each other. That was a great way to get ideas on the fly, but for this album, it was the first time Neil and I demoed all of our songs first and then sent them to Fraser where he’d add his ideas on top. I find there is definitely a benefit to both methods and I would like to explore both on the next album; combining those two methods to see what comes out of that.

Fraser: We really liked the demos going into the sessions. Everything we had to do was all mapped out but we still made changes on the fly and had some fun improvisational moments in the studio that allowed us to bring a different type of precision to the performances and work quickly.

Kit-Cat also marks your first album as a 3-piece band. What went into your decision to become a trio? What impact has this had on the dynamic of the band?

Mel: After the departure of our former drummer in 2022, we decided that creatively we didn’t want to bring anyone new into the permanent fold going forward. We realized that the three of us are really in tune with each other musically and understand the vision of what Casper is going for. That’s not to say that we won’t maybe work with a producer one day if it’s the right fit, but the three of us can really produce together well with minimal headbutting which makes for a clean, quick, and fun album making process. It may be due to the fact that we’ve been working together creatively since 2015 and that decade long music bond exists.

The album takes its name from the Kit-Cat Klock and the clock appears in the album artwork along with a couple of your videos. What does the clock mean to you?

Mel: I’m usually the person behind the visual creative identity for each album so coming up with ideas for Kit-Cat was really fun. The clock, for me, is a reference to our time as a band. This is a bit cheeky, but the clock is 5 minutes to 2pm which I sort of thought about as being like we’re about to release this record. If you look up the spiritual meaning behind 2pm, it symbolizes partnership, balance, harmony, and cooperation which is what it felt like to make this album. 5 minutes to 2pm, we’re about to get to where we want to be and this album is the start of it.

Mel, you did all of the artwork for this album. What went into creating the artwork? How did the idea for the album cover come about?

Mel: I started thinking of so many prompts around the songs and what feelings/imagery each song evokes. It kind of turned into a fever dream collage, which is very much my sort of style when I write or make visual art. I like to put a lot of different imagery together and somehow make them work.

I started acrylic painting in March of last year and it took some time to get it all done. The single artworks all play such a vital role in the artistic makeup of this album. “Dying in Eight Verses” and “Petty at a Funeral” are very much sister and brother songs to one another. The bow window imagery mixed with the line “Those flowers of white they’ve come to give me” - taken from "Petty" - fit so well to paint for the back cover and for the “Dying in Eight Verses” single artwork.

Those little creative decisions are so fun to make. I love when we don’t just create an album of songs but an entire world with imagery and lore as well. Leaving some open to interpretation is good, but I could probably tell you what anything in that cover is there for as I have a reason for it all.

How would you describe your songwriting process?

Mel: Neil and I will write song structures and share them with one another first. We’ll figure out as much as we can before bringing it to the band or, like we did for this album, demoing it and trying out ideas before sending it to Fraser. He’ll lay down his ideas - sometimes adding extra guitar or synth ideas - and we pass things back and forth. It’s like making a collage again, but it’s super helpful for when we enter the studio and know where to begin.

You’ve mentioned that “Numbing Mind” came about in 2022 for your project Rugdealer. How do you feel the song has changed since then?

Neil: I had written that song and brought it to Rugdealer as I wasn’t sure if it would fit as a Casper Skulls song. Mel and I started trying to get pregnant and Augusta [Veno] was moving to Montreal, so it was no longer feasible to continue the project. I loved the song so much I didn’t want it to die with Rugdealer so I decided to put it on this record. Augusta wrote such a great guitar line that we decided it would be best to have her record it. Augusta has such a signature guitar sound, so I’m really thrilled she was able to be a part of it. All that being said, the song didn’t end up really changing since we wrote it.

On that song you talk about the addictive and distracting nature of technology and you pay homage to TV in the video including Bob Ross, Antiques Roadshow, MuchMusic, and infomercials. What helps you come back to yourself when you find yourself focusing too much on technology? Do you have a favourite reference in the video?

Neil: I find having a child makes me become the most present person I can be. Whenever our daughter is awake and around us, I put the phone away and try to give her all my attention.

My favourite reference in the video is probably Ms. Rachel just because Mel and I play her songs almost every day for our daughter. Fan TV is pretty fun too!

“The Awakening” takes its name from Kate Chopin’s 1899 book. What drew you to this book?

Neil: I kind of just stumbled on this story and thought the story itself could make an interesting song. I doubt many people are familiar with it so I thought retelling it could be powerful. The song starts with the narrator holding their baby and looking out on the Gulf of Mexico and reflecting on the dissatisfaction in their marriage. The second verse is the narrator reflecting on a relationship they had outside of their marriage that made them feel alive. The last verse has the narrator resting her baby on the shore and walking into the Gulf.

“The Master’s Singer” and “Living” are two of my favourite songs off the album. What’s the story behind these tracks?

Neil: Thanks so much! “The Master’s Singer” was a song I started working on in 2019. I had the chorus chord progression during the writing of our sophomore record Knows No Kindness but it didn’t really work in any of the songs on that record. At another point it was going to be the bridge of “Petty At A Funeral” but, again, it didn’t quite fit. I remember the lyrics pouring out of me on this one. I pictured this song taking place in 17th-century Europe for some reason. I was trying to tell a non-linear story of an altar servant (aka The Master’s Singer) and the complicated and abusive relationship with their Master, a catholic priest. The song tries to convey the emptiness one feels after the abuse.

“Living” is a song I wrote back in 2013. I used to perform the song in my old band Geyser and I always loved it. When we were selecting songs for this record, I thought the album could use another shorter track and this one fit perfectly and matched the light-heartedness of the record. I rewrote the lyrics and I think it came out as one of my favourite songs production-wise. Mel sings the bridge on this one because my voice couldn’t quite get high enough to make the melody pop.

Your videos for “Spindletop” and “Roddy Piper” take place in the same universe and both feature lots of cool spots around Sudbury like the Gingersnap Salon, Latebloomer Tattoo, Knowhere Public House, and Lounge 390. How did the storylines for these videos come about? What do these local spots mean to you?

Mel: We had a lot of silly ideas while coming up with music video idea plans. Neil had an idea to do something like the Mortal Kombat beef and at one point thought about carrying an amp of some kind around. We didn’t know which singles would be chosen so we just kept it as an idea in the back of our minds. When “Spindletop” and “Roddy” were chosen, it felt so perfect and natural when we started planning it out and creating the treatments with Goodscreen Media.

The videos living in the same universe happened sort of on the fly when we were at Knowhere Pubic House and I grabbed the coffee. I was like, “What if you see me in the background of ‘Roddy’ too?” Then we filmed that portion and the rest just worked out well. I am a big community-loving person so I immediately knew I wanted to incorporate some great people and places from Sudbury in it. It was so nice to be able to include them and it made the process even funner to goof around with our community pals.

You just wrapped up a tour of Ontario and Montreal and you’ll be playing some shows around Ontario later this month. Do you have a song that you’re the most excited to play on this run?

Mel: We just wrapped up the first leg of the tour and it’s been so lovely to see familiar and new faces. We’re very excited to be playing “The Awakening” on this tour and have been closing with it. It’s a pretty wordy song that Neil and I sing in unison which makes it so that Neil and I need to be really on top of our memory. [laughs] It goes super hard at the end which we love letting loose to.

Fraser: “The Awakening” has already become something kinda different than how it sounds on the record. Mel and Neil’s vocal delivery has a really cool kind of urgency. We’ve been doing a cool thing with the ending live that just came naturally and didn’t come about in rehearsal.

Which part of Kit-Cat are you proudest of?

Neil: I’m really proud of all the creative stuff for this record. The album packaging Mel painted is my favourite art we’ve ever had. I really like all the music videos for this record too. It’s just silly and fun and that’s where we're at right now.

Mel: I’m proud of us! [laughs] This is the first album where none of it really makes me cringe later on or second guess about. I will admit that with my free will I listen to this album a lot just because I genuinely like the tunes we made. I also like the fact that when I think about creating it, it was such a positive experience so it brings me back to that as well.

Fraser: The fact that it came about so easily and was so fun to make is something I feel proud of. The whole thing was just really painless. I put a lot of trust in Mel and Neil and I think they trusted me a lot too. There wasn’t really much back and forth when we were sending the demos around because I think it all just felt so natural, and that made recording a breeze.