ifitbeyourwill Podcast
“ifitbeyourwill" Podcasts is on a mission to talk to amazing indie artists from around the world! Join us for cozy, conversational episodes where you'll hear from talented and charismatic singer-songwriters, bands from all walks of life talk about their musical process & journey. Let's celebrate being music lovers!
Season 6 starts Fall 2025… Looking for indie musicians
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ifitbeyourwill Podcast
ifitbeyourwill S06 E04 • Case Oats
From scribbled journal entries to a critically acclaimed debut album on Merge Records, Casey Gomez Walker's artistic evolution is a testament to creative fluidity and unexpected paths. The frontwoman of Casey Oats opens up about how her background in creative writing led to songwriting only after college, when a gifted guitar from a friend revealed music's accessibility.
"I was having a really bad time when I was like 22, 23. I was sick, sad. My best friend found this cheap electric guitar and picked it up for me when I was sick... it made me realize playing guitar was much easier than I thought." This pivotal moment sparked a musical journey that would eventually culminate in "The Last Missouri Exit," an album Casey describes as "accidentally" capturing the coming-of-age novel she'd been trying to write.
Casey's approach to creativity defies conventional boundaries—she doesn't separate songwriting from other forms of expression, instead collecting phrases, images, and character ideas that eventually find their perfect medium. Her partnership with Spencer Tweedy proved transformative, both personally and artistically. "When I met Spencer, it opened up this... he has lived his whole life knowing that you can make art and it can mean something to a lot of people," she reflects, crediting him with helping her embrace her identity as a musician.
The album's creation was unhurried and organic, with basic tracks recorded in a friend's basement and overdubs added as time allowed. After nearly a year of cold-emailing labels, Merge Records recognized the finished album's brilliance. Now touring with notable acts like Lucius and Superchunk while developing their second record, Casey finds particular joy in hearing how listeners connect with her music: "Having it released and everyone else experiencing it and then holding it back up to you is so cool... that they can relate to it and have the same emotional experience is really special."
Ready to discover your next favorite album? Listen to Casey Oats' "The Last Missouri Exit" and experience the distinctive voice and storytelling that's captivating audiences everywhere.
Living in a teenage dream, but forever Barn parties and whiskey till the morning, hiding on a hill Center of the world Before your parents got divorced. I used to feel things when something back then, the magic ran dry and the letters never sent. Think about how much you didn't know.
Chris:Here we are back with you season six, chugging along Tamri. Here I'm reaching down to the States. I'm in Canada, quebec, and I am going down to Illinois. Is that correct, casey?
Casey:Yes, I'm in Chicago.
Chris:Yep, and I have Casey Gomez Walker from Case Oats coming in to talk about her new record, the Last Missouri Exit. That came out August 22nd of this year on Merge Records A fantastic record. I was just saying before we hopped on here that this is like a no-skip record for me. Anyway, one song into the next is just outstanding. So I was very happy to get presents here today and I so excited to start our call.
Chris:So, Casey, thank you for such a great record.
Chris:There's just like country but also soul to it, which are hard to find that combo together at times. But I really, really impressed by the writing and the lyricism is just out of this world. Which brings me to my first question. Read that you did a degree in creative writing. Is that an accurate statement?
Casey:That is an accurate statement. Yeah, my, my undergrad degree is from Columbia College, Chicago, in creative writing. So, yeah, studied creative writing. Do as much of it as I can.
Chris:Right, and what brought you to that kind of thinking back as you were growing up, like were you always interested in in playing around with words and I think.
Casey:I mean, I think I was always interested in music. I was at first interested in and I'm so sorry, my dog is barking. I guess you can cut that out if you need to, or whatever. Yeah, but yeah, no, I think my interest was always, you know I I loved music more than anything. I loved visual art. I loved, like any art I could get my hands on.
Casey:I wasn't like a hundred percent drawn towards writing. You know, I read a lot of like Stephen King and little school just like liked it. But it wasn't really till I got to high school that I like I was into journalism, I was into radio storytelling, so like I was like this American life was like a big one for me. But then I kind of I took a, a fiction writing class in high school and that kind of made me realize like, oh sure, of course this makes sense. And I actually went into college thinking I was just going to do journalism with some fiction writing courses. And then once I got into, you know, the creative writing, fiction writing world, I was like this is what makes the most sense for me.
Chris:And when did songwriting walk in the door?
Casey:Not till way later, not till after I graduated college. I was writing short stories, trying to write a novel, you know, until well after college and I was writing a lot of poetry and I've always been really into the idea of writing a story with like the least amount of words possible and it never really clicked to me that that's what song I mean. I knew that that's what songwriting did, but I never thought of myself as someone who would do that. And I wasn't. I had a guitar but I wasn't playing it.
Casey:And then my I was having a really bad time when I was, like I don't know, 22, 23. I was sick, sad. My best friend found this cheap electric guitar and he went and picked it up for me when I was sick and brought it to me and it made me realize that playing guitar was much easier than I thought. And we kind of started songwriting together and we kind of started wrong songwriting together and it just like opened up this brain space that I hadn't really been in, that like I could apply the poetry that I had been writing in short stories into song.
Chris:And you were inspired by something that you want to put down on paper, like, also like. Were you able, as you were getting older, to start to say, okay, that could be a song versus that could be something journal? Yeah, no, I don't.
Casey:I've never. Still to this day, I don't differentiate. I kind of just keep a lot of journals. I keep a lot of notes in my phone's phone with really just phrases or images that come to me, or a character even, and these days I'm mainly songwriting. So it's in my head that it's probably going to go into a song rather than something else. But I've never really drawn the line of like okay, I'm going to sit down and write this for a song rather than it maybe goes somewhere else. Very fluid.
Chris:Right, and did you find that once you started playing guitar more, rather than it maybe goes somewhere else Very fluid, right? And did you find that once you started playing guitar more, that you were getting more and more inspired in songwriting and in that process of songwriting?
Casey:Yeah, I think, like once I fully wrote my first song, which was Bluff, which is the last song on the album, a long time ago now, and I had just met Spencer at the time too, and he was the one who kind of was like, yeah, duh, anyone can write music. I hadn't come from that world and I was like, oh, this is true, yeah. So I think once I sat down and fully wrote a song, I started thinking about guitar more. I always write lyrics first and music second, so I still am always thinking about words first, but I do think, obviously, about melody or the way I want it to sound, or what sound is inspiring me, whether that be another record or just an idea of a melody.
Chris:Can you talk a little bit, casey, about your process? How does an idea or a of a melody and talk a little bit about your process? Like how does an idea or a phrase, as you alluded to you might get on your phone or capture this, you know phrasing how does that evolve into something like do you like what's your process? Are you normally like an early riser and you like to do it, you know, for an hour a day?
Casey:or like yeah, I wish I've always wanted to be someone who wakes up and writes every day like it's a job, and I hope someday I will be.
Casey:I don't have very good discipline right now.
Casey:It's really I I try and keep as much little pieces all together in notebooks and my phone and so that when it comes to the time of like I feel like sitting down and writing a song, I have things to do to back it up.
Casey:I'm not starting from scratch, but I I'm not disciplined with sitting down and writing. It just kind of happens. When it happens, there's sometimes where I pick up the guitar for literally a couple of seconds I start and sometimes I mumble, sing when I'm playing guitar and that is puts me in a weird, a weird trancy head state that I can kind of get some stuff out. But a lot of times recently Spencer and I write together and when we do that I will kind of lay out notebooks or lay out whatever ideas I have and kind of say to him like you know, he's a much better guitar player than I am. You know, I have this sound in mind for this type of melody that sounds like this and it's about this, and we're kind of able to sit in and totally pick away at it like a piece of marble or something.
Chris:And when did when did your relationship start with spencer? Like I had read that most of these songs that you would that are on the your first lp are older songs in the sense that you would never put them down on on tape.
Casey:But yeah, they do have some legs to them in the sense that you've been playing them for a while yeah, I mean, a lot of these songs were written, you know, probably 2017, 2018, you know, in their most basic form, not in the same way that you're hearing it on the record, but, yeah, a lot of them I had written by myself or they were halfway written and Spencer helped me write a chorus or helped me realize the bridge that I was trying to think of. Yeah, so it was collaborative, even though a lot of the songs I you know had started before I met him or, you know, had written by myself or whatever it may be.
Chris:And before the band came together, how were you performing? How were you getting your music out there? In my deep dive because I love to get prepared for these conversations I didn't really ever find any other of your songs out there that you might have done in the past. There was nothing Before actually getting together with the band and saying, hey, let's put these down.
Casey:Nothing. Yeah, it happened, you know, with them. I I played in a garage rock band that never really played new performances or recorded anything for less than a year, and then I was just kind of starting to write my own songs when I met Spencer, and it very quickly I played with a band right away, which was like because someone had someone that we kind of knew had heard Bluff online and asked if I wanted to play a show, and I totally lied and said that I had a band and I had other songs and I didn't. But I I took that as motivation to get it all together and do it. And then that's how we put our first show and it just kind of went from there.
Chris:Nice and how did you meet Spencer? If you don't mind me asking, what was the situation that brought you guys to Cross?
Casey:I messaged him on Instagram. It's a modern-day love story. We had mutual friends and I knew that he was through Chicago a lot. He wasn't living in Chicago at the time and, yeah, we hung out and it just was kind of inseparable once we first met each other.
Chris:Yeah, and was the idea too, like right from the get go like hey, you know, I got all these songs that I have. I'd love to show them to you.
Casey:No, not even, Cause I didn't have that much. I think that I showed him a couple of songs you know really rough recordings from the band I was playing in before. That was like totally doesn't sound anything like the music I'm making now, but I think there was like maybe in the back of both of our heads that we were going like obviously we would make some sort of art together Because that was both of our lives. You know whatever that meant. But it happened pretty quickly that we started making music together.
Chris:And how did this record come together? I mean, it's very interesting Like you're saying that Bluff is quite an olduff is such a great song on top, like choose what songs that you were going to put down on tape. Like how did this assembly come together?
Casey:It was, so I didn't think about it too hard, to be honest I mean, there's not a super good answer for it, because it was the songs that I had. It was like, okay, I've got 11 songs or 10 songs or whatever, let's track them. There was no cutting, like we just tracked the 10 songs. And I really, honestly, until we finished it probably not until we were done mixing it that I listened to it in succession and was like, oh, this all makes sense together. This is a full story, like I. I totally. I did it unintentionally, but it's also, of course it makes sense. It's that way because it's the themes that I had been focused on in writing and thinking about. So it's not completely random, but I had never thought of it as like a thematic album until it was completely done.
Chris:And now, like kind of looking back on it, do you see how it has this kind of leaving of and coming to a new?
Case Oats:Oh yeah.
Chris:A hundred percent yeah.
Casey:Yeah, and I mean the joke I've been making is that I intended to write a novel about what the record's about and I accidentally made a record and it's it's. It's been, it's been a trip like listening to other people talk about it and it's like, oh, this is like that's what I was trying to do when I was trying to sit down and write this coming of age novel and it's totally almost all there in the album without even me realizing it. And yeah, it's really interesting to see your, your art reflected back onto when other people talk about it. And also, like I get something new each time I listen to the record that like it's like oh, wow, that fits with this in a way that I hadn't thought about before.
Chris:Whatever it may be, Did it take a long time to record or was it pretty quick? The whole process.
Casey:It was long just because we took our time with it. We tracked all of the basics in two days. We just did it in our friends and bandmates' basement at the time they lived in a house and then Spencer and I added all of the overdubs over time. So like vocals we tracked in our our condo at the time and then we tracked it at a studio and we just kind of did it as we had time in between Spencer touring and in between I was working a full-time job. So it was like we just kind of did it when we could. And then there was a point where we were like, okay, let's buckle down, finish mixing, get this mastered.
Chris:And then you know well, mastering came after the record deal, but yeah, and was this Spencer's first dive into production side is like being in the band but also doing the production side of it.
Casey:He has done stuff with our friend Henry True before. They've done a good amount of stuff together where he's kind of producing it and also, you know, drumming. But I would say probably maybe I couldn't tell you because I'm not sure if he fully produced Henry's records, but I would say it's like maybe the first like full-fledged, where he was definitely producing engineering, you know mixing, doing it all. Him you know doing it all.
Chris:Yeah and I want to just clarify that so you would bring the lyrics in, you would have kind of an idea of a melody and then the two of you together would sit down and like actually flush it out further. Was that kind of how?
Casey:you Some of the songs. Some of them were totally done by the time I brought them to Spencer. That would be like 17. I kind of I wrote totally on my own Kentucky cave. But you know there was other songs where they were pretty much done but I just knew they needed a bridge or a more catchy chorus and I would bring them. And then there's some songs we wrote totally together, bitterroot Lake being one where it was just like I had written a lot of you know, had the idea, written down some lyrics, and we just kind of sat down and then banged it out.
Chris:So I mean August 22nd this. This record came out on record Was that a complicated process to get picked up by a label, or did it go pretty seamlessly?
Casey:I wouldn't say it was complicated, but it's, it's trying. You know, we sent it's. It's cold emailing. We sent out a ton of emails to labels and a lot of not hearing back, a lot of hearing back and they don't have the space or it's not the right fit or whatever it may be. So that was almost a year of just doing that and then, luckily, we we heard back from merch and they were, they were interested in like the sound, and you know, of course, the process of of then figuring out stuff with them took another long while sure, but it's been a good relationship so far, like oh, yeah, a lot of the music just you guys to take care of oh, 100.
Casey:I mean the album was completely done by the time that we had. They had heard it and they, you know, didn't. They were like didn't have any changes or anything, and they're all extremely awesome people. We love working with them. It's like, not like. I think some people have a little bit of an archaic idea of like what it means to work with a label, and it's just not that. It's like. It feels like working with friends and people who get it.
Chris:I care about you. There's a personal connection. There's a personal connection and how is coming into Spencer's world influenced or affected your trajectory? Can you talk to that?
Casey:Yeah, I think the biggest thing is just like, like I said earlier is that I mean there's never been any pressure at all. I mean, when Spencer met me, I only identified as a writer and like thought that that's all I was going to do. I'm sorry my cat is now trying to get in on this, but I think the main.
Casey:Whenever you get on a Zoom call, all the pets have to be involved, oh my goodness. But yeah, when I met Spencer, I think it opened up this. He is so open to doing things and also has lived his whole life knowing that, like, you can make art and it can mean something to a lot of people. Because of his dad and because of what he had done with Mavis or whatever it may be, of like, of course, you can do it, you know where it. Just I hadn't met anyone who was like that.
Casey:Really in my life I knew a lot of my dad plays music. I know a lot of people who play music but still worked a full-time job or did whatever I just I mean, really up until the last couple years I was like there's no way you can just make music or just make art. It's just like it's it's crazy to think about. But I think that, like Spencer is really committed and he views it as as a job and a commitment and like seeing that really helped me figure out how to approach it and like realize, like yeah, I can do it. And like him saying to myself or saying to me like yeah, you are a musician, like you are writing music, like it helps about with the. What do you call it, I don't know, but I, you know, not being able to see myself yet as fully realized, maybe those shutters up from you start to yes, really, I mean, that's definitely a lot of what he's done for me and kind of in in retrospect, kind of looking back at the record.
Chris:It's been out for almost a month. What's your feeling about it? How do you, how do you feel it's been received by the public? And you know, what do you in in in talk about, about, oh, I didn't think they would think that, or oh, I saw that, or like, what are your reflections in the post? Kind of release date.
Casey:Oh, it's amazing. It's my favorite part. It's really insane to have to like be working on this very solitary thing of of making a record or writing something and sitting with it for so long and to have it released and everyone else experiencing it and then holding it back up to you is like it's so cool and hearing like you know how people are. You know they may be not experienced the exact same things as me, but that they can relate to it and have the same emotional experience with it is really special. I was talking to someone yesterday and we were saying like, of course, like the records that mean the most to you, you didn't have the same experience. I wasn't, you know, going through what Bob Dylan went through when I was listening to those records and when I was in middle school or whatever, but you still relate to it and the emotional nature.
Casey:But it's. It's been a dream, the way it's been perceived. I think people get it. I think people understand what I was trying to do or what I did, what we did. I think my favorite part is people talking about my voice. I think it's. It's it's fun, it's sometimes it's upsetting, but it's also like a great motivator and it's just like you know, it's got to keep doing my thing, so thank you.
Chris:It's like nobody else sounds like you, and I mean that in the most wonderful way.
Casey:No, that is a huge compliment.
Chris:And that's what I try for. Yeah, and I really get this sense too of the collaborative nature of of your group. You know the band that it's, that we're all in it together. I'll bring some lyrics, but you guys bring all these other components on and it's really kind of like a group effort. It feels like.
Casey:Yeah yeah, I mean there's with with max and jason are our guitarist and steel player and our bass player. There you know everything that we've ever brought to them. We just give them the idea or play the acoustic guitar part and they just absolutely rip it out and, like I'm always like no notes sounds great. I love a first draft. I don't have many iterations of things we've done and you know, of course, we're playing things a little bit differently now than when we first wrote them, but yeah, it's always been like that works, like, of course, and I'm also very lucky that they're amazing musicians and can quickly understand a vision and get it. Yeah.
Chris:I'm a musician but I envy people. Oh, I can't. Yeah, I hear the cure one time and like yeah, yeah, here we go, you know, or whatever. You know, it's just it's crazy.
Casey:Yeah, I'd say that is not the type of musician I am either, but it's fun to be around yeah, I I really appreciate those and they're good people to have on your side.
Chris:Oh yeah, they add these whole other ideas.
Casey:Oh yeah, it's a different. It's a completely different world than it would be if it was just me or whatever, Totally.
Chris:Well, Casey, this has been really fun I really like your story and I'm just in love with this record. I'll tell you that.
Casey:Thank you so much.
Chris:It's going to be one of my favorite of the year. I know already. I just feel it. What's coming down the pipe? What can we anticipate with KSO? It's coming down. Are you headed out on tour? A new record coming out, I know that you have plans of 2020.
Casey:Yeah, we're, we're about to hit the road with um lucius and then super chunk. So that's all of october and we've got those dates and then a couple couple things coming out, coming up not out in the in the new year definitely more tour dates, more more road hitting. And yeah, I'm, I'm ready to to, to get on with the second record. So I'm certain I are working on it one more, and when we're both home and when we can and and in those quiet moments I was speaking with somebody yesterday, a field medic, kevin sullivan.
Chris:He was saying that he loves going on the road because it's a 24-hour job. You work one hour, you know like. So he's like there's a lot of hours in there to just sit and doodle and and yeah, you know you're around the band anyway, so you have like, hey, throw a lead in there, or so yeah it's.
Casey:It's quite inspiring to to get out there too, because that's what you're doing yeah, and you're only thinking about music it's, it's this will be my first long run ever, so I'm excited to see how it pans out for me well I wish you all the best.
Chris:Congrats on this record again thank you so much last missouri exit. It's on bandcamp, it's on records. You can get it. Go check a show out. I'm envious of all the people that get to go and watch you, but maybe one day you'll head up to montreal. I mean, there's I'm sure we will.
Casey:I'm sure we will. There's a lot of good Canadian friends, so we'll make our way back up there.
Chris:Awesome, well, thanks so much, casey, this has been a real treat yeah.
Casey:I appreciate you Best on the tour. Thanks.
Case Oats:One, two, three, four. I got you from a postcard, got a bad start, couldn't be far, got a good heart. You were still there and I still cared. I remember, tried to be fair. Nora, nora, nora, I'm glad you are here now. Nora, nora, nora, I'm glad you are here now. I can see now You're on the back of barstools, jukebox picks, camping trips. I didn't stick In corners, I saw you, I felt you. I always knew Nora Nora, nora. Glad you are here now. Nora, nora, nora, glad you are here now. I can see now. No run, no run, no run. Glad you are here now. No run, no run, no run. Glad you are here now. I can see you now. Forget my name, forget my name, forget my name. Guess I'll leave you at Starcrossed. I came and went, moved away as time bent. Should have called you, should have told him, should have told you. I always knew. Nora Nora, nora, I'm glad you are here now. Nora, nora, nora, I'm glad you are here now. Nora, nora, nora, I'm glad you are here now. I can see now.
