Casper Skulls Embrace New Rhythms on Kit-Cat

With a baby, a big move, and a burst of creative freedom, the indie outfit finds fresh footing on their most playful record yet.

by Izzy Kaz

Photo by Kyle Ormsby

There’s something poetic—almost cartoonishly perfect—about the way time ticks for Casper Skulls these days. On Kit-Cat, their third studio album (named after those classic googly-eyed cat clocks), the Toronto-bred, Sudbury-born trio find themselves in sync like never before—personally, musically, and emotionally. For a band that’s built a reputation on shape-shifting indie sounds and searing introspection, Kit-Cat feels like their sunniest left turn yet.

“We made a really serious record last time,” says vocalist/guitarist Melanie St-Pierre, reflecting on 2021’s Knows No Kindness, an album that feels both cathartic and heavy. But this one? It just feels fun.

St-Pierre and longtime partner Neil Bednis—her bandmate, co-writer, and now co-parent—decamped from Toronto to her hometown of Sudbury, Ontario in the time since their last release. The move wasn’t just a change of scenery; it was a reset. “Before we moved back home, this all felt very impossible,” St-Pierre says. “We thought we’d never be able to have a child, or a home, because if we did we’d have to end the band. But we realized no, you don’t have to do that. There’s support, we have grants in Canada, and you can do what you can.”

 

Photo: Liv Sacco

 

And make it work they did. Kit-Cat was recorded in just five days with bandmate Fraser McClean and local producer Matt Wiewel of Deadpan Studios. “It felt so good making it with him,” St-Pierre says. “He just understood everything we were working on and brought some really cool ideas of his own.”

The result is an album that still carries the signature Casper Skulls blend of intricate lyricism and evolving sound—but this time, it’s laced with cheekiness, warmth, and more than a little late-night TV absurdity. The video for lead single “Numbing Minds” riffs on retro cable-access chaos: ASMR bits, low-budget infomercials, and a performance on a fictional program called “Fuch Music.” St-Pierre even channels a Miss Rachel-inspired kids’ host, “Miss Melanie,” with delightfully surreal results. “We were really into old Yo La Tengo videos,” Bednis laughs. “We just wanted it to feel lighthearted and weird.”

This tonal shift mirrors their real-life dynamic. “Usually we write separately and then come together,” St-Pierre explains. “But sometimes we write for each other’s voices, which is neat. There’s some magic to it.” One track, “Roddy Piper,” was written together from the start. “It was kind of a new thing for us,” Bednis adds. “And honestly, the most fun I’ve had making a record. It was an easy, quick process.”

That sense of ease and flow extends beyond the studio. With their daughter now in the picture, their songwriting lens has subtly started to shift. “That’ll be on the next record, hopefully,” St-Pierre says, when asked if their daughter has weaved into their writing. Still, as parents, they haven’t lost their edge—or their appetite for artistic exploration. St-Pierre name-drops a local darkwave goth act, Fauxcils, that “kind of sounds like New Order” as one of her favourite recent discoveries. Bednis has been down a Criterion Collection rabbit hole, watching Mike Leigh films and digging into cinematic textures that inevitably sneak into the band’s creative palette. 

Casper Skulls may have traded the chaos of city life for something slower-paced, but Kit-Cat proves they’re still moving forward, clock hands spinning whichever way they choose. “This album feels like the most us thing we’ve ever done,” says Bednis. “Every release, we naturally rebel against ourselves.”

St-Pierre laughs: “We were joking the other day that maybe I don’t want to rebel against ourselves this time.”