Locked down during the pandemic, Nora Kelly started meeting up with friends and jamming at the train tracks near her hometown of Montreal, whiling away the hours before the nightly curfew, singing country songs. Her pre-curfew outings were a detour from her previous punk band DISHPIT and led her to form the Nora Kelly Band, and the band’s debut EP, Perfect Pig, in 2022, and their debut album, Rodeo Clown, a year later.
“We all know that a clown’s role is to act goofy and make their audience laugh, but underneath, we have no idea how they are really feeling. I can relate,” said Kelly of the album in a previous statement. “I can be too much of a people pleaser, too worried about putting others at ease even when I’m not smiling inside. It’s something I’m working hard to move past, and a lot of the songs on this album reference, in some way, that journey I’m on to break those habits and stand up for myself.”
A year later, the band was asked to contribute a song to the soundtrack for the 2025 video game Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. After playing the game and going through its storyline, set around a group of girls who go out on life-bonding adventures together in 1995, Kelly began writing “See You in Hell.”
Capturing the ’90s-flamed teen angst of the game with Riot Grrrl punk, “See You in Hell” was something that could have been pulled from an L7 or Babes in Toyland record back in the day, and was a semi-shift from the alt-country and folk on Rodeo Clown and single “Lay Down Girl.”
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After releasing her debut album Rodeo Clown as Nora Kelly Band in 2023, Kelly continued writing what will become the band’s next album, which she calls their “most ambitious and vulnerable album to date.” Produced by Marcus Paquin (The National, Arcade Fire), the album is set for release in 2026.
Still leading her pack, Kelly chatted with American Songwriter about tapping into the ’90s with their video game contribution, not concerning themselves with genres, and what’s next for the band.
American Songwriter: How did you get involved in the Lost Record: Rage & Bloom soundtrack after Rodeo Clown in 2023?
Nora Kelly: Don’t Nod, the videogame company behind Lost Records: Bloom & Rage actually reached out to me on Bandcamp. At first, I thought it was a scam because I had already received a scam email that day, but it turned out they were a Montreal-based company and very real. They liked my previous band, DISHPIT, which was a riot grrrrr, post-punk band.
AS: Obviously, there was a storyline in the video game that you had to reference for “See You in Hell.” Did you find yourself writing it more conceptually, or did it come together differently once you got started?
NK: First, I went to the video-game company office and played an early version of the game, while the staff told me about the plot and its characters. When I sat down to write the lyrics, I tried to put myself into the mindset of the character who writes the band’s lyrics, Kat. She’s younger than her other friends, but the most knowledgeable about riot grrrl and loves Bikini Kill, L7, and Hole. I thought she would write an angsty, political song that would probably be a little melodramatic.
The lyrics are directed at her older sister’s boyfriend, who has been bullying her friends and treating her sister badly.
AS: Did the song evolve from your early demo to the final version?
NK: I always write my songs on an acoustic guitar in my bedroom, and then take them to the band. Sonically speaking, “See You In Hell” changed a lot once drums and bass were involved. That’s when the song became truly punk. During this time, I was between jam spaces, and so we had to pay $20/hour to rent a rehearsal space in a dingy, beer-soaked building when we wanted to work on the song.
AS: Sonically, what did you want to capture in the song?
NK: We wanted to capture the ’90s, and did a lot of fun things to achieve this. For example, when I played the electric guitar, we had it coming out of 2 DIs and 2 different amps to create a fat wall of sound. For the drums, Ethan [drummer Ethan Soil] has his hard and heavy, with large, boomy toms. The bass was recorded with an IVP pre-amp, something that’s known to be part of Steve Albini’s signature sound. Our final 90s ingredient was to double my vocals on the choruses.
AS: Thinking back to Rodeo Clown, how long did it take for that first album to come together?
NK: Rodeo Clown was my first full-length album as Nora Kelly Band. Before, I had played in several punk projects, but during the pandemic, we couldn’t play shows anymore. In Montreal, where I live, there was a 7:30 pm curfew and a long lockdown, so my friend group started meeting up outside the train tracks to sing country songs. That inspired me to start writing country songs of my own, which eventually led to the Nora Kelly Band and Rodeo Clown.
AS: It’s only been a few years since then, but how has songwriting changed for you since then?
NK: That’s so true. Change is the only constant. These days, writing in a specific genre has felt increasingly restrictive. The biggest change since Rodeo Clown would be that the Nora Kelly Band has stopped trying to write songs just in a ‘country’ or ‘punk’ genre or whatever. Now, we prioritize a good groove and rocking out.
AS: What’s next for the Nora Kelly Band? Is there new music on the way?
NK: We just finished recording our most ambitious and vulnerable album to date. It took 150-plus hours in the studio and includes 20 different instruments on it (pedal steel, fiddle, autoharp, banjo, French horn, trumpet, timpani, etc) The album was produced by Marcus Paquin, who’s worked with The National, Arcade Fire and Julia Jacklin, to name a few, so we’re beyond excited.
Main Photo: Courtesy of the Syndicate
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