Do you remember when you first became aware our planet was in trouble?
Neil Young: Hmm … probably in 1970. It was just this kind of creeping awareness. I’ d been living in LA for three or four years at that point. When I first got to LA, the air had a smell. There was so much pollution. But I can’ t explain it any more than that. The most pollution in any of the places that I’ d travelled to at that point in my life was Los Angeles. It took me a while to understand that that wasn’ t just something happening here. Over time [ my awareness ] grew, and it never stopped.
When did you begin to take action regarding environmental issues?
There was an evolution. I changed, and the older I got, the more things mattered. I started thinking about my children’ s children, and reading about the trajectory of life and the history of what it’ d been like for centuries— what it was like now, and where it was going. If you check things out on a graph, we’ re on the end of a hockey stick, and people don’ t have a chance because the governments have stacked it all against them feeling it or even knowing it. They know it’ s there, but they’ re not reminded they can do something about it, except by a few people on the fringe. Nonetheless, [ taking action ] is still the thing to do and I have a lot of faith in the young people. I just hope they can get things going and that it’ s not too late for them.
You see the messages around town:“ Save the planet,”“ The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth.” How can you encourage action instead of simply raising awareness? are supposed to be in my view, and so I do that. And whatever happens because of that will be an illustration of what happens when you do that.
Is that something you learned early on?
I just know that you’ ve got to do what you believe in. There’ s a bumper sticker that says“ Question Authority,” which is a really healthy thing to do. Keep questioning what you hear, what you see. Turn off your TV— burn the fucking TVs. There’ s nothing on mainstream corporate television except control of people. Entertainment is like icing on the cake. But really, it’ s what’ s not on TV, what they keep off of the TV …
In [ your 2012 memoir ] Waging Heavy Peace, you wrote a passage about walking with your dog and always sending a warning as you walk so as to avoid startling anything you might be approaching. How drastically have we ignored our planet’ s warnings? Is that to some degree what EARTH is about?
We don’ t even pay attention to what’ s going on. We’ re so distracted, we don’ t see. You can experience the whole [ new record ] as an ear movie. Close your eyes and listen to it with no stops for an hour and a half. The [ message ] is that with all the creatures, there’ s a relief. There’ s no politics with animals, they don’ t have an agenda. There’ s a war going on and the crickets are still singing. Where they’ re allowed to sing, they sing. Every once in a while they get wiped out by what we’ re doing, but if they’ re not being wiped out, they’ re being themselves. They’ re not campaigning; they’ re living.
Remember“ Earth First!” [ the radical environmental activist group formed in 1979 ]? Earth First! was early. The time when people can understand Earth First! is now. I don’ t condone violence and destruction, [ but ] it’ s hard to get people’ s attention. The corporations have power, and they control the government. That’ s the way our system works, and it’ s hard to beat. The media is corporate and the politics are corporate, so we never hear about anything else. If I wrote“ Ohio” today and put it on the radio, no one would hear it. America is not what it used to be.
Did you have any trepidation when you wrote“ Ohio” for how it could be received, or did you worry about the same for“ Monsanto Years”?
I just write about what I think and what I’ m feeling. I’ m one person and I just do what I do. If I feared, I didn’ t feel it.
Did you feel the flipside of that fear— empowerment?
It’ s great to be able to say what’ s on your mind, and that’ s a part of the way things
Is there an implied chronology to the nature sounds on the record?
One thing leads to another. [ The original ] running order started with a war, and then there was silence, then nature, and then the record happened. But that just didn’ t work for me. So the second running order was this one. It’ s all one big song— everything relates to everything else. It was quite a monumental undertaking to put this together. [ Neither the co-producer ] John Hanlon, who I made the record with, [ nor ] I had ever worked on anything like it before. It got completely out of control.
Do you mean with making the field recordings?
Field recordings, editing, putting the transitions together, crossfading, going from one place to another, [ figuring out ] where you introduce the animals [ and on ] which song. A lot of the field recording I did myself around my home, because my home is surrounded by animals. A crow lives [ there ], I see the crow every morning, and he has his girlfriend.