It’s pretty clear at this point that cats rule the world.

Certainly they run teh internets if sources like NPR, I Can Has Cheezburger and the fake Cat Fancy Magazine twitter account can be trusted.

But now kittehs are looking to take over a whole new medium—Canadian music. It all began in earnest a few years back with a song or two about cats by The Weakerthans and another couple by Hayden. Then Joel Plaskett named his studio after his cat. Now, these meowing menaces want actual face time.

The front cover of Mike O’Neill’s new solo album Wild Lines features the moustached former Inbreds singer along with a photobombing shoulder cat named Fruitjack.

It turns out Fruitjack is owned by Mike Clattenburg, who trashtastic tv fans will recognize as the creator of the show Trailer Park Boys. And because we sometimes care more about cats than music, we asked O’Neill all about Fruitjack the shoulder cat with a Trailer Park Boys connection as well as his own ball of fuzz, Mister.

Oh, and a little bit about his first album in eight years, and the fact that he’s doing a reunion show in a couple weeks with his old band The Inbreds.

AUX: It’s been eight years since you put out your last solo record, The Owl. Why did it take so long?

Mike O’Neill: This isn’t a call for sympathy; at the time of The Owl [2004], and when I made What Happens Now? in 2000, I was going for it and I was still thinking maybe I could do this, maybe this could be my full-time job—I could be a touring musician and have a career in the conventional sense.

But after The Owl album came out and kind of ran its course I definitely became, I don’t want to call it a hobby musician because that suggests it’s something I don’t take seriously, when really I do, but it’s something that I decided as part of growing up that I wasn’t going to beg and borrow to pool resources to do it.

I toured [as a guitarist] with Sarah Harmer and I didn’t really find that agreed with me. And what I find way more interesting is my day job. I’m a recordist, a sound technician for film and television, so I did a lot of documentaries between 2004 and now.

And I also write music for television, which is sort of related, but it’s a different case because a lot of times people just want you to make music that sounds like music they can’t afford. But it’s a worthwhile exercise because it kind of gets you practicing on engineering and figuring out how other songs work.

You were also on the Trailer Park Boys as the character Thomas Collins.

I was doing sound for the show and when we got to the seventh season Mike [Clattenburg] said, “I’ve written a new character and I want you to play this character.” And I said right away, “You don’t have to do that. I know that’s what you do, you get your friends to act and stuff, but don’t do it because you think I need or want to do it. Because I just don’t know how it will be.” And he said, “If you don’t do it I’ll just have to cast a guy that looks like you and acts like you, so why don’t you just give me a break and do it OK?” And I said, “OK, OK, I’ll do it.”

And I did it and what I would say is that personally the experience was similar to, did you ever run track and field? You know how you feel nervous all day and you run? And just before you run you get really tired and exhausted and you end up not doing very well and you just feel sort of awful? At least that was my track experience. I got so mental about stuff that I just worried about it all day, had a miserable time, came 81st and went home. With acting it felt just like that.

You’re also getting back together with Dave Ullrich to play a reunion show as your old band The Inbreds at Canadian Music Week. Why are you doing that?

Dave and I, the thing that we always had in common was a love and interest in music. And in other ways we’re not, we have different interests. And I think that kind of continues to today, too, where he’s got a wonderful family now and his priority is his girls and his family and his work, and I don’t have any kids and so it’s sort of like we continue to go on our different paths in that way. But The Inbreds continues to be, even though it doesn’t exist as a band anymore, it just continues to be a great excuse to get together and catch up. And that’s for me pretty much all it is.

In the new Wild Lines song “Calgary” you talk about wanting to join a Christian band. What’s that all about?

That isn’t really autobiographical, but out here at least on the east coast and in most of Canada if you talk about what’s the bible belt of Canada they would say Calgary, Alberta. The song’s really about stereotypes. I do kind of make a couple punches. Like, I think that the oil sands project is really bad, really, really bad. But I would prefer if other people debated it on my behalf. But I think that the oilsands project is so incredibly destructive. It’s like a morality tale. In order to get anything valuable you have to destroy so much and it’s just sort of like a lesson in “Are you really going to do this to get after this kind of not even quality fuel?”

What’s the deal with the cat on the cover of Wild Lines?

I was over at Mike’s working, and Fruitjack loves to lick hair. I think he thinks he’s grooming you or something. So I was at the kitchen table and he was licking my hair. And he’s also one of those cats that’s really comfortable about getting on your shoulder. So he hopped up on one of my shoulders when we were having a lunch break. And then Mike’s wife Stephanie just took an iPhone photo and it was really good.

What made you think about putting that shot on the cover?

I didn’t think it was going to be the album cover. I didn’t think anybody was going to see it. I was really relaxed and happy with the way I looked in it. But then I thought maybe it’s time to not be so ridiculously shy about being on a cover. Because I’ve never ever had my image on the cover of a record whether it’s Inbreds or solo—it’s just self-consciousness. Then, of course, I found that photo that Steph had taken and I was like, “Let’s use this.”

But you couldn’t use that photo because iPhone photos aren’t high res enough, right? So what did you do then?

We did a whole Fruitjack photo shoot with him on my shoulder. Matt [Dunlap, Halifax photographer and O’Neill’s then-roommate] was able to light it and get it to look the way he wanted it to look. It was fun for everybody, I think.

Do you have a cat?

I have a cat of my own, Mister. He’s not a shoulder cat, though.

That’s the first time I’ve ever heard the term “shoulder cat.”

I may have just coined it. It’s just like, I’m obsessed with them. He, I’m sure that I’m packing a lot of thoughts into him. I know that his brain is the size of a walnut, right, and he can’t be that clever and think the things that I think he’s thinking all the time. But he is so intelligent and so sensitive to my moods and he’s so entertaining. He’s a bit of a klutz. And I think that he’s just endlessly fascinating.

What are your feelings about dogs?

I like dogs, too. I’m not a dog versus a cat person. But I just find that cats work way better with my lifestyle, the way they’re independent. Cats are incredible things and have made my life a lot better. So that’s how I feel about cats.

So would you consider yourself definitively a cat person?

Yeah, I’m a diehard cat person. My cat is sick. He has Squamous cell carcinoma. It’s this mouth cancer. He’s got a tumor in the upper palate, so he’s already lived way beyond the estimated time, but he’s got this growth and it’s going to get bigger and bigger and then he’s not going to be able to breathe well and he’s not going to be able to eat properly. It’s going to be hard but I’m definitely going to do the right thing when that time comes. But so far, like, he caught a mouse last night! So he’s doing fine, he’s doing great, but I guess what I’m saying is it’s going to be an incalculable loss to lose that kitty because he’s been such a big part of my life.

Aw man. That’s a bummer. Sorry.

Yeah. I have this friend—and he is my friend—but after he said this I had to re-evaluate it. He was asking me about an operation my cat had that cost over a grand. And he was like, “You paid a grand for an operation?” And he just said, “Let’s just grab that cat over there right now for nothing.” He was like, “You can buy a cat for $15. Why don’t you get yourself a new cat?” And I was like, “Why don’t you stop talking?”

People who don’t have cats don’t understand.

I know. Like, if you have kids your kids are everything. But you can’t see that cats can be like family?