We spoke to Belgrade-based musician Neacal about his musical background, songwriting process and debut single ‘The Bell’ which was released on 19 July via Neacal Music. He has been a composer for over 16 years, and is also an acclaimed singer-songwriter and producer. Neacal is the emerging chamber pop project of an artist whose journey began as the founder of one of the most revered instrumental progressive/post-rock bands from Eastern Europe. Through resilience and adaptation, Neacal’s story is a testament to the enduring power of creativity amidst adversity. Read our interview with Neacal below:
How has your musical background helped shape your sound?
I spent most of my childhood and teenage years training to become a professional violinist, and thanks to that I was constantly exposed to classical music for a decade and a half. Even though I abandoned this path, the appreciation and love I gained for the works of the past never evaporated, and thus I was always inspired by strings, orchestrations, and other elements/ techniques in my path as a composer. It took almost 15 years to come to the point where I was finally able to fully recreate what I heard in my head in the way I wanted, and with my progressive rock band I also had the freedom to apply those techniques in any way I’d like without subjecting myself to rules of academia and what not. Taking the best from two different musical worlds allowed me to acquire this musical dialect, which I reckon will keep evolving further on.
Take us through your songwriting process. Are there any particular steps you take when writing music?
Usually I would start with a snippet of an idea. That could be a short melody, or a few words, or both at the same time. Then I would go for extending this into a part (could be a verse, or a chorus, or something else completely), and by that point I am clear on what feeling / idea I’m trying to convey here. Then it’s a process of expanding horizontally – other parts would have to be established, after which I can focus on arrangements, and then do a strict review for each and every element from “what role does it play?” and “do I really need it here?” perspective. And once the review is done, I can focus on finalising the production – record and program what I can by myself, and what I cannot do properly on my own – I would delegate to skilful collaborators. That does sound like a process of a perfectionist / control freak, and I believe it is an accurate description of my role as a songwriter.
The music video for ‘The Bell’ is poignant and moving just like the track. Can you take us through the inspiration behind its artistic direction?
The mastermind behind ‘The Bell’ video is my friend Matthieu Gill, an amazing videographer whose works I stumbled upon ages ago on Instagram and became an admirer right away – and as the time came to consider what can be done for Neacal music videos, I approached him and we started brainstorming ideas for the video that is yet to be premiered later this year. Then as a few weeks passed, I realised that I would love it if he could also capture the photos for the project representation, and then it dawned on us that we can also film a second music video here in Serbia during his stay – that’s how the idea for ‘The Bell’ quickly took shape.
One of the things Matthieu came up with right away was to have multiple characters with my face captured, as this song is about the internal struggle where different parts are trying to coexist and to be heard, so that imagery came naturally to him during the preliminary brainstorming. Whereas, some elements were either last minute ideas (like tying me to a tree as a hangman figure to play off some Tarot and Norse mythology symbolism), or purely accidental (like capturing a thunderstorm on our way to the homebase after a long day of shooting close to the Romanian border). So chance itself also took part in creating this video.
As a musician, it becomes apparent that there is a huge difference between the art and the business. Is there anything about the music scene that you would personally change?
These days it’s not enough to just be a talented artist in order to make this craft one’s livelihood, and there are good and bad things about it. I often see how many of my friends find the hybrid models, or reinvent themselves every now and then in order to keep at it, and while almost everyone says that having a market dictate what music shall be created by artists is horrible, in a way it’s always been like that (although before the music was “liberated” in early 20th century, that market was significantly smaller and more elitist).
I would love for the biggest players of the industry to act more like the guardians and mentors to the creators, instead of preaching the “content” philosophy, degrading the art that people pour their literal lives into just to capture a consumer’s attention for at least 30 seconds at a time. This does require quite a major mindset change, but then there would be hope that the industry might become less exploitative and more collaborative in general.
What are or were some of the challenges for you in producing or performing while keeping true to your vision of your music?
Quite a major portion of what I produce is programmed, and at this point the technology and my humble ability allow me to cover for at least 80% of parts sounding good enough, but that means that there’s always a part of instrumentation that I cannot properly cover with my DAW and midi-keyboard. The challenge then turns into the pleasure of going out there and meeting amazing musicians from all over the globe that would help me see the vision through with their recorded performances. So, the need to make this album sound good enough for my standards actually worked as a networking booster – because of that, I ended up expanding my collaborators’ list with a few more awesome people.
Is there any “non-musical” ingredient that is essential to crafting your sound?
The feeling. This is the hardest to nail down, but I cannot proceed with most of the actual composition, arrangement or production choices until I know what the initial idea makes me feel, so that I can stay consistent in what I want the final song to convey. And this feeling must certainly resonate with me, otherwise it would end up being empty / shallow, and there’s nothing I hate more than shallowness and lack of substance in art.
Studio work and music creation or performing and interacting with a live audience, which do you prefer?
The act of creation for me is always something magical, whereas the act of sharing takes a big toll. Having over a decade of experience with both, I realise that the first one is my favourite kind of activity, while to set things up for live performances I need to find additional motivation and justification. I am still in thoughts on whether I’ll make Neacal a live performing act, and how would it work in that form, so this question is as relevant as ever for me.
Any “strange tales” or things that may have happened during a show that seemed too weird to be true?
With my progressive rock band it was surprisingly a recurring thing when a fan after a show would approach us to say that some of our tracks were playing during their wedding, when they were delivering a baby, or at a funeral. The whole circle of life to which I and my bandmates provided a soundtrack. I do wonder how Neacal’s tunes would fare in that regard.
Who are three musicians you think the world needs to hear right now?
I’d nominate Toby Driver, Tigran Hamasyan and Louis Cole. The latter two are gaining more traction as of late, so I hope that more people would discover Toby’s amazing work, as he produced some of the most interesting pieces in a plethora of genres. He’s one of my most beloved contemporary artists, and the fact that he agreed to collaborate with me on this album is still something I find quite hard to believe.
Breakdown the news for us: what can we expect from you in the near future?
The full length album is coming later this year, predated by two more singles, and one more music video. And maybe a couple of other curious additions to follow the album. This is overall one of the most ambitious and beautiful things I created, so let’s hope the world would welcome this project 🙂
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