12/06/2010 - 21:45
Scène de la plage
Neil Halstead
Indie Folk Psychédélique / United Kingdom
Described by All Music Guide as "one of Britain's most respected songwriters" and acclaimed by the NME as a writer of "the kind of honest, heartfelt love songs men are too scared or too cool to write these days", Neil Halstead has performed a stunning transformation from 1990s indie shoegazer to folk-tinged singer-songwriter.
In the late ‘90s he fronted the influential Slowdive, famed for their shoegazing sound and distorted guitar sounds, and then Mojave 3, a more country-folk combo. Both bands earned mass critical acclaim but that did not prevent Halstead from pursuing a solo career and a new distinctive sound.
His first solo release was 2002's Sleeping on the Roads: "There was no real plan," he said. "What happened was I split up with my girlfriend and ended up homeless and having to sleep in the studio for about two months. And while I was there I recorded some tracks without the rest of the band. They didn't get used on the last Mojave album [2000's Excuses For Travellers], so I started to think about putting them out on a separate record."
His second album Oh! Mighty Engine was released on his friend Jack Johnson's Brushfire Records label in 2008. The record showcased his accomplished guitar playing, peerless songwriting and evocative vocals. The album received rapt reviews with the NME declaring: "Oh Mighty Engine is an understated gem of eccentric Englishness: like Syd Barrett if he'd ever set foot on a surf board" while Paste Magazine raved: "Oh! Mighty Engine returns to the land of sublime bedroom pop, all acoustic-based and velvet-vocaled, sincere but never strained, pretty and bittersweet".
In the late ‘90s he fronted the influential Slowdive, famed for their shoegazing sound and distorted guitar sounds, and then Mojave 3, a more country-folk combo. Both bands earned mass critical acclaim but that did not prevent Halstead from pursuing a solo career and a new distinctive sound.
His first solo release was 2002's Sleeping on the Roads: "There was no real plan," he said. "What happened was I split up with my girlfriend and ended up homeless and having to sleep in the studio for about two months. And while I was there I recorded some tracks without the rest of the band. They didn't get used on the last Mojave album [2000's Excuses For Travellers], so I started to think about putting them out on a separate record."
His second album Oh! Mighty Engine was released on his friend Jack Johnson's Brushfire Records label in 2008. The record showcased his accomplished guitar playing, peerless songwriting and evocative vocals. The album received rapt reviews with the NME declaring: "Oh Mighty Engine is an understated gem of eccentric Englishness: like Syd Barrett if he'd ever set foot on a surf board" while Paste Magazine raved: "Oh! Mighty Engine returns to the land of sublime bedroom pop, all acoustic-based and velvet-vocaled, sincere but never strained, pretty and bittersweet".
Press Contact
Agency: Universal MusicContact person: Gaétan Fragnière
Email: gaetan.fragniere@umusic.com
