Artist Bio
Influences: Raised in the 70s and 80s, and pretty much equally influenced by singer songwriters and blues rock, post punk and electro pop, obscure indie and chart bangers. I love it all, basically.
I'm Neil, a writer and musician from Glasgow, Scotland. I like things offbeat both musically and lyrically.
2022 is my fifth FAWM! In each of the last two years, I've released an album of FAWM songs as The Disappointed Skeptics Club, and I'm going for the three this time round.
Lyrically, this year's theme is gonna be: Magic!
And, depending on how things go, there's a possibility I might be up for collaborations this year. Drop me a note if you fancy it.
Pronouns: He/Him
Songs (15)
| #1 | A Sandlot Spell |
30 Feb 2022 |
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| #2 | The Great Misadventure |
10 Feb 2022 |
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| #3 |  Second Heart |
20 Feb 2022 |
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| #4 | Machpelah, Queens |
7 Feb 2022 |
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| #5 | Corpse Flowers |
10 Feb 2022 |
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| #6 | Have A Word  @petemurphy
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9 Feb 2022 |
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| #7 | Want It Back |
16 Feb 2022 |
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| #8 | Golden |
7 Feb 2022 |
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| #9 | Falling |
9 Feb 2022 |
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| #10 | Perfecting The Pass  |
8 Feb 2022 |
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| #11 | They Do It With Mirrors |
6 Feb 2022 |
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| #12 | Jane Rebecca Yorke |
8 Feb 2022 |
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| #13 | My home, My Ireland (@kenmattsson, @Emkaydeebee, @darcistrutt. @ayehahmur, @metalfoot @cindyrella @emkaydeebee |
1 Feb 2022 |
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| #14 | Miracle Mile |
5 Feb 2022 |
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| #15 | Amaze Your Family |
12 Feb 2022 |
Soundboard
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@thedutchwidows Mar 2022
An exciting arrival today! Looking forward to losing the next couple of weeks in it...
Before even starting it, I can confidently say that it feels lovely in the hand - it has a great tactile cover and it has a very pleasing bend to it. I do like a book that feels good to hold! -
@nadine Mar 2022
Feel free to try! FAWM made me buy my guitar. And I did not repent!
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@nadine Mar 2022
Thanks a lot for your comment on "She's Contemplating". It means a lot to me cause I'm a beginner guitarist and I never wrote something in that style. I'm way deeper into full band arrangements and production.
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@mandolinda Mar 2022
Thank you for the lovely comments. I hope to be back for 50/90, you never know these days. Nice to meet you in tit4tat
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@unkept Mar 2022
Thank you very much for your thoughtful comments, much appreciated! Also congrats on your FAWM results. :)
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@thedutchwidows Mar 2022
Thanks for all your comments this year, and your positivity around my glum end! A couple of nights of better sleep and the world seems a marginally brighter place; as long as I don't look at the news, anyway. What an absurd, destructive race we humans are.
Because your book dominated my first two weeks in Feb, you've played a particularly prominent role this year! I am very much looking forward to the next one... -
@infilktion Mar 2022
Yes, Cardinal Woolsey's is a yarn shop. I hope you enjoy the series if you decide to read it, I am only a few books in.
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@emkaydeebee Mar 2022
Thank you for your lovely comments, so appreciated! Exhausted today…
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@actualjulian Feb 2022
Hey Neill. Thanks so much for listening and commenting this year. It means the world to me. And congratulations on finishing! May the FAWM be with you ALWAYS
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@siasa Feb 2022
Thanks so much for your kind words on my last two, Neil - much appreciated. Still catching up with yours - but I will do. And people say I'm prolific!!!
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@davidtaro Feb 2022
14!! Against all the odds! Well done dude. Like @emkaydeebee I see I now have some catching up to do....
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@emkaydeebee Feb 2022
Hey, you made 14! I’ve got some catch up listening to do, but well done!
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@katestantonsings Feb 2022
:)
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@katestantonsings Feb 2022
I hope you can read the comments from FAWMtalk. Gorgeous piano. Scot-inspired straight to the heart. Good stuff! The synth/piano and chord progressions are inspiring.
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@karlsburg25 Feb 2022
Ha ha. Dry ice at the ready,. Cheers matey. ;-)
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@davidtaro Feb 2022
Hey there. Thanks for the kind comments. How's your FAWM going now that you've solved the bathroom issue? (Great timing on that btw). Do you reckon you can splurge out another 8 in the remaining days?
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@halfwayhome Feb 2022
Cheers for the niceness directed at 'God Damn, I Feel Better'- yeah, no way getting away from the 70s singer/songwriter vibe once I got going on this unfortunately! I could plenty of big songs from the era I was inadvertently gently borrowing from here and there - but good shout with Chicago, I'd missed them off the list. Yep, probably some borrowing to own up to there too :)
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@emkaydeebee Feb 2022
Ah that makes sense! Yes, bleeping machine there would be effective but was perhaps lost in the mix! Don’t be down on yourself - it’s a cracking song!
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@gindark Feb 2022
It doesn't bear thinking. Otoh, it could have been a confabulation, therein lies the dichotomy.
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@gindark Feb 2022
Re "You Know When" - Yeah, imagined connections between the words where they mush together into your head as a kind of word-plasma is a kind of body horror for me so you're not actually wrong about that being one of the worst parts of a very creepy song. Well, that and everything else, lol.
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@thedutchwidows Feb 2022
Thanks for the positive comments on Things Are Coming Out Wrong (a self-fulfilling title if ever there was one). That one isn't on a 4-track (I've tweaked the notes to make that clearer); I went full bells and whistles in Logic, which is why I think I've lost it - too many things to tinker with. Your advice is spot on, and I think (without double-checking) pretty much how it's set-up - bass/drums and main vocal down the middle, BVs and doubled acoustic and electric guitars L/R. In my head it sparkles, but not so much when recorded. I rarely go back to stuff later, but I might with that one...
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@thedutchwidows Feb 2022
Well, that took some turns at the end. I've read the last half of the book since yesterday morning, and whenever I finish a book that I'm completely immersed in, I now feel slightly bereft. It was magnificent though - I thoroughly enjoyed it. And it wasn't a Bobby Ewing style dream!
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@mahtowin Feb 2022
Thanks for your kind comment on „Under mongolian skies“ :-)
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@dukemeyer Feb 2022
Many thanks for your empathic comment to my Dripstone-Song! What you told about it is exactly the thing I tried to achieve!
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@thedutchwidows Feb 2022
Hey Neil, hope you’re well. I don’t know whether something unrelated to FAWM is welcomed on your Soundboard or not, but I wanted to let you know that I hold you at least partly responsible for me being unable to do so much music in the second half of the month…
I picked up a copy of The Moon King a couple of weeks ago and as I’ve got further into it, it’s become increasingly hard to put down; rather than spending 20 minutes at lunchtime knocking out some poorly conceived lo-fi nonsense, I’d rather sit down with your book and find out what happens next.
I love the concept (it’s brilliantly simple and yet, so so clever) and it’s so well-written and the world so immersive that I find it difficult to stop reading; “Ah, the next section’s about Lottie is it, well maybe just a few more pages to see what happens…”
I have absolutely no idea how it will resolve or if it will resolve, but I just wanted to say I love it. It’s brilliant. I will be pre-ordering the prequel!
Unless in the end it all turns out to be a dream. Maybe I should have waited till I finished before saying I loved it…? -
@siasa Feb 2022
Oh wow, thanks for those kind comments Neil - I'm so glad it connected for you.
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@mattwdunn Feb 2022
Thank you for the comments. You might notice that there are 2 sides to my stuff. I’m working on 2 albums at the moment concurrently. Keeps me interested
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@siasa Feb 2022
Thanks for the comment, Neil - glad you enjoyed it. 'Gut blows in a car park chibbing' - I may steal that! ;-)
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@povosos Feb 2022
Thank you so much for your comment
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@headfirstonly Feb 2022
Cheers - I had a very large amount of fun, as you suspected!
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@mishykatz Feb 2022
thank you so much for the listen and nice comment on I Kinda Love You, so very much appreciated <3
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@emkaydeebee Feb 2022
Hey, thank you for all your listens! Really appreciate them!
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@siasa Feb 2022
Hey, thanks for your super comments Neil! And yes, Blue Rose Code had better look to his laurels after yours....
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@sarahk Feb 2022
Heya! Thanks so much for hooking me up with NSFW Wordle. ;)
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@emkaydeebee Feb 2022
Thanks for you kind words on my Welsh song! You spotted things I hadn’t fully thought about myself, ha!
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@owl Feb 2022
Thanks so much for listening and commenting!
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@gordon Feb 2022
Thanks for stopping by and leaving such nice comments. Much appreciated!
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@headfirstonly Feb 2022
Thanks for the kind words. The effect that's making the vox on Interesting Times sound rather weird is Native Instruments's "Raum" reverb. It's *really* fun. The growly part is just me milking a Shure SM7B's proximity effect for all it's worth :-D
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@crisp1 Feb 2022
Thanks for the nice comment about A World of Quiet Beauty!
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@emkaydeebee Feb 2022
Sounds like a good approach (mentally as well as practically!)
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@emkaydeebee Feb 2022
Hey, thanks for your encouraging words - felt good to get the first song out of the way, ha ha! How're you getting on?
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@thedutchwidows Feb 2022
Cheers Neil - I was unsure about uploading that one, but I'd spent a couple of hours on it, so I thought I might as well. Trying not to worry so much about my limitations this year, particularly vocally...
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@davidtaro Feb 2022
Cheers dude! After reading your albums list on the forum the other day, I was half-thinking “oh, Neil might like this one” while I was writing it. Hope you’re cooking up some sonic goodness for us…
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@petemurphy Feb 2022
It makes me so happy when people enjoy the Simon Warner album. It's one of my very favourites. I've loved it since it came out in 1997, but it just didn't connect with a wide audience. I know a couple of the guys who played on the album, and one of them (Rick, the keyboard player / orchestra arranger) invited me out to a show he did a few years ago and played me the unreleased 2nd album. I doubt it will ever be released, as Simon quit the business after Waiting Rooms.
Hope you're doing well. Looking forward to hearing your music! -
@headfirstonly Feb 2022
Cheers for all the lovely comments, Neil - and wow, Pallas! I saw them a few times, back in the day. Happy FAWMing!
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@nadine Feb 2022
Thanks for listening and commenting! Oh yes, the modulation has been tricky but fun - as the whole collab :D Happy FAWM!
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@roddy Jan 2022
Dear Niel glad you liked my topic about Spotify. Spelling is surely just a bourgeois affectation. :)
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@apolez3 Jan 2022
Bonjour, Happy FAWMing 2022!!
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@torsten Jan 2022
Hello Neil, thanks for your friendly AND german comment. Yes, Neil Hannon is my hero. But as I listened to Salt Hill and Map And Treasure I must say that your lyrics are pretty witty and soulful as well.
I'm looking forward to your magic songs. There is soo much in this topic now that you mention it. Mmm... makes me want to write some songs about magic too. -
@owl Jan 2022
Happy FAWMing! Looking forward to the magical album for this month, I’ve really enjoyed the last rounds of themed songs! I sucked at playing flamenco and haven’t tried again since my lesson but I’m sure I’ll find some inspiration from Barcelona :)
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@siasa Jan 2022
Ah, good to see a familiar face Neil! This is my first go at this - be gentle with me!
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@siasa Jan 2022
Ah, good to see a familiar face Neil! This is my first go at this - be gentle with me!
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@thedutchwidows Jan 2022
Hey Neil - hope you're well. Looking forward to your magical output this year!
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@cleanshoes Jan 2022
Hi Neil! Good to see you're here--I always look forward to your songs. Have a great FAWM!
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@johncrossman Jan 2022
Your thematic music delights my ears and brain. Bring it on! When you're ready. No pressure. :)
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@tabitha Jan 2022
Hi Neil, thanks for reaching out on my forum post. I'd love to interview you. If it's alright, I'll flick you an email either later tonight or tomorrow with more details so we can arrange a time. Happy FAWM
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@crisp1 Jan 2022
Just saying hi, Neil. Hope you have a magical FAWM!
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@davidtaro Jan 2022
"Magic!" Great theme mate. A lot of potential. Can't wait to hear what you come up with!
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@gindark Jan 2022
Heya, hope this FAWM is as good as ever, looking forward to some excellent songs again.
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@jeustan Jan 2022
Always great to see you around, friend. I get a little excited every time you post a tune. Happy FAWMing!
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@emkaydeebee Jan 2022
Happy new Fawm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't wait to hear what magical stuff you come up with this year!
