Alfie Neale Interview: I love taking the DIY approach to my career

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With a string of high-profile releases under his belt already, which have included the singles ElevatorVices and Stepping Stones, Brighton native Alfie Neale recently returned to deliver his eagerly-awaited new EP If My World Falls Apart.

Featuring his previously unveiled offerings, including the new cuts Alright and the EPs title-track, the young singer-songwriter unveils a fresh and bouncing new collection of light-hearted and exuberant indie-pop, which we can all agree is something we need right now.

So with the frontman firmly back on everyones radar, we had a chat with him to find out more about his latest release as well as his plans for the future.

Hi Alfie, how are you doing today? 

Doing great, cheers. It’s a bit strange at the moment with everything that’s going on but my studio setup is in my bedroom in my Uni house anyway so I spend a lot of time sat inside anyway. It’s probably a lot less strange than a lot of other people are finding it at the moment haha.

For those that haven’t heard your music yet, how would you describe your sound? 

I usually just describe my sound as Pop music with lots of different flavours, and let anyone who listens to it figure it out for themselves. I actually started calling it ‘cool pop’ at one point to give the idea that it’s pop music, but not the commercial stuff you hear in the charts (although some of that’s cool). I hate to be one of those ‘my music has no genre’ people and it’s not that, more the fact that I jump from genre to genre every song essentially. I’m working on it though!

You have just released your new EP ‘If My World Falls Apart’. What made you decide to release an EP?

I wanted to release an EP because I had quite a few songs I wanted to release, and I love listening to bodies of work from my favourite artist much more than just a single. I’d just finished ‘Stepping Stones’ with James Berkeley, the guy who produced the whole EP and I had these other tunes ready to go. He’s such a sound guy and we just went for it. (It’s also a lot cheaper that way which as a student is always good).

And was the title inspired by anything in your life? 

The title came from the title track of the EP, which was originally the start of the second tune on the EP Elevator, you can probably tell. The lyric ‘If My World Falls Apart, would you pick up the pieces?’ sums up how much we rely on other people as humans and how without other people we’d probably go crazy. I was writing a lot of these songs in my first year of Uni and had moved to Brighton to get away from the small town in Dorset which I’m from, but realised pretty quickly that I missed a load of people back home, and how much I actually relied on everyone there. I can still rely on them all, so I’m glad that title doesn’t come from a bad place.

Aside from the EP, what else have you got in store for us in 2020? Any live shows we should know about? 

I’ve actually just postponed a London headline show at Colours Hoxton, which was meant to be on April 30th, but with everything that’s going on we’ve had to push it back to November. I’m also playing Liverpool Sound City, Live at Leeds and Hit the North in Newcastle to make sure you’re up to date with those festivals too because it’s all pretty up in the air right now. I’m going to make sure I visit other cities as well in the autumn.

And what about the next wave of new music? Are you planning anything else on the horizon yet? 

I’m already working on new music, and although I told myself this EP would be released last year, I’m going to make sure I get another one out this year! I love releasing music and taking the DIY approach to my career. There’s definitely going to be new music and collaborations in the near future!

Finally, what advice would you give to new artists who want to pursue a career in music?

I’d say go for it. Get ready for all of the highs and lows, people you’re going to come across along the way who are fake and real, and get ready to meet some of your best mates whilst you do it. When you start everybody’s in the same boat, with no idea what’s going on, but it’s class to see my friends doing ridiculously cool things nowadays and I’m trying to do the same.

Alfie Neale’s new EP If My World Falls Apart is available to stream and download now. Have a listen to it in full below.

https://soundcloud.com/alfie-neale/sets/alfie-neale-if-my-world-falls

Listen on Apple Music

Chris Bound

chris bound

Chris bound is a freelance music journalist for Indie Is Not A Genre and editor at Mystic Sons PR, a Music Promotions company based in London.



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