Thank you for taking the time to have this interview with IMAAI.
Tell us about your music.
My life and music story are complicated. Music was not my planned future. I started out as a solo songwriter and performer and only recently formed a Band. Some had labeled me an outsider artist along the lines of Daniel Johnston. Some have tagged me as a Grunge Folk artist. Acoustically similar to Kurt Cobain. Others say I fit into the alternative and indie Rock genre. To be honest so much has influenced my life and my music. In some ways music found me and in others, I found music.
I was a recruited athlete out of High School and attended West Point for a brief time. I resigned and came home not sure what I wanted to do. I decided to enlist in the USMC. A month prior to my report date, in April 2009, I was involved in a serious car crash and sustained a head injury. I began to have serious mental health problems. Shortly thereafter, I began writing songs out of nowhere, first on the keyboard, then on the guitar. I taught myself to play keyboard and guitar by writing songs. I have never played a cover song.
A week after the car accident in May 2009, I had my first psychotic break. I was diagnosed with Bipolar 1 and Complex PTSD in late September 2009. Between late 2009 -2013 I was in and out of hospitals and given different medications and even different diagnosis. I essentially became a recluse in my parent basement, declared myself an artist and started writing songs. I was having significant problems trying to remain sane. Writing songs helped me through my darkest moments. There were times I wanted to end my life, but music called to me, and I wrote songs. I began hearing things and seeing things that others could not hear. All the time I thought I was ok, everyone else wasn’t. I would stop taking my medications and things would get worse. During the Winter of 2010, in January, I just walked out of the house in a psychotic state and was gone for a week. I slept in an abandoned house and one night in a little league baseball dugout. I did not know at the time that my parents had issued a missing person’s report on me. To this day I have no idea why I walked out of the house and kept on walking. I didn’t know where I was. The police found me.
After a brief hospital stay, I returned home to the basement in our home in Fairfax Station, Virginia, home, and started writing songs again. I continued to struggle with my mental health issues and remained very reclusive and introverted. During this time, I must have written 200-250 songs. My dad would post them on sites like ReverbNation and Soundcloud. People began to write comments under some of the songs we would post on ReverbNation and Soundcloud comparing me to numerous artists including Daniel Johnston, Kurt Cobain, Anthony Kiedis, and others.
In July 2013, I had a very bad psychotic break and stabbed my brother Kyle through the arm. I thought he was trapped in a fluffy suit and thought I needed to cut him out. I saw the blood and screamed there couldn’t be blood. The police arrived and I was still in a psychotic state. My brother was OK, as the blade went right through his forearm and did not cause any permanent damage. After I was stabilized in the Hospital, I was booked into the Central Virginia Regional County Jail, charged by the commonwealth of Virginia with Felony malicious wounding, and faced a 5 – 20-year prison term and a large fine. I remained in jail for 7 months until they found me “not guilty by reason of insanity” (NGRI). I was committed to the Virginia State Hospital system. I remained at Western State Hospital in Staunton, Virginia for three years before I was conditionally released to a Group Home in Charlottesville, VA.
While at Western State Hospital, I was eventually given access to a guitar and a battery powered recorder. I wrote scores of songs while I was a patient. More importantly, I learned how to manage my mental illness.
After my conditional release in May 2017, I wanted to tell my story and share the music I had written while at Western State Hospital. My Dad formed “Tree Heart Records LLC” to help me. We picked 11 of the songs had written and released them in an album called “Code Purple”, which was released on World Mental Health Day in October 2017. After researching it, turns out the album is the only full album ever produced in which all the songs were written and recorded in a state psychiatric hospital. Because of the album I was placed on the Rankers, Best Outsider Music Artist list. www.ranker.com/list/outsider-music-bands-and-musicians/reference
In 2018, I met music producer, Andy Waldeck, who agreed to produce my first studio Album, “Merry Go Round” (MGR), released in the fall of 2018. The album includes Andy Waldeck playing Bass and Lead guitars, and Nathan Brown (of the band “Everything”) on drums. The album made it to number 59 on the College Radio Charts.
In 2019, We started another music project called “Freak”. In addition to the main musicians in MGR, we brought in lead guitarist Mathew Metcalfe. Just when we were starting to cut the final vocals, I began to have trouble getting my breath and felt very fatigued. At first everyone thought it was the psychotropic medications I was on, but upon going to the Doctors for a scan, a 7.5 x 4.5 mass was discovered growing in my chest, crushing my lung, and pressing on my aorta. I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Cancer. Within a week, I was undergoing chemotherapy. I managed to finish the album in between rigorous chemo treatments. The album was released October 15, 2019. This album made the College Radio Charts as well. A member of the LA Recording Academy, heard about the album and my story and submitted “Freak” for “Grammy Consideration” for best Alternative Album for the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. The album was not nominated, but nonetheless, a great honor.
In 2020, we decided to go back to my lofi roots and record some new songs live in our newly repurposed studio at Hawksnest. We recorded 35 new songs. Ten of the songs were selected for my 2020 release, Sunny Side. The album is stark and features just me and my nylon string Ovation guitar, with a few keyboard overdubs on a few songs. !980’s and 90’s Glass Eye front person, Kathy McCarty, a close friend of Daniel Johnston, wrote the liner note for the Sunny Side album: “Andrew Neil’s SUNNY SIDE is a revelation. The outpouring of melody and counterpoint is deeply affecting, seeming to come directly from a heart so genuine that it is almost too pure for this world. His simple, direct lyrics can seem almost too plain; but then you find them reverberating in your mind for days afterward. This is a songwriter who will find his audience, as Daniel Johnston did. There is nothing that can stop someone so focused on the songs that seem to find expression through him alone.” Kathy McCarty
In June 2022, we released My latest full album “Alien”.
Since it all began in the fall of 2009, I have written nearly 450 songs and have released 6 full albums. There is much more to this story. A book, “Kind of Hurt” is being written about my journey with mental illness and how music became such an important part of my life.
When did you start performing?
I did not perform much between 2010 and 2013. I did maybe 10-15 open mics and shows during that time. In 2011-2012, my dad managed to get me a slot in a couple of music festivals. On 5 November 2011, I performed at the 11th Annual DeLand Original Music Festival & SSA’s 2011 Music Festival Awards. My dad managed to get me booked at the Cleveland Rock Festival in December 2011. I opened the festival at the legendary and sadly now gone Peabody’s Concert Club. In February 2012, I played a gig at Para Coffee in Charlottesville. I opened for Ben Cosgrove and E’Moore. The show was recorded by Luke Rabin, and we put together my first ever official release, Andrew Neil Live at Para Coffee. On 12 March 2012 I had a chance to open the main stage at the Heart of Texas Rockfest 2012! That show was the last time I played a live performance before my June 2013 incident and subsequent hospitalization.
After my conditional release from western State Hospital, I began to perform more consistently at Open Mics and a few local shows and music festivals. My favorite open mic was going to “The Local” in Charlottesville, every Monday night for Singer Songwriter night. It was there that I developed my true confidence to perform.
I formed the Band in 2022, because I was asked to open for the Raelyn Nelson Band in Hershey, Pennsylvania on 15 June 2022. My dad and I found a lead guitarist (Daniel Houser) and bass player (Alan Warren) on Bandmix.com. They were located in Staunton, Virginia. eventually we found a drummer (Zackary Bullock) and rounded out the Band with a mandolin player (Richard Shaw). We pulled together a set list of 8-9 of my original songs for the gig. However, on the day prior to the gig, we found out it was cancelled due to COVID issues. The show was rescheduled for August, however, the gig was again canceled due to illness in Raelyn’s Band. This was the second time the gig was cancelled. Raelyn’s Manager called and suggested that we open for Raelyn’s band in Nashville due to the continuing problems with the venue in Pennsylvania, and we didn’t want a third strike. The gig was then rescheduled for 17 Mar 2023. Our Band would open for The Raelyn Nelson Band in Nashville at the Glenn Campbell Museum, Rhinestone Stage. The performance was a success and that night we decided on a Band Name, “Andrew Neil and Code Purple”. The Code Purple Band was born.
Prior to the gig in Nashville, we had recorded a few songs in Daniel Houser’s basement studio in Staunton. One song we recorded was called “I Like”, which we officially released on 15 May 2023 on all streaming platforms. This song features Myself on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Daniel Houser on Lead guitar and backup vocals, Alan Warren on Bass and Zach Bullock on drums. Richard Shaw was not at that Particular session due to work obligations. “I Like” has had better than expected results on Spotify.
Shortly after the band’s debut performance in Nashville, the drummer (Zach Bullock) decided that he would not continue with the Band due to other obligations. So, we began searching for another drummer. We auditioned a young drummer by the name of Logan Bush. We found a new drummer. Logan will be featured on our second single, expected to be released by the end of June 2023. The Code Purple Band will continue to refine their sound and once the new drummer, Logan, is good to go, we will resume live performances.
What do you consider to be your hometown and how does that affect your music?
I consider Gordonsville, VA my hometown because it was the place where I finally found peace. A new song I recently wrote “In the country” is related to the beautiful fields I drive by every day. We will be recording this song at Hilltop Studios in Nashville next week. “Hawksnest” the estate where I live has a lot of woods and creeks. The abundance of nature renews my spirit and helps me be real and genuine as an artist. I am blessed and fortunate to live in such a beautiful place and I hope this beauty can weave its’ way into my music. I wrote a song, called “Tetradactill” about Gordonsville when I moved there with my parents in 2011. open.spotify.com/track/01MM5p91w4YonYsBRPa5Cg?si=1371d74641da4724
What performers have been your inspiration?
The Beatles, Nick Drake, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Kurt Cobain, RHCP, Lester Young, 2pac and Daniel Johnston are some artists which I gravitate towards. They express their true selves and in an age in where society tries to tell you who you should be. Their honesty is inspiring. I hope to emulate them because their music has and is still impacting our world after all these years. Their art has stood the test of time, which is an indication of something special. What will happen with my music God only knows but I am not worried about the destination, I am focused on the beautiful journey I have been given.
What do you base your success on?
I guess success means different things to a lot of people. Sometimes I struggle with defining this word. I do know I wouldn’t have got this far in life and in my music career without the love and support of my parents. They were with me when I was in a car crash and suffered a TBI. They were with me when I was locked up behind bars. They were with me when I was in a psychiatric hospital. And they were with me in my battle against cancer. I guess, at this moment in time, success is living out your appreciation for all the blessings and love you have ever received. I need to try to realize I have been given a gift to write songs and be thankful for this gift and never become jaded. If I can maintain this appreciation, then I will consider myself successful.
What was your latest musical release?
My latest solo album project was “Alien”, released in June 2022. The album was recorded at Hawksnest Studio and produced by Andy Waldeck. Many of the songs deal with various aspects of mental illness/health and deal with some very difficult subjects like suicide, loneliness, Seeing things. Etc. My favorite song from that album is “Mongolia” which opens with these lyrics:
“I know angels on a first
A first name basis
And I can’t stare at the walls too long
or else I’ll see faces, faces”
My latest release was a song I did with my new band “Andrew Neil and Code Purple” called “I Like”. It was a fun song to play and to get the band into the vibe I was looking for. The inspiration was based on a past girlfriend and the type of girls I was drawn to in my past. The song is a little bit on the grunge side and has some obvious sexual tones. Here are some lyrics to give you an idea of what message I was trying to get across. open.spotify.com/track/2UV0x98VGgwP4zF22WXGqS?si=b02eab0f83f74480
“I like girls that like magic whose life has been tragic
I like girls in black leather, because they just do it better
Like girls with tattoos, who know how to handle their booze.
I like girls heavily pierced, who whisper dirty things in my ears”
Do you have any news to share?
Yes, I am blessed enough to have the opportunity to go to Nashville and cut some songs for my next album “In the Country with Andrew Neil”. I hope to get my feet wet in the music industry and perhaps meet some music publishers. Additionally, my band Code Purple is pleased to announce that we have landed a new drummer, Logan Bush. He is a great musician with a ton of soul.
Code Purple will start gigging in early Fall 2023.
How can fans find you?
Everything you want to know about my music and links to my socials and streaming are on my linktree page: linktr.ee/AndrewNeil
Lastly, please share some final words with the fans.
Life is a gift but sometimes life is sad. Music makes life more bearable. Songs can make you cry or smile. Songs can remind you of a loved one who has passed. I guess the canvass of music is time. I feel good music and a good life for that matter come when you are truly engaged in the now. When Code Purple jams we are in the now. The guys in Code Purple are my brothers and hopefully the music we make will be recognized as real because at the end of the day that’s all one can ask for. I hope my songs make a difference in this jello world. Peace out.