Biography
alan neilson was born in Yorkshire at the end of the 1960's. He soon after moved to West Germany (as it was then) and later in life moved to Dorset, and finally settled in the West Midlands, moving from Harborne, to Warley, to West Bromwich, to Dudley and then finally to Stourbridge. He has maintained links with Liverpool his whole life, as this is the home of his family; his mother coming from Anfield and his father from Wavertree.
Also for a period of time whilst studying Creative Arts at University, he lived in Cheshire.
From such a varied and rootless past, alan neilson has grown into an artist that produces music as different as the neighbours and faces he has grown up around. From the musical biography of his grandfather in "The Life and Times of Charles A Allen" (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Times-C-Allen/dp/B003X887RE/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325684342&sr=301-1), to the setting of music to the words of the late, great Spanish poet Rafael Alberti in "The Uninhabited Body Parts 1-8" (http://alanneilson.bandcamp.com/album/the-uninhabited-body), to his acoustic songs found on last.fm. Intermingled with all that are attempts at ambient drum and bass in "Moses & Abe" (found on the now deleted "The Birthday ep" and his soundtrack work on the film "Milk" by up and coming film company The Frames (www.theframesfilm.co.uk).
neilson could be accused of having no identifiable place to trade his songs as when he finds an audience with one composition will very likely alienate that group with his next offering. However, he is never dull and it is always with great excitement that his latest work is revealed.
An artist therefore in the mould of Bowie, who far from being an inventor, spent a career stealing and updating other people's ideas every 12 months to come up with new soundscapes. Bowie often gave reasons for his multiple style changes as being bored and wanting to do different things regardless of what an audience demanded. neilson too is all too easy carried off into uncharted places, and often finds his audience taking a long time to catch up.
Although neilson is now settled physically, he is always thinking of new and exciting areas to take his music and recently invented acoustic punk when he plugged in his acoustic guitar, turned up the amp, cranked up the overdrive and released acoustic feedback on an unsuspecting world: versions of Lines and Bagman (http://alanneilson.bandcamp.com/album/bear-bare) were available for a short period, but were quickly stamped out and the versions deleted… the recordings are still available at elementary recordings HQ and will one day hopefully be heard again.
Watch this space. neilson may have spent a lifetime trying to be heard, and he will not give up.
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