Brisbane’s Jeremy Neale has released his new single ‘Still Want You Around Me.’ His new album We Were Trying To Make It Out will be released Friday 28 February 2020.
The grind is tough. We’re all just trying to get by – but at what cost? You can chase a dream but if you’re in the working class – everything else suffers for it. In ‘Still Want You Around Me’ Neale explores the sentiments not often shared with those closest to us when we’re strung out or snowed under – featuring the feel-good sing-a-long chorus of the summer!
The video is a lighthearted clip, which highlights the importance of friendship. Neale says of the video “I jumped at the chance to work with Muppy again. One of the finest actors of our generation and someone who brings integrity and real-world grit to any role they take on.
In this case, in a video filmed and edited by renowned director Jesse Hawkins, amongst a backdrop reminiscent of the mean streets of Sesame – we took on the intense subject matter of friends who are doing it tough but don’t wanna talk about the reasons why. Heck, maybe they wanna sing about it instead. Maybe this solves nothing and they might’ve just needed some space. Either way, if you’re doing it tough and I can help in anyway – let it be known that I “Still Want You Around Me”.
Since his 2017 debut album release, Neale took out the 2018 Queensland Music Award for Song of The Year for single Dancin’ & Romancin’, signed a global publishing deal with GAGA International / Rough Trade, received extensive play across US college radio and was the recipient of the Grant McLennan Fellowship.
As part of this fellowship Neale spent three months in New York City during 2018, attending a songwriting masterclass at NYU, collaborating with local writers and as it turns out, most importantly, resetting his life.
Many years stuck in a cycle of ever-changing work, relentless side-hustling and various degrees of financial ruin had taken a toll and the opportunity to escape the pressure cooker for a brief period of time helped immensely to cure the burnout.
The distance from home enabled a birds-eye view of what was and wasn’t working and enabled him to figure out what exactly he wanted from music and how the desire to create music could fit into a life worth living. Upon his return home to Brisbane, Australia, armed with new purpose and an openness to collaboration, he set to work on recording his sophomore record We Were Trying to Make It Out.
Sonically, We Were Trying to Make It Out contains Neale’s penchant for melodic hooks, delivered coherently and directly without compromise or pastiche. This is the Jeremy Neale sound – the result of years of searching and refining – honest, fully realised and immediate. Guitar pop underpinned by classic songwriting is potentially the recipe for finding oneself outside the current musical climate but is also the hallmark of creating something truly timeless.
On We Were Trying to Make It Out Neale explains the album title as the justification for the brutality you’ll put yourself through in an attempt to escape your demons.“There are a lot of sacrifices you have to make in order to create music if you’re not major label backed or independently wealthy and every mistake you make has direct consequences for your everyday quality of life.”
We Were Trying to Make It Out is a record written across two cities and two years. Early Jeremy Neale recordings might have read as a tribute to those who came before him, but here on his second record – he has found his sound and his voice.
