We sat down with Neacal, a multifaceted artist based in Belgrade, Serbia, who released his debut single ‘The Bell’ on July 19th, 2024 through Neacal Music. Formerly a founding member of a prominent instrumental progressive/post-rock band from Eastern Europe, he has accumulated nearly 5 million streams and toured extensively across Europe and Asia, also composing original soundtracks for video games. ‘The Bell’ was entirely written, produced, and mixed by Neacal, co-mixed by Ivan Lubianyi, and mastered by Ian Shepherd (known for his work with Deep Purple, New Order, and King Crimson). Influenced by artists like Woodkid, Agnes Obel, and Owen Pallett, Neacal’s music resonates with fans of cinematic sounds akin to The Irrepressibles, Cinematic Orchestra, and Ólafur Arnalds. His debut single, with a captivating accompanying video, promises a rich tapestry of dancing piano motifs, lush woodwind melodies, syncopated snares, pulsating drums, and swelling strings, culminating in a compelling musical narrative that captivates listeners.
Which comes first when you’re producing – the sound or the idea?
As it turned out, the emotion comes first. Even before it’s fully understood and captured, it pours through the melodies and lyrics—sometimes a melody would pop up first and then the words follow, sometimes the starter would be a couple of words together, resonating so hard that everything is then built around it. SfLA (the album) has examples of both ways.
Does your material feature any collaborations?
The very first song from this album that I wrote was ‘Twice-Told Tale’. Back in June 2021 I was terrible at singing, and thus decided to write to my most beloved modern musician Toby Driver, whose works I’ve been following for over 1,5 decades now. I asked if he might lend me his voice for this song to do it justice, and he agreed right away.
Then as the time went by, I also brought in a few session musicians to saturate the sonic palette where the computer-generated instruments couldn’t match my vision, and as I wrote ‘Monsters’, after a while it was clear that it would work the best as a duet, so I found an Armenian singer with whom I recorded this song in Yerevan. The full list of musicians to credit would look like this:
Toby Driver (Kayo Dot, Alora Crucible) — lead vocals on ‘Twice-Told Tale’.
Tatka Alice — soprano vocals on ‘Monsters’, back vocals on ‘Wedding of Ghosts’.
Ivan Lubianyi — back vocals on ‘Wedding of Ghosts’.
Danila Lukianov (musicAeterna) — clarinet on ‘The Bell’, ‘Twice-Told Tale’, ‘Another Castle’, ‘Unrest’.
Milena Radović — cello on ‘The Bell’, ‘Twice-Told Tale’, ‘Wedding of Ghosts’.
Austris Apenis — French horn on ‘Unrest’.
Brandon Wilkins — oboe, flute, English horn, bassoon on ‘Monsters’, bassoon and contrabassoon on ‘The Bell’.
Iryna Markevych — violin on ‘Unrest’, ‘Wedding of Ghosts’.
Neacal — violin on ‘Twice-Told Tale’ and ‘Mind Palace’, keys, lead vocals, programming.
What’s on your current playlist?
For the last couple of months I’m revisiting Tigran Hamasyan’s ‘Luys i Luso’, and now also been jammin’ to Arab Strap’s latest LP.
Tell us about the chemistry you have with your fans on stage.
Neacal is yet to get a live incarnation, and I imagine it would be different from what I had with my progressive rock band. With the latter we were performing instrumental music for almost a decade, and this simplified the connection without exposing ourselves to a degree that Neacal implies. So I imagine that it is going to be a much more intimate and vulnerable experience, where snippets of lyrics and melodies would be resonating with listeners long after the concert is over, and I will feel extremely exposed in the process of reliving the turmoil that birthed the album.
What techniques do you experiment with to get your original sound?
SfLA is built heavily upon the orchestration, and sonic-wise I use an amalgamation of computer-generated sounds with the live recordings of orchestral instruments. I also tend to heavily load strings and woodwinds with the most important tasks of carrying the melody, the progression and the rhythm in most cases, whereas brass and percussion would mostly serve a supplementary purpose.
Take us through a day in the recording studio.
I produce mostly everything at home, and it’s a process quite spread across weeks and months even, a day on this timeline would wildly vary—one day would be spent on drafting the first melodic and harmonic ideas, another would be dedicated to preparing structure and recording the draft vocals, third would be spend on arrangement explorations, and then it’s a process of slow improvements and fixes until the song properly works and reflects the intended feeling.
Was there a specific moment in your life where you thought, “this is what I want to do”?
I mostly have “this is what I don’t want to do” moments, and these were quite drastic at times, creating tectonic shifts along my path. A combination of these led me to this point of time and space, and it makes me contemplate the seemingly accidental nature of things even though there was plenty of free will applied.
Any emerging artists on your radar?
Marjana Semkina, a musician whose work I’ve been following for a while now (she’s mostly known for her band Iamthemorning)—she just finished a kickstarter campaign for an album under her own name, and the single published so far sounds very promising.
What gets your creative juices flowing?
These days I try to chase all the nagging thoughts from my mind, and then try to get in sync with my subconscious which invokes images that I mend into sounds.
Take us through your collection of gear, tech or software that accompanies your creative expression.
I work mostly with my midi keyboard (these days it’s a simple Alesis V61) and DAW (Presonus Studio One). Before the war I had a more extensive setup, but the experience of putting your life into a suitcase and a backpack taught me to keep it minimal.
Any side projects you’re working on?
My progressive rock band, despite its dormant state, might have a resurgence, as we get the proposals to tour in Asia again, and so we’re figuring out ways of preparing a new album and rehearsing it while being continents apart. And there’s also a new videogame soundtrack gig that my long-time music partner Viktor and I are going to tackle in the coming months.
How have you refined your craft since you entered the industry?
Back when I just started over 16 years ago, I could only write up sketches with guitar and keys. Then I learnt how to properly compose, arrange, orchestrate, produce, and now sing. I do wonder where this whole thing will take me next…
Breakdown the news for us: what can we expect from you this year?
Apart from releasing SfLA, I might be looking into turning Neacal into a live-performing act, and will definitely focus on writing new stuff, as my life is as turbulent and saturated with events as ever.
Famous last words?
“Our family’s treasures are buried under a…”
Follow Neacal:
Facebook – Soundcloud – TikTok – Youtube – Instagram – Spotify
