We are joined by UK based, three piece Indie Electronic Pop band, Neon Fields to talk all about their latest single release, ‘Meant To Be’.
Influenced by the likes of Radiohead, Muse, Alt-J, Moderat, Nine Inch Nails, Deftones and Tool, Neon Fields, which was formed in 2020 consists of Ed Barrett (lead vocals), Luke Russe (drums) and Piers Ward (keyboards/guitar). The trio create a combination of Dark Industrial Rock and atmospheric soundscapes.
Forming in the challenging period of Covid-19 lockdowns, the band was forced to find new ways to create their music and has led to the sound and the feel of the music you hear from Neon Fields today.
“We owe our evolution as a band to the lockdowns of 2020. Unable to meet up, we were forced to collaborate remotely which lead to us incorporating far more electronic elements into our music. It’s a style of music that we are so passionate about producing and if it weren’t for the lockdowns we would have continued on a path I wouldn’t have wanted for us.” – Ed Barrett
The latest single from Neon Fields, ‘Meant To Be’, was mixed by Jack Daffin and mastered by Calyx Mastering after each part was recorded separately by each band member in their own home studios.
“The love interest is a girl, serving behind the counter at a coffee shop. The voice recording we hear in the instrumental is a recording he took without her knowledge when buying his coffee. He gives her a compliment which she finds creepy but remains friendly, saying: “Oh thank you… Have a nice day” From this encounter, he invents the rest in his head. Convinced that the smile she gave him that day had deep meaning behind it. That she felt the same way. He becomes more obsessed with her and convinced they’re ‘Meant To Be’. Now when he visits the coffee shop she actively avoids him. He can’t understand why her feelings for him have changed when in fact they were never there in the first place. Regardless, the only one he needs is her and he won’t let go. They are meant to be.”
‘Meant To Be’ begins to set the scene with a haunting atmosphere, as you are surrounded by light and intriguing, simple instrumentation and the evocative vocals of Ed Barrett.
As the song builds, you are faced with an eruption of dark synth and full band power, in a track that will have you wanting to ride the journey with Neon Fields over and over again.
You can listen to ‘Meant To Be’ below:
Would you like to start by telling us a little about Neon Fields?
Neon Fields are a three-piece, electronic alternative band based in southwest UK.
Formed in 2020 by Ed Barrett (lead vocals), Luke Russe (drums) and Piers Ward (keyboards/guitar).
Their first EP received enthusiastic approval from critics and fans.
The band is now turning its sights toward their debut album set to release this summer and several live performances throughout 2022.
How did the group first get together?
After a ten year musical hiatus, Ed (vocals) began reprising several demos he had written previously with the hope of getting other musicians involved and starting a band.
A few months on and with eight tracks sketched out, he began trying to find people to be involved and soon found Piers (keyboards/guitar) and Luke Russe (drums) who were keen on the demos and began reproducing them and writing original material.
Very early in the band’s career, the first national lockdown was announced making it impossible to meet and rehearse.
In an attempt to use this time wisely we continued to work remotely, recording and producing ideas at home and sharing them on a shared drive.
This way of working helped form our style of music, due to time pressure and limitation on the number of layers and featured instruments no longer being a factor.
How would you describe the feel of your music?
Our music has been described as cinematic, immersive, and dramatic.
There is always a lean toward a darker tonality and we enjoy making a song grow throughout its runtime and have often been criticised for not using traditional pop or EDM structures.
Most tracks start as short loops that are often heavily synthesised and attributed to soundscapes.
These then continue to grow layer by layer as they are sent back and forth between us.
This way of writing feels very kinetic and organic and the dynamics and groove of a track can completely change as layers are added because we never know exactly how the other members are going to interpret these ideas.
Something we’re always keen to maintain is an openness to new ideas whilst trying to weave a consistent style into each track so we’re recognizable.
You have recently released your single, ‘Meant To Be’.. what was the inspiration behind the creation of this single?
Meant To Be is intended to be a love song with a dark twist.
The lyrics in the first verse contain a lot of the tropes of an average love song over a haunting instrumental that offers a juxtaposition to the theme.
The chorus then reveals that this love is unrequited, unknown and dangerously obsessive.
The instrumental continues to grow and intensify as it becomes more chaotic to match this narrative.
It’s probably important to note here that this song isn’t autobiographical!
The voice recording that can be heard in the bridge is intended to be taken covertly by the protagonist (or antagonist depending on your take) of a girl he has a pedestrian run-in with.
He then obsesses about this and convinces himself that the simple statement of “Thank you… Have a nice day” meant a lot more.
When that emotion isn’t reciprocated, he begins to spiral into confusion and desperation, questioning why this girl has suddenly changed her mind.
It was really fun to create a fictional character and try to write a convincing narrative with a twist that people can also relate to in some way.
We also felt that Meant To Be needed to exert a lot of energy as it’s the first single from our upcoming album.
What does ‘Meant To Be’ mean to you?
Meant To Be from a narrative perspective takes a very dark turn and focuses on an uncomfortable theme.
We’ve known people to go through something similar to this in that they have had people obsess over them and be accused of leading them on and it can become very harmful.
That being said, I think Meant To Be offers some conflict, in that you can feel compassion for this person who has become enamoured and obsessive.
We deliberately never concluded the story because we think it’s more engaging when you can make one up for yourself but I think from any perspective, people can hopefully find something relatable in it.
What did the creative process look like for ‘Meant To Be’?
Meant To Be was written in the style that has become very typical for us.
It started as two short eight-bar loops, written by Piers in Ableton Live, that Ed took and began conceptualizing a narrative and writing lyrics for.
Soon we had a vocal draft that we were all really happy with.
The song initially didn’t build in energy from the first verse and was going to be one of our calmer tracks.
Because the narrative took this turn, however, there was a consensus that the instrumental should grow and become chaotic in the second half.
Several layers were written to boost the second and last choruses and an effect called a Rhythemizer was added to several components.
This essentially added a chopped effect that introduced a new groove and a lot more attack and energy.
The bridge evolved out of the bass components added to the chorus and that very prominent arpeggiated retro synth was introduced and carries through to the end of the song.
The other components in the bridge, although they don’t sound like it, are played on the guitar but are very heavily modulated.
Drums were one of the last components to be added to this track and essentially defined the dynamics and energy of each section.
The very last thing to be added was the voice recording.
We felt that there was a need to introduce some rhythmic diversity into that section to break things up and we thought that the narrative offered an excellent opportunity to feature a spoken-word recording, which was very kindly done by our friend Maddie.
Her voice had some effects applied to make it sound like a tape that was being played and rewound.
Everything then went, as they always do, to our friend and extremely talented mixing engineer, Jack Daffin who did a great job in spacing and bringing the best out in each component.
Where do you find your inspiration for your music?
Finding and listening to new music is very important to all of us.
The current scene is a little saturated but mostly, it’s diverse and very exciting.
Finding inspiration from and contributing to new music with something unique and that we hope people will enjoy is a constant source of motivation for us.
We try to pull influence from as many different genres as possible.
The challenge then becomes more about trying to weave a consistent style throughout each track so our records don’t seem inconsistent.
In terms of the narratives, like most people, we want to tell a good story.
Some tracks are more earthbound and focus on people, whereas others have sci-fi themes.
Just like with the instrumental side, the challenge is to link these different narratives into something that’s not convoluted whilst not limiting ourselves creatively.
How has Covid-19 impacted your release?
In terms of this release, COVID-19 has impacted Meant To Be very little. We’re so familiar with and are the result of working remotely that by now it’s what feels normal.
I suppose the biggest impact is we would have had more of an opportunity to hone our live set if we were able to gig more last year but that’s something we’re setting our sights on now.
What would you like to see happen for you in your music from here?
Performing our music live is a big focus for us moving forward and continuing to grow our fan base.
We are very lucky to have a group of dedicated fans that are scattered over the globe but this does make it challenging to reach everyone when we are funding this independently.
A live stream is certainly something we would like to do to amend this which will be a new and exciting experience for us.
Our debut album that features the songs from our EP as well as Meant To Be and a series of others is set to release this summer, which we hope will be as well-received as what we’ve released already.
From there we just want to keep writing and try to improve.
What is one message you would like to share with your fans?
Thank you! The support we’ve received from fans that have become friends and vice versa over the past two years has been overwhelming.
As previously mentioned, some people that support us, live in the US, Canada, South America, Australia, and so on, and the fact they are willing to do that whilst we are, at present, unable to put live shows on locally, is something we are humbled by and extremely grateful for.
Where can people find your music?
Our music can be found on all major streaming platforms and is also available completely free on our website neon-fields.co.uk.
You can also buy our tracks from our site as well as some awesome merch.
You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by using the handle @neonfieldsband.
Karen Harding is a Melbourne, Australia based singer/songwriter, founder of Sounds On The Couch, and founder and operator of boutique music PR service for emerging and independent artists, Rise Indie.