Neil Halstead

• www.myspace.com/neilhalsteadofficial

Contact

• Ben Winchester
• Charlie Renton

Long time Neil Halstead fans would make an argument for him being the great undiscovered English song-writing talent of the last twenty years. Appropriate that a seminal shoegaze songwriter inspired by Nick Drake would keep a fuzzy profile below the mainstream radar, living a quiet surfers life in Cornwall.

With a generation of nu-gazers like Deerhunter, Fennez and Atlas Sounds having discovered his back catalogue as the songwriter in Slowdive and a legacy of outstanding narcotised Americana in his Mojave 3 incarnation, he has entered his third phase as a solo artist. Queen Bee is taken from his second solo album Oh! Mighty Engine; out September 8th 2008.

The album has been put out by his friends at Brushfire, recorded in a solar powered studio in LA and at home on the Cornish coast. Queen Bee is probably the folkiest song on the record, its a sort of little Irish jig says Neil. Its a kind of a nonsense song about missing out on little moments of love.

While his back catalogue inspires indie musicians, conversely on Brushfire he is being brought before a new audience. Its nice when people dont know what Ive done before and take the songs on their own merits. With Brushfire you are playing to thousands of people and lots of them dont know Ive had a record out.

A beautiful addition to a special body of work or just a bright, rambling sea-kissed love song. Both.

An understated gem of eccentric Englishness; like Syd Barrett if hed ever set foot on a surfboard. - NME

One of Britains greatest songwriters. - Time Out

Akin to Kings of Convenience & Iron & Wine & Cornwall, England & a warm, slightly melancholic breeze. - Stereogum blog