Artist description Solo work by Charles McNeil of Brian Jones was Murdered

Music Style Power Pop, Brit Pop, Alternative, Alternative country, Acoustic, Rock 'n' Roll

Musical Influences Chuck Berry, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, The Who, The Kinks, The Creation, The Zombies, Small Faces, The Remains, T-Rex, Ramones, The Jam, Stiff Little Fingers, Replacements, Dogs d’amour, Real Kids, Birland, Oasis, Blur, Mega City Fou

Similar Artists Beatles, Oasis, Rolling Stones, The Who, REM, The Wallflowers, Brian Jones Was Murdered

Artist History Two years after reading in a newspaper that I had quit "Brian Jones Was Murdered", the band I founded, and named, I have released my first solo work. Titled "Walking away from Murdered" this EP of old and new material I think shows another side of my songwriting. The CD is collection of slower songs not recorded for the "Death of a Popstar" CD, in order to keep it up-tempo. Songs that were played live by the band but were written after the "Death of..." recordings, and finally new songs the band rejected during the time that was to become the end. In reality the other three members of Brian Jones Was Murdered left, leaving me on my own. So I decided to make this EP just that way. Handling the entire process, recording, engineering, producing, playing all instruments, vocals and drum programming. Even all artwork and packaging was complete by myself. I wanted to do this to prove to myself that I could achieve something on my own that I could be proud of, and because during the end of "Brian Jones was Murdered" my ideas had been rejected. I was made to feel my songs were not good enough, with my existing songs being cut, and less of my new songs being accepted. I felt I was being pushed into the background to just play guitar. At the same time though, I was still expected to do all the footwork for the band, make all the calls, send all the press packages, set up rehearsals, book and promote the shows, and chase after labels. So I wanted to validate myself, if not to them, then to myself. That I could go on, that my were good songs. "Walking away from Murdered" was recorded, mixed and mastered completely at "In my room" studio, which as you might guess is in my bedroom. One reason it took two years to put together six songs was because when I started this I didn't have a studio. I was working on the recordings as I was putting the studio together. As I bought a piece of equipment, I had to learn how to use it, drum machine, muti-track recorder, keyboard, DAT recorder, CD burner etc. At one point the vocal tracks were completed, then I decided I wanted to upgrade my vocal microphone from a medium diaphragm to a large diaphragm condense. This meant I had to re-record all the vocal tracks. Once all the tracks were completed I picked up some books on mixing and mastering that really helped me to understand the whole process. I learned not only to mix volume, left, right, front and back, but also to mix frequencies. Mastering is truly an art unto its own. I mastered the final mixes five times, just using the equipment presets, before I was happy. Then once I had more experience I ended up mastering it two more times using my own settings. A few other things also happened in my life along the way over the two years that should be noted; I was married, had a baby daughter, changed jobs twice and bands three times. Cheers, Charles McNeil

Location Bakersfield, CA - USA

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