Amid Southern rock and cover bands, he’s a gay synth-pop unicorn – AL.com
The local music scene in Huntsville, Alabama is primarily Southern rock, indie, cover bands and Americana. Some rap and R&B in the mix too. Meanwhile, Remy Neal is the city’s synth-pop unicorn.
Just by the kind of music he plays – sleek, dramatic, keyboard-driven, tuneful, visual – Neal would stick out in this tertiary Southern market. On top of that, he’s really good at it.
There were times he thought perhaps Huntsville wasn’t the right place for him to pursue modern-sounding music. “But it is a great environment to create, having your own lane almost,” Neal says. “And oddly enough, the audience here that comes to the shows really enjoys it for the most part. It’s a nice welcoming crowd for sure.”
Neal’s shows are definitely shows. His production is way beyond what most local musicians do and more akin to something higher up the music-biz food-chain. Cool lights, looks, screens and other compelling visuals. For bigger stages, like a recent Concerts in the Park performance, he’ll do with a full band. But for the most part, he performs solo, using just his expressive voice, a bank of keyboards and electronic grooves.
Prior to moving back to Alabama, Neal – who grew up in Trinity and later Arab – worked in New York theater for years, both onstage and offstage. The experience greatly informs his visual style as a musician and live performer now. “The importance of aesthetic and lighting and costuming,” Neal says, “and how much those things really can affect the human mood and emotion.”
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Beyond visuals, Neal says the key to keeping an audience’s attention as a solo performer is, “just being genuine. Even though the music is extremely electronic, and computerized, in a lot of the lyrics that I tend to go for, or the songs themselves, I try to be as human as possible. And so if you just open up and express genuine human connections, then the media that you’re expressing it with really doesn’t matter as much.”
Neal is also upfront about the fact he – like many of us – suffers from anxiety and depression, so that’s another thing that make his songs relatable. An example of this is “Down,” a track off Neal’s upcoming debut solo-length album “The Paradise Spectrum.” Lush keyboards and moody vocals in the verses give way to cathartic choruses.
To keep personal lyrical themes from coming off as diary entries, Neal likes to collaborate with other musicians. “I find that when there’s more people writing on something,” he says, “you can connect a little more broadly, because more people are interacting with it and putting their own interpretation to it.”
Out this fall via New York indie label Bentley Records, “The Paradise Spectrum” is a collection of colorful, clever pop refreshingly low on empty-calories. “Party’s Over,” another key track, features marimba-tones and digital exotica. The lyrics were inspired by the uncertainly musicians felt at the pandemic’s shutdown nadir.
The fact pop-lyrics can be meaningful is something Neal feels can often get lost among some music fans. “Not to say that it’s better or worse or whatever. But I do find pop music to be difficult, if you’re trying to do well, because it is trying to say the most, in the least amount of lyrics.” He also knows how to show listeners a good time. For example, recent single “Grey Sky Blue” is an incandescent dance-floor shapeshifter. The lyrics seem to be about turning a special someone’s bad day in the opposite direction.
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Neal draws inspiration from musicians ranging from Lady Gaga and Pink to Elton John and Chet Baker. He’s got a flair for layering sheets of silvery synths. And in a live context he sometimes runs his vocals through vocoders, harmonizers and guitar effect-pedals for added color. But when it comes to writing, he prefers to put a song together au naturel. “If it doesn’t sound good on an acoustic piano, it’s not a good song to me,” he says.
Amazingly, Neal’s only been playing keyboards for six or so years. He’s been singing his whole life though and it shows in his vocal skills now. At age 11. appearing in a local production of “To Kill a Mockingbird” started his journey into theater and musical theater, a big part of his teenage life too.
A week after graduating high school, he moved to New York City with just two suitcases and a backpack. After doing theater there and in touring shows for a while, one summer he severely broke his ankle while skateboarding. That took dancing out of his thespian toolbox. During a dark period following a breakup, he started playing music after a dodgy ex-roommate abruptly moved out but left their piano behind.
As a young gay man moving back from New York to Alabama, Neal has found Huntsville to be a tolerant, accepting place, he says. “Knock on wood, I’ve not had any negative experiences here. I find that people, if you’re presenting yourself in a positive way, at least in Huntsville – I can’t speak outside of this city, this really beautiful little magical Oasis in the state – are supportive.”
When Neal and I connect for this interview via video call, he’s wearing a pink MTV T-shirt. He’s in an office at the local art gallery where he works by day. Colorful Basquiat-meets-Picasso paintings are on the wall behind him.
The gallery is relocating down to Key West, Florida, and Neal will be working and living down there part time. “It’s so beautiful there,” he says, ”and it’s so fun to me to see just the polar opposites. You have extreme LGBTQ presenting. Everyone free. There is no fear. And then on the other side, you have complete Trump, Republican, hunters. But they coexist. They’re not forcing each other to believe a certain way. Granted, they’ve all been drinking since noon – but they’re still coexisting quite beautifully.
Tonight, Remy Neal performs at The Speakeasy at Straight to Ale, address 2610 Clinton Ave. W. in Huntsville. He’s the headliner at a 6 p.m. show called Shine, also featuring performances from Dr. Eagle, Alan Little and local queens. Suggested donation is $5. The event is a fundraiser for GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, an organization that advises on, advocates for, and researches comprehensive policies designed to protect LGBTQ students as well as students of marginalized identities. More info at remyneal.com/shine.