NJArts Mag interviews Eliza Neals blues-rock star on the rise

Wonderful to get an interview in NEW JERSEY ARTS Magazine and have it go out to so many just a few days after my album was released. Here’s an excerpt of the interview…

“We went to Florida and I sat there with my keyboard, just staring out the window at some palm trees,” she said. “And I started writing these songs on the piano and coming up with the arrangements, starting over again and making sure they were right. I guess it has taken me about two years for this album to write and hash out correctly. I’d sit there and just kept coming up with more and more lyrics that didn’t necessarily go with the music but I came up with enough stuff where I thought, ‘That could be an album,’ you know?”

Yes I went to Florida, I played out a few clubs that were outdoors and even played a few festivals in early March. You can see most of it on my Instagram feed or Youtube here’s Breaking and Entering from that first performance back.

“I love connecting with people,” she said. “When I look out at the audience and I see the people and I know they just want to have fun and let loose and forget about all of the crap that they are going through … my whole thing is, if they’re not having fun, then I’m not having fun. So it’s about making the audience have a blast. And if they’re having a blast, then I am. I’m almost directing as I go. I never play a song, really, the same twice, and if you ask my band, they’re like, ‘It’s fun!’ I mean, it’s kind of like a work in progress.”

As progress goes so does recording, each advance pushes some technology. I however cannot leave my favorite vintage microphones and analog boards plus equipment. This is where the sweet spot is and I expect to stay there in the sweet spot of sound. Thanks for reading and be sure to check out “Badder to the Bone.”