Patrick’s back with another interview to tell us about his new single “Satisfy You” that released today!
Bio: Patrick Neely is a multi-instrumentalist out of New Jersey who writes music in a variety of genres. He loves to layer sounds together in magnificent harmony. He was the songwriter for That Robot Ash and was the rhythm guitarist for The Infinite Vacation. Patrick has various projects, a solo singer-songwriter project, and an instrumental-soundscape project.
See more of Patrick Neely in his earlier interview here and the review of his soundscape album here.
“Satisfy You” sounds like it has some excellent promise from the snippet we were able to hear before release. Would you let us know what the song was about? What inspired you to write it?
Falling in love is an interesting thing. I think that true love is selfless in the way it manifests into physical form. This song is about that selfless love, people don’t necessarily need adoration, but they need to know they will be cared for and taken care of. I wrote this with my girlfriend in mind. I just wanted her to know I would never do anything to let her down.
There’s a dancey quality to “Satisfy You” was that on purpose, or did you do that on purpose?
The song starts off much simpler, but builds into full emotion and raw energy in the first chorus and beyond. I wanted to channel a bit of an 80s pop-rock feel in the piece, so I guess you could say I did it on purpose.
From what we heard, your project sounds awesome. Did you do it in the studio or on your own? What were some of the challenges? Who mixed and mastered it? Tell us a bit about your process.
Thanks, I really appreciate that! I have my own home studio I use to record my music. I also mix and master it all myself. For the voice work, I tend to lay a drum track first, then guitar and scratch vocals. From there, I will add bass/synthesizer and tweak the percussion to match the rhythm sections. I will then mix everything and lay a better vocal, then master the track for the color I’m looking for in the track.
I think the biggest challenge I face with the at-home studio is monetary in nature. I have pretty decent equipment, but it can be difficult to reach that radio-ready quality without a radio-ready budget. I also live on a busy street, so I sometimes catch artifacts (even with soundproofing you catch sirens and trucks rumbling down the road) in my vocals and have to redo sections over and over again, which can increase production time.
All in all, I am happy with the production value of “Satisfy You” and think my upcoming ‘unplugged like’ acoustic project I am finishing up this month, and next will have even higher production value. Really looking forward to sharing these works with the world.
This is quite different from your soundscape album. Would you tell us a bit about the songwriting process during this project?
My soundscape music has no percussion to it, but I try to have an underlying meter to it. It is hard to detect sometimes, but it’s present. With pop/rock and other forms of singer-songwriter stuff, you have to be very aware of form, music theory, and that “perfect” sound. You have sections to the music, right? Verse, Chorus, Verse, Bridge, Chorus. Stuff like that. With soundscapes, you tend to have one, maybe two sections. You build on one drone. It can be very challenging to change your mentality for such things. I love to be challenged and feel like it makes you a better songwriter in all formats and genres.
Did you play all the instruments on the album, or did you have other musicians featured on the album?
All tracks are my own. Part of the issue with (or ease of) being a multi-instrumentalist is sometimes it’s just easier to do it all yourself. This has gotten a lot of great songwriters in trouble in the past with claims of being controlling over their music. I don’t feel that way, though. I love to collaborate with people, but when I am in the zone on a project, I hammer it out in an 8 to 12-hour session. This can be the hardest part about collaboration; it’s a slower process and doesn’t always end up the same way I originally intended it to (this can be a great thing!).
I do plan to collaborate with other artists in the near future. I actually have something in my near horizon I am trying to hammer out the details on. So stay tuned!
How do you connect with your audience? What is the easiest way for them to connect with you?
I definitely feel like Instagram is the easiest for me. I am very active in the community there. I’m just a DM away. I always answer my messages (unless you’re clearly spam). Also follow him on Spotify.
What’s next for you?
My fully acoustic album is nearly complete. I am just currently trying to figure out if I want to add tracks to it or not. From there, I have another ambient album with a space travel concept to it. I am brainstorming. And, as I mentioned before, a possible collaborative project which I haven’t hammered out the details on, but at least one song should be done under this project. Really looking forward to all of this. I’m going to be busy!
Anything else you’d like to add or let us know about?
Just that I am very thankful for every single person that listens and enjoys my music. I am not really in this to get rich, I just want to add value to people’s lives through my music.
