Hello Neonsol, and welcome back to Brutal Resonance after so many years. You just recently dropped your new song ‘Full Disclosure’.  Tell us a little about that. What does it mean to you?

Neonsol:  Thank you! And yes, it has been a while. Our new track 'Full Disclosure' is a synth-pop song dealing with the feeling of desiring a return to something that you have lost - even though you are fully aware that actually getting the thing you are longing for could have very negative consequences for you. When two people start a relationship, they often look upon each other with the eyes of lovers, meaning that they idealize each other and thereby risk basing their feelings for the other person mainly on positive illusions or dreams. As time goes by, these dreams and illusions may end up being shattered. 

In Portugal, they use the word 'saudade' to describe a melancholic longing - or desire - for what was and no longer is. This state of mind is used by some people as a mechanism for coping with loss or as an attempt to understand and manage desires. When you combine saudade with the blindness sparked by being - or having been - in love, there is a risk of making unconscious choices that can severely affect your well-being and make you run around in emotional circles.

The lyrics of track do not provide any deeper meaning, any solutions or any pieces of advice. It is just a story about two people eventually getting full disclosure into each other's true personalities and then struggling to understand that there was nothing left to retain in the past relationship. Seen from a musical perspective, the production is a continuation of the sound that was laid out by our 2022-release 'Frozen Teardrops'. The track was originally written back in 2013, but the chorus was reworked completely in 2023, as the old chorus sounded a bit dated. 

This is your first new piece since 2022’s “Frozen Teardrops”. Since then, do you believe that you have evolved musically? And if so, how?

Neonsol:  No major musical leaps have been taken since the release of Frozen Teardrops on AnalogueTrash's Label Sampler in late 2022. However, with Frozen Teardrops - and also Full Disclosure - we introduced vocal harmonies in the chorus sections. Previously we used to sing unison or solo vocals only, but now we are very keen on doing more vocal harmonies when it fits into the tracks.


I read that you’re inspired by a ton of different musicians including the likes of New Order, Madonna, and J.S. Bach. What do you take from each of these artists and how do you implement it into your own sound? 

Neonsol:  We try our very best to create diverse music and not to write the same song or do the same production twice. This means that we have to bring in inspiration from a variety of different sources rather than dwelling within the traditional, well defined - but sometimes quite static - limitations that are laid out by some of the elders within our scene.

The inspiration from New Order includes their focus on the balance between the vocal sections and the synths - as well as some of their keyboard hooks. We could have mentioned Depeche Mode, who also have an inspirational effect on our tracks. The inspiration from Madonna may not be musically, but rather based on the attitude that she had in the early years of her career. Some people have even mentioned that Nina sometimes sounds like Madonna, so we are not even going to try to hide where some of the inspiration is coming from. Lastly, some of the note progressions in the arpeggiators that we use are inspired by J.S. Bach and other baroque artists.

You decided to revisit two other songs with ‘Full Disclosure’. What edits did you make to ‘Frozen Teardrops’ and ‘Black Sunday’? How does this improve them? 

Neonsol:  The old (2022) version of Frozen Teardrops was more than 6 minutes long. It was a good version - but too long. We therefore tried to challenge ourselves by doing a 'radio edit' of the track. The first rule about radio edits is that they should be less that 3:40 long, so we had to do some quite deep cuts into the track in order to remove almost half of the original mix. We are very satisfied with the new version as it has more energy and is more intense than the original version. So, did it get any airplay? Well, not as much as we hoped for, but it has been aired here and there - and it also made a last-minute entry as #93 on a list of the best synth tracks of 2023, so we are not dissatisfied with this at all.

As for Black Sunday, the updated Big Beat Edit of the track was originally intended to be played live only, but we decided to add it to the Full Disclosure release since we are quite happy with its energy and since we got some really positive feedback on this version at our latest show here in Copenhagen.


Is ‘Full Disclosure’ teasing an album to come out later? If so, are there any details on that as of just yet?

Neonsol:  We love albums. And we would love to do more albums. However, it does take an awful lot of time to do a full album, and with all band members having full time jobs, it is getting increasingly trickier to find the time that we would like to spend on doing music. Therefore, we are looking more in the direction of how we can utilize the EP-format for future releases. It could be anything really, like concept EP's, playing with different types and formats of physical releases and most importantly paving the way for a higher release frequency than if we had to release full albums.

And what else have you in store for 2024? Any live shows, EPs, remixes, so on and so forth staged for the year? 

Neonsol:  We would love to let you know about planned shows and Neonsol appearances on upcoming compilation releases, but since nothing is official yet, we cannot reveal what is going to happen within the near future.

When looking at the longer-term perspective, we plan on focusing quite a lot on our live shows. Neonsol concerts are where we have the most fun, and we will try to increase the quality of the shows as well as the general live experience by hand-playing more synths than we do today.

And if we add songwriting and production to the list of tasks here, we are fully booked with activities for the remainder of the year. Apart from live shows. There is always room for another live show (are you listening, WGT?)

Lastly, I’d like to thank you for your time. I wish you the best of luck and leave the space below for any last words. 

Neonsol:  Thank you for showing interest in Neonsol now - and since our very first official release back in 2014. We really appreciate it.
 Neonsol interview
January 14, 2024
Brutal Resonance
ReviewsInterviewsFeaturesNewsMovies & TVVideosRecord Label

Neonsol

Jan 2024
Hello Neonsol, and welcome back to Brutal Resonance after so many years. You just recently dropped your new song ‘Full Disclosure’.  Tell us a little about that. What does it mean to you?

Neonsol:  Thank you! And yes, it has been a while. Our new track 'Full Disclosure' is a synth-pop song dealing with the feeling of desiring a return to something that you have lost - even though you are fully aware that actually getting the thing you are longing for could have very negative consequences for you. When two people start a relationship, they often look upon each other with the eyes of lovers, meaning that they idealize each other and thereby risk basing their feelings for the other person mainly on positive illusions or dreams. As time goes by, these dreams and illusions may end up being shattered. 

In Portugal, they use the word 'saudade' to describe a melancholic longing - or desire - for what was and no longer is. This state of mind is used by some people as a mechanism for coping with loss or as an attempt to understand and manage desires. When you combine saudade with the blindness sparked by being - or having been - in love, there is a risk of making unconscious choices that can severely affect your well-being and make you run around in emotional circles.

The lyrics of track do not provide any deeper meaning, any solutions or any pieces of advice. It is just a story about two people eventually getting full disclosure into each other's true personalities and then struggling to understand that there was nothing left to retain in the past relationship. Seen from a musical perspective, the production is a continuation of the sound that was laid out by our 2022-release 'Frozen Teardrops'. The track was originally written back in 2013, but the chorus was reworked completely in 2023, as the old chorus sounded a bit dated. 

This is your first new piece since 2022’s “Frozen Teardrops”. Since then, do you believe that you have evolved musically? And if so, how?

Neonsol:  No major musical leaps have been taken since the release of Frozen Teardrops on AnalogueTrash's Label Sampler in late 2022. However, with Frozen Teardrops - and also Full Disclosure - we introduced vocal harmonies in the chorus sections. Previously we used to sing unison or solo vocals only, but now we are very keen on doing more vocal harmonies when it fits into the tracks.


I read that you’re inspired by a ton of different musicians including the likes of New Order, Madonna, and J.S. Bach. What do you take from each of these artists and how do you implement it into your own sound? 

Neonsol:  We try our very best to create diverse music and not to write the same song or do the same production twice. This means that we have to bring in inspiration from a variety of different sources rather than dwelling within the traditional, well defined - but sometimes quite static - limitations that are laid out by some of the elders within our scene.

The inspiration from New Order includes their focus on the balance between the vocal sections and the synths - as well as some of their keyboard hooks. We could have mentioned Depeche Mode, who also have an inspirational effect on our tracks. The inspiration from Madonna may not be musically, but rather based on the attitude that she had in the early years of her career. Some people have even mentioned that Nina sometimes sounds like Madonna, so we are not even going to try to hide where some of the inspiration is coming from. Lastly, some of the note progressions in the arpeggiators that we use are inspired by J.S. Bach and other baroque artists.

You decided to revisit two other songs with ‘Full Disclosure’. What edits did you make to ‘Frozen Teardrops’ and ‘Black Sunday’? How does this improve them? 

Neonsol:  The old (2022) version of Frozen Teardrops was more than 6 minutes long. It was a good version - but too long. We therefore tried to challenge ourselves by doing a 'radio edit' of the track. The first rule about radio edits is that they should be less that 3:40 long, so we had to do some quite deep cuts into the track in order to remove almost half of the original mix. We are very satisfied with the new version as it has more energy and is more intense than the original version. So, did it get any airplay? Well, not as much as we hoped for, but it has been aired here and there - and it also made a last-minute entry as #93 on a list of the best synth tracks of 2023, so we are not dissatisfied with this at all.

As for Black Sunday, the updated Big Beat Edit of the track was originally intended to be played live only, but we decided to add it to the Full Disclosure release since we are quite happy with its energy and since we got some really positive feedback on this version at our latest show here in Copenhagen.


Is ‘Full Disclosure’ teasing an album to come out later? If so, are there any details on that as of just yet?

Neonsol:  We love albums. And we would love to do more albums. However, it does take an awful lot of time to do a full album, and with all band members having full time jobs, it is getting increasingly trickier to find the time that we would like to spend on doing music. Therefore, we are looking more in the direction of how we can utilize the EP-format for future releases. It could be anything really, like concept EP's, playing with different types and formats of physical releases and most importantly paving the way for a higher release frequency than if we had to release full albums.

And what else have you in store for 2024? Any live shows, EPs, remixes, so on and so forth staged for the year? 

Neonsol:  We would love to let you know about planned shows and Neonsol appearances on upcoming compilation releases, but since nothing is official yet, we cannot reveal what is going to happen within the near future.

When looking at the longer-term perspective, we plan on focusing quite a lot on our live shows. Neonsol concerts are where we have the most fun, and we will try to increase the quality of the shows as well as the general live experience by hand-playing more synths than we do today.

And if we add songwriting and production to the list of tasks here, we are fully booked with activities for the remainder of the year. Apart from live shows. There is always room for another live show (are you listening, WGT?)

Lastly, I’d like to thank you for your time. I wish you the best of luck and leave the space below for any last words. 

Neonsol:  Thank you for showing interest in Neonsol now - and since our very first official release back in 2014. We really appreciate it.
Jan 14 2024
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Steven Gullotta

info@brutalresonance.com
I've been writing for Brutal Resonance since November of 2012 and now serve as the editor-in-chief. I love the dark electronic underground and usually have too much to listen to at once but I love it. I am also an editor at Aggressive Deprivation, a digital/physical magazine since March of 2016. I support the scene as much as I can from my humble laptop.

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