Neal Hoffmann releases debut single

Neal Hoffmann

Summer Time Bliss b/w Vanity And Pride

Once in a while a great new summer song — evoking or maybe lamenting summer — just appears…

“A few years ago summer didn’t ever seem to arrive. It was wet and cold for a long time and so I thought I’d write a summer song that also simultaneously laments its absence,” says Neal Hoffmann.

Hoffmann is a superb singer/writer and producer, his music already being compared to Crosby, Stills & Nash. His songs and vocals are special. There’s a hint of The Mamas & The Papas in ‘Summer Time Bliss’. But if ‘California Dreaming’ is the wintertime lament for summer, then ‘Summer Time Bliss’ is the brilliant sun-drenched summer song of longing for, dreaming of, lamenting, celebrating, enjoying summer with an underlying question: is it really summer? All rolled into one — this song is far up and away above your average song. A swirling hypnotic merry-go-round. Neal Hoffmann is a find, in terms of songs a Jimmy Webb for today.

“The song laments the fact that summer hasn’t arrived yet, but then it goes deeper, connecting to a realisation that the relationship our protagonist is in might be doomed and so he seems caught in the idea he is wasting his time even in dreaming up the gorgeous summer days in his mind,” Neal says.

“With ‘Vanity and Pride’, I don’t have a definitive answer as to the style, but to me it’s a song that has quite a few blues elements. I just came up with the main riff which led to the rest of the song. After a while I realised I could play the riff in two different ways. So I doubled the riff played on a semi hollow electric by adding Spanish acoustic on one side. The genre may be singer songwriter blues? After recording the riff and vocals, I put organ ideas down and then sketched out the basic idea for the cello part. Later I added the percussion using my ex’s acoustic guitar front and back. Then I recorded the bass guitar line. That is pretty much it. Apart from the guitar solo which was recorded a couple of times, without any changes to the notes; I tried it with different guitars and amps. I think this song ‘Vanity And Pride’ showed me I could record fewer parts and get results.”

Artist’s website: http://www.amphibic.co.uk/

‘Summer Time Bliss’:

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