NEIL'S MUSIC

About Neil's Music

I've been interested in writing music since I was in 9th grade. I noodled around on the piano, making up songs. I started arranging some of my favorite songs for different instruments. Then, in high school, I took my first theory courses and found the basis for what I really wanted to do. I arranged a couple of songs for the school Talent Show my junior year. In my senior year I got to play a Moog Liberation synthesizer in our marching band and had a pretty free hand at writing a lot of the parts myself. I continued to write keyboard parts for the band over the next several years, learning something new each time and enjoying it very much.

But going into music as a profession didn't seem to be my destiny. I went on to major in broadcasting, but hung onto my music as a hobby, which I was able to utilize several times while in college. The most prestigious thing to happen to me was winning First Place in the David Letterman Telecommunications Scholarship Competition in 1990 for a recording of my collection of songs entitled "Tales from Ra'hash-nir". The prize money paid for my whole senior year and earned me a lot of praise and my music a lot of attention, which I needed at that time. I will always be thankful to David Letterman for that opportunity!

After college I moved to Indianapolis and continued to work on composing new pieces, but after a well-received performance of my music at a science-fiction convention in 1992, I decided to try and bring my Letterman Project out of mothballs. So, in 1993, "Tales from Ra'Hash-nir" -- the self-released tape -- was born. I took my original tapes to a studio in Indy and had them mastered onto DAT and, from that, tapes were made. I designed the inserts and commissioned cover art and had the whole thing packaged up nice and neat. My first tape! I sold quite a few over the next year, many of them through the Internet, and sent many others out as demos. Even though the original recordings were made with limited technology, people found the tapes very enjoyable and that made me very happy. A lot of people who remembered my performance at WhoosierCon II contacted me for copies of the tape.

In 1994 I got swept up in a project that was to become my next big step. I discovered that a group of Washington D.C.-area Doctor Who fans were making their own episode of the series and I got on board as the composer. The video took 3 years to complete, but when the full project premiered at Visions '96 in Chicago, "Time Rift" was a success! The response to the music was so good that producer Jon Blum and I decided that there should be a soundtrack album, so I began work on adapting the pieces I wrote for the video. By October 1997, after adding several pieces of equipment to my studio, I had recorded all the tracks and was ready to take it into a studio for mastering. Just before Thanksgiving I had a box of tapes in my possession, right in time for Visions '97. I took the train to Chicago and met up with a bunch of "Time Rift" people and we had a grand time. The tape was well-received and I got a lot of good feedback from people. Even today, 5 years later, I still get the occasional order for one. It's nice to be remembered.

You can now buy the "Time Rift" soundtrack on CD through PayPal. Just follow this link to find out more!

After the fun and success of "Time Rift", I definitely want to pursue more video scoring projects. I run a small home business that specializes in web sites, desktop publishing, audio production, and custom music for small businesses, non-profit organizations and individuals. It's called Lepus MediaNet and I have a few regular customers. I've done web pages for several people and places, some audio recording and a fair bit of desktop publishing. It's not a living, but it keeps me immersed in my hobby.

Anyway, because so many of you have expressed an interest in my music, here are links to a couple of pages relating to the subject. I hope you enjoy them, and thanks for taking the time to read about me!

Neil's Music Files: These are MIDI and MP3 files of some of my songs.

Neil's MIDI File Collection: These are some of my favorite MIDI files from the Net.