Monday, August 17, 2009

Neon Hitch: She's Good


Neon. She's good.

Someone said she's unsigned but I'm not sure that's right. I think she has management and has been out in the US recording and writing, so sure there must be a label involved along the way paying for this?

Anyway; Neon is pretty sick. She once did a great one-drop version of Skinner's Dry Your Eyes. She used to live with Amy Wino. Her family are gypsies. She is, by all accounts, quite mad. In a good way.

My favourite song of hers, on her Myspace, is You Piece Of Shit. I don't like all the songs though, which is no bad thing, as it's pretty 'early day's' as they say.

She's writing with Benny Blanco, a la Ke$ha. He's kind the man right now, huh?

Here's an old feature I write on her for RWD in, erm, 2007...

One listen to Neon’s music and you could be left confused. With her jazz-tinged soul vocal swimming over rough and ready beats it’s not immediately clear what genre she belongs in. Dry Your Eyes is bashment flavoured, Derek is on some F’ed up grimy Middle Eastern tip while Genuinity is stripped-back acoustic sounds. “I’ve influence from all parts of the world cos I’ve travelled around,” explains the 20 year-old. “I’m a gypsy so I’ve got knowledge from different places.” Born and raised in the travelling world, Neon has lived all over the UK and Europe. Leaving home at 14 to squat in London, a couple of years later the inquisitive singer went to live in India. “I’ve seen places, you know? I was in the circus as a kid and I’ve done street performing too to make a living. It was a fun upbringing,” she grins, before admitting life on the road has its down sides too. “People have a lot of narrow-minded opinions about travellers. There are people that do travel around and give us and gypsy’s a bad name,” she concedes, “But I’d like to prove that wrong though, cos it’s stereotypical. I want to change the vision that people have of gypsies.”

Hooking up with Cameron McVey, music manager and husband of Neneh Cherry, who she met through living with Cherry’s daughter in Spain, Neon’s demo impressed 679 Recordings so much she was given a production deal. Not bad considering she didn’t realise she could even sing. Now, she can count our very special guest editor Plan B and Mike Skinner as co-collaborators. “I just shot the video to Derek with Skinner the other day. I had different ideas before I met him, but he’s proper down to earth. He’s really sound,” says the girl whose dad named her after the bright lights of Piccadilly Circus. She might not have had a conventional upbringing or name, but Neon’s future is as bright as her name suggests. “I want people to learn my story through my songs,” she says. “It’s been an adventure and I think people will enjoy it.”

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