Neil Cousin

Neil Cousin is a singer/songwriter/musician living in London. Before signing to Red Mountain Records in Hong Kong, Neil Cousin self-released two albums under the Artist name of White Rabbit.
It was his first recordings that attracted the interest of Hong Kong-based record label, Red Mountain Records. The songs were raw and sparse, yet rich in mood. His writing style set him apart from others in his genre, whatever that is.
Both of these albums were well received by many who were lucky to stumble across them. Neil was very hesitant to sign to a label stating he made music for himself and friends, not money.
Red Mountain Records Producer Dan Puzny convinced him that together they could make a world-class album that he would be happy with, and after remixing some of his old material, Neil was convinced the partnership was a safe one.
Neil Cousin has a distinctly unique voice which has been met with much adoration. Neil sings from the heart and is blessed with a natural singing voice that seems effortless. His writing is strongly influenced by Leonard Cohen, and infact Neil's song "Hotel" is almost a tribute to his idol and can be found on the new album.
The new album “Double-Life Taxi” is complete after almost 4 months of production. Neil worked hard writing all of the material, and performed most of the instruments himself. It is very much a solo album that shows the future potential of an amazing writer and performer with great creativity.
Neil Cousin relished in being given the chance to bring his vision to life with all the support and resources needed. This chance to work with a committed Producer who understood his vision resulted in a creative masterpiece.
The album has many styles of writing, performance and production to make an interesting and ever-changing journey with the vocals of a true poet.
Neil asked the producer to explore different production styles on the album. The result is some very complex productions and some very minimal, which gives the album many dimensions. It swings from commercial sounding moments to hidden art-rock gem from another time.
The final song on the album was written, performed and produced to sound like a song from "The Velvet Underground" from the 1960's. To Velvet Underground fans it will sound like a lost track from their album, and many of the songs also feature Lou Reed influenced guitar.
The 1972 album Transformer by Lou Reed was a big influence on the Artist and Producer for this project as it captured a raw innocence in poetic minimalist rock and the playful mixture of sounds and styles through the album seem very unique compared to the one-dimensional productions of most rock to follow.
Most albums sound the same from beginning to end and Double-Life Taxi does quite the opposite, seeming like the listener is changing locations, and traveling in a time machine. This was important to make this a piece of rock art, not a hollow commercial album for the masses.
Neil Cousin's new Album is set for release in early April 2009 in selected countries before full world-wide release. All final tracks are on the music page, so check Neil's web-page link.
Neil Cousin is resuming his tour soon, you can check out the dates on the tours page of his site.

Published in TIME OUT HONG KONG, No. 26 15th April 2009

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