Your name:
Neil
Miel (lead vocal, guitar, lyricist).
Where are you
from?
Melbourne, Australia.
Name of band:
Beyond Vegas.
Who else is in
your band?
Darren Kestle, lead guitar. Our live band includes longtime musical
colleagues - Steve Burns (bass, bvox), Craig Sayer (guitar, keys, bvox) and
Jason Montgomery (drums).
How would you
describe yourselves?
Unassuming, down
to earth and very aware of the joy we have already given our friends and fans
from around the world. We love creating our music and oversee every detail of
our final product. We design our own artwork for our releases, produce and edit
our videos and have complete creative control over everything we do. We self
fund everything without any assistance from any record label. Having said that,
none of them would know we exist, we are flying under the radar big time, which
we actually don't mind.
Who are your
main influences musically?
Well for me, I
grew up on a cocktail of Sex Pistols, Bowie, Iggy Pop, Beatles, Smithereens, Del
Amitri etc. and could go on forever about the bands I admire. I probably take a
little hint of each of them subconsciously in performance and in my
songwriting. Darren's influences (which he's just texting me) are U2, Pink
Floyd, Dire Straits, Sex Pistols and Simple Minds. (That's funny, I wouldn't
have picked him as a Pistols fan).
What do you hope
to achieve in music?
We really have
no preconceived ideas of success. Darren and I reunited as musicians after 20
years of not having spoken or meeting up. We had previously played, recorded and
performed together in an obscure and long forgotten Melbourne guitar pop band, which did not progress any further than recording some demos and playing gigs
in small hotels and the like. The fact that we have come together some two decades
later to record songs released on iTunes, together with three videos on YouTube,
and the release of our debut EP before Xmas surprises us in itself.
It is why we
decided upon the name Beyond Vegas - we have no expectations yet the sky is the
limit.
What has been
the highlight of your career so far, and why?
The release of
our second single Love Me Blind and subsequent release of the accompanying
video on YouTube. It is exactly
how we would like to be seen and captures our style and (often) dark lyrics
perfectly (see below).
And what’s the
moment you want to forget?
So far we have
had none, tee hee!
If you had to
pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it be and why?
Lie for
Me. It was our first release on iTunes earlier this year, and was a
benchmark for the quality of our songwriting and production abilities. I drove
across outback Australia and listened to it about 150 times to ensure we had it
right! It was a labour of love and a song we are immensely proud of.
Where can we
listen to it?
Our latest
release Love Me Blind is also available on iTunes.
Where can we
find out more about your music?
Anything else
you’d like to say about your band/music that I forgot to ask?
Essentially we
are a duo - we either write the music together or I write on my own, not a bad
combination.
The other guys
I've mentioned earlier are longtime friends who I've played with over the last
20 years in various musical outfits and combinations. They appreciate what we're
aiming for and love being involved in our videos and live performances. They are
crucial to Beyond Vegas and are professional musicians in their own right.
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