If one were to describe Andrew Neil’s musical journey in one line it would probably read like this:
“Recruited High School athlete to the USMA, West Point to Car Accident/head injury to onset of psychosis/mental illness to songwriter to seclusion to psychotic episode to jail to state hospital to recovery to recording artist to helping others through music.”
Andrew Neil is considered an “Outsider music artist” and is included in Ranker’s list of “Best Outsider Music Artists”, which ranks the top outsider music artists in the world. He began writing songs following a head injury sustained in a car accident in 2009. Despite having no formal music training, Andrew has written ~400 songs since the accident. When he writes a song, he has no idea the key of the song or the chording. He plays what he hears in his head.
In 2014 he was hospitalized due to a psychotic episode gone bad and remained in a state hospital for three years until May 2017. While hospitalized he wrote 70 songs and recorded them onto a battery powered recorder. Upon his release, an album containing 11 of those songs called “Code Purple-Andrew Neil” was produced – recognized as the only one ever produced in which all the songs were written and recorded in a State Hospital.
Since his discharge from the hospital, Andrew has written scores of songs and has released his first Studio Album, “Merry Go Round”, featuring notable musicians including Andy Waldeck, Nathan Brown, Gina Sobel, and Jack Sheehan. Daniel Benayun, a rising star in the Bostonian art community was commissioned to design and paint the cover art from scratch.
Andrew is in the throes of recording yet another full-length Album tentatively scheduled for release in the Fall of 2019. The Album will be called “Freak” and will also be produced by Andy Waldeck.
On 19 Jun 2019, Andrew Neil was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Cancer. He continues to use the challenges in his life to try to positively impact others, as evidenced by his participation with Cancer Can Rock in the production of his original “One Love One Globe.”
