Biography

Introduction

Neils Children are an English post-punk band, featuring John Linger (guitar and vocals) and Brandon Jacobs (drums).

Career

Neils Children formed in 1999 at Harlow College in Essex, where John Linger and Brandon Jacobs were studying with Tom Hawkins. The band's name came from Linger's obsession with 1960s proto-punk band John's Children; 'Neil' was the nickname of Hawkins, the group's original bassist.

Primarily playing freakbeat-inspired music, the band performed several gigs on the London Mod scene as well as performing in the Harlow Square Rock Contest. In 2000 Hawkins quit the band for unknown reasons, and went on to become a successful sound engineer for The Subways. Replacement bassist James Hair was recruited and the band decided to move to London.

They have since played many shows in London, Southend, Brighton and many other cities, notably playing the Insomniacs Ball in London in 2006, and the popular London Calling Festival in Amsterdam. In December 2005 bassist James Hair left to form Vile Imbeciles, and was replaced by Keith Seymour (formerly of Hope of the States), and a shift in their sound towards melodic post-punk has been notable since this change.

In 2007, the band received attention in the wake of the critical and commercial explosion of The Horrors, with whom they toured in April. The two bands share personal connections, as John Linger is a friend of Rhys 'Spider' Webb, and there are similarities in the two bands' dress sense and appearance (although less so between their music).

In July 2009, bassist Keith Seymour left the group for personal reasons. John and Brandon posted the news on the Neils Children MySpace and have decided to continue the band. At time of writing they are going into the studio to record new material.

On 10th September 2009, Neils Children played their debut live show as a 4 piece band, comprising of John, Brandon and Charles Boyer (bass) and Paul Linger (percussion, samples) from Electricity In Our Homes. The show was very well received with attendants commenting on the bands bigger and textured sound. The set consisted of 5 tracks taken from the 'X.Enc' album release and 'Front On Backwards', a new song written by John on the bands summer Japanese tour which is scheduled for release on a planned E.P by the end of the year.

Releases

To this date, Neils Children they have released an 8-track mini album, 'Change/Return/Success', and a string of singles on several different indie music labels. Their 2004 single 'I Hate Models' has become something of an underground hit and was included on an XFM compilation; it is currently still the song for which they are best known, despite its exclusion from their live show.

Two full-length albums have been planned by the band without being released: 'Demand The Impossible' in 2000 and 'Pop:Aural' in 2007/8 - the latter was in fact recorded in its entirety but scrapped by the band after falling out with the label they were working with at the time, 30:30 Recordings.

In mid-2008, it was announced via the Neils Children website that the band had finished work on their full-length debut album X.Enc., which was recorded in seclusion in a warehouse in the band's hometown of Cheshunt and produced and mixed by John Linger. The tracklisting for the album, in contrast to that proposed for 'Pop:Aural', ignored many of the band's more pop-orientated songs and previous singles and featured many new, harder-sounding tracks, possibly as a result of the band's falling out with their previous label 30:30 (allegedly due to the label's pushing for a more commercial approach). The album is scheduled for release on May 11, 2009, and is preceded by the release of Neils Children's best known songs, 'I'm I'll'. As of April 30, the entire album has become available to listen to in small clips on the band's website. The band's record label is named 'Structurally Sound'.

Other work

Various members of the band have undertaken side projects. John Linger, under the psuedonym of "Round", was the first member of Neils Children to pursue solo work and recorded in 2007 a few tracks experimental, atmospheric music that dealt with interesting news stories and phenomena, rather than the typical Neils Children themes of love and loss. Linger posted his music on MySpace and performed a live solo show at "The Experimental Circle Club" in Southend. Brandon Jacobs performs 'lullaby pop' under the name of "Goodnight and I Wish*" (the name being inspired by an Altered Images song), and has recorded a number of releases and performed live shows.

John Linger has also been active as a mix engineer and record producer for various projects. He has so far produced the entire discography of London band Electricity In Our Homes (which features his brother Paul Linger on drums): 2007's 'The Shareholders Meeting EP' and the 2008 singles 'We Thought It Was, But It Wasn't' (Too Pure) and 'Silver Medal In Gymnastics' (4AD). Forthcoming Neils Children album 'X.Enc' was also entirely produced and mixed by Linger. Most recently he produced and mixed two tracks planned for a single release by Chichester-based post-punk band Disconcerts.

Record labels overseen by band members include Brandon Jacob's label Modern Pop, which has released work by Electricity In Our Homes, and Strange Idols; and the Structurally Sound label, founded by the band in 2008 to release their own music and that of associated acts.

Discography

Albums

Change/Return/Success (2004 / Soft City Recordings/Early single compilation mini-album)
Something Perpetual" (2006 / Vinyl Junkie/Japanese Only rarites compilation)
X.Enc (2009 / Structurally Sound/Vinyl Junkie)