THE VELVET MACHINE

After over two decades of making music for film, television and video games, THE VELVET MACHINE marks BAFTA nominated composer Neal Acree’s debut as a recording artist. Fourteen years in the making, the album is an unexpected return to Acree’s roots and the realization of a long forgotten dream. Ranging in influences from Tangerine Dream, Giorgio Moroder, Peter Gabriel and Vangelis to Trent Reznor, Depeche Mode and Pink Floyd, THE VELVET MACHINE is a collection of synth-driven anthems and cinematic soundscapes with an orchestral touch.

 Track list:

1. The Velvet Machine (4:08)
2. Midnight Ride (4:45)
3. The Muse (feat. Maiya Sykes) (5:34)
4. Chrysalis (6:29)
5. Waves (3:36)
6. Rise (3:04)
7. Shine (4:01)
8. Dust (5:36)
9. The Persistence of Time (5:18)
10. Alive (feat. Maiya Sykes) (5:59)
11. Empty (4:16)
12. Awoken (3:34)
13. One World (feat. Úyanga Bold) (5:00)

NOTES

One of my earliest musical aspirations was to make records. Long before I decided to become a composer I was making cassette albums of experimental music with hand drawn covers and giving them to family and friends. Each one was more elaborate than the next, culminating with “Eclipse” which I made 200 cassette copies of and sold to anyone that would take one. This included co-workers and customers at my retail job. I was incredibly shy but I found my identity through art and lived for any chance to move people with it. Hard to believe that was over 25 years ago. And while the desire to keep making music for myself never left me, it has had to take a back seat to the career that in itself has been incredibly gratifying creatively.

In 2006 I started making music for myself again. I created “The Velvet Machine” as an alter ego, an outlet to create with no boundaries or expectations. A place to experiment and find the artist’s voice that had long since given way to the cinematic one with which I made a living. As the name might suggest The Velvet Machine was about embracing duality in music. Beauty and decay, consonance and dissonance, the organic and the electronic, the modern and the classic. The duality of being both an artist and a creative hired gun. In fact, “Duality” was to be the name of the first album.

While I was ultimately not able to devote the time to finish that first attempt at an album in 2006, the seeds were planted. Chrysalis, Waves and Empty are the only remnants of the original concept and while Chrysalis and Empty have been extended and updated a bit, Waves remains untouched short of a little extra reverb. The guitar on these tracks are from the original files and I did my best to stay true to my original intentions while bringing these concepts in line with my evolving vision.

In 2012 the voice returned. I wrote The Muse, Alive and Awoken for my future wife who had not only opened up my world musically but who had awoken that desire to give a voice to the music inside. This period saw a blending of orchestral elements and more rhythm-driven electronics. While I didn’t have the resources at the time I hoped that some day I’d be able to record them live. Of these tracks The Muse is the closest to its original form despite having to painstakingly recreate it from scratch after the original files were lost. I eventually was able to record the orchestra live and have vocalist Maiya Sykes perform on Alive and The Muse. Maiya’s vocals were the last thing that I added to the album and brought the songs to life in a way I couldn’t have even imagined when I wrote them 8 years ago.

2013 saw the birth of Dust, Midnight Ride, The Persistence of Time, Shine and the opening chords to what would become the title track of The Velvet Machine. I was one chapter closer to finishing the “book” but once again life took over and gave way to the busiest stretch of my career. While Dust and Midnight Ride have been extended and fully realized, Shine remains virtually unchanged short of being extended and having the guitars updated. Oddly echoing the previous “chapter” in which The Muse files were lost, Shine was also lost along the way and had to be resurrected from the lone mp3 in which it survived.

It wasn’t until the end of 2017 that I finally decided that enough was enough. I was going to finish the album no matter what it took. Thus began the biggest creative undertaking of my life and an obsession that kept me on the edge of sanity for the next two and a half years. While the final picture of the album hadn’t quite come into focus yet, I knew that whatever I was going to say needed to be said if I was ever to find balance again. What started out as a casual creative outlet became a race against an invisible clock and a battle against the fear and insecurity of baring such a personal musical side of myself. Fear that after all those years of working in it that it wouldn’t be any good and that all those years had been wasted. Fear of showing such a different and personal musical side of myself after spending two decades cultivating my professional one. Fear of building it up too much and having it fall short. Would anyone listen to it? Would anyone care? I strongly considered walking away from it more than once but I came to realize that the decision wasn’t mine to make. I had to do it for myself no matter what and if even one person listened and was moved in the slightest bit than it was worth putting it out there. Finishing It became a self administered test of patience and perseverance unlike any I had seen before.

In the beginning of 2018 I finished the title track, wrote Rise as an outro to Shine (though it eventually became an intro of sorts), and finished One World. THE VELVET MACHINE was starting to come into focus. That March I recorded One World, The Muse, Alive and Chrysalis with a small string and flute section at the legendary East West Studios in Hollywood. It was incredibly surreal, not only to be conducting my music in the studio that Elvis, Frank Sinatra, U2 and Madonna had recorded in but to finally be seeing the album come to fruition. I publicly announced the album with it’s intended release date at the end of that month. But like so many times before, life had other plans.

During these last two years I began to see the bigger picture within which this disparate collection of unfinished ideas would fit together. And while up until that point I had accepted many of the songs in the state they were originally created, the goal then became to create as cohesive of a sound as possible. I would have to revisit each song and try my best to preserve the original intention while truly seeing each idea through to the end, something I have struggled with creatively my entire life. Each song I revisited would swallow me up and take me on a journey of self discovery. One by one they would fill my head with riddles and take me to the breaking point. Then one by one they would drag me through a pit of utter despair and into a trance where for a brief moment all of the answers presented themselves to me. And then the song was done, at least for now.

A 14 year journey with a mountain to climb at the end. Welcome to THE VELVET MACHINE.

- Neal Acree, May 2020

Album Credits

Written, produced and performed by Neal Acree
Mixed by Neal Acree
The Velvet Machine and One World mixed by Michael Tuller
Mastered by Mark Theriault, Le Lab Mastering

Vocals on The Muse and Alive: Maiya Sykes
Vocals on One World: Úyanga Bold
Piano on The Muse and Alive: Mike Lang

The Muse, Chrysalis and One World recorded at East West Studios, Los Angeles
Orchestra Contractor: Mark Robertson
Conducted by Neal Acree
Violin:  Mark Robertson, Songa Lee, Cheryl Kim, Alyssa Park, Rebecca Chung, Yelena Yegoryan, Katie Sloan and Armen Anassian
Viola: Andrew Duckles, Luke Maurer and Lynn Richburg
Cello: David Low, Julie Jung and Vanessa Freebairn-Smith
Flute: Jenni Olson, Sandy Hughes and Gina Luciani

Awoken recorded at Tom Tom Studios, Budapest
Awoken Performed by: The Budapest Scoring Orchestra

Engineering on The Muse, Chrysalis, Alive and One World: Jorge Velasco
Orchestration on The Muse, Alive and One World: Penka Kouneva
Orchestration on Chrysalis and Awoken: Nolan Markey
Music Preparation: Nolan Markey
Additional programming on The Muse: Austin Gruhn

Album Artwork: Neal Acree
Documentary footage: Landon Donoho
Still Photography: Margarita Kravets