Buxton musician Isaac Neilson releases new single

Having made the decision at the start of 2022 to step out as a musician in his own right, Isaac has barely had time to catch his breath, with more than 60 shows over the summer, including playing major festivals alongside some of his musical heroes.

“I think I’ve done 62 shows over the summer with about half of those being festivals,” Isaac, who is also known for being one half of local covers band Fuzzy Felt World, said.

"I’ve done a mix of smaller local ones as well as some larger regional ones. I did one called Bickerstock in St Helen’s, Eat in the Park in Buxton and one in Hayfield but the biggest one I’ve done is The Big Feastival which also featured Stereophonics.”

And as well as giving Isaac the chance to generate interest in his music and attract new fans, performing at festivals such as this have also proved educational for him as he sets out honing his craft.

"The thing that was really striking for me was you get an idea of the separation of talent between the regional, local level and the big names when you see them perform live. There’s a lot of really minute detail both in terms of how tight they are as a performance but also lthe stagecraft of how they manage the audience and get them engaged. I learnt quite a lot just from watching artists who are a few steps ahead of me which was really useful. It’s helped me refine a lot since.”

And this week marks another exciting moment in his career as Isaac’s latest single Tear This Down is released.

Being released on Friday October 14, Tear This Down has seen Isaac work with a hugely talented team including award-winning Buxton producer Matt Taylor, as well as Cameron Craig, who has won Grammys for his work with hugely successful artists such as Adele.

"This is the first time I’ve worked with a production team,” Isaac explained. “The three tracks I've put out so far were done entirely by myself. But now I’m working with teams and I’ve realised you have to learn not to be precious. There’s a lot of self indulgence because you have to be self indulgent to get into this kind of thing because you wouldn’t write things and show them to people if you didn’t think they were good but I had to swallow my pride and think maybe I need to let go of a bit of control so I can have something that's better.

"So when you have worked with people who have really proven their worth and they’ve got a track record of being really good at what they do it’s taken me to another level of reflection because when you work with people who are that legitimate and capable the only bottleneck in the process can be yourself. So the thing that I've really learned a lot from this experience is everyone has an idea of how good they are at something. And now I've got sort of a reflection of how good I actually am because I can be the only thing that's holding up the quality.”

As for the single itself, Isaac has been influenced by some of the artists he enjoys listening to. “It’s got a Killers, Libertines, Sterophonics sort of flavour to it,” he said. “Lyrically it’s about acknowledging where you are and being able to throw away your perception of yourself to move forward.”

Tear This Down will be available on all major streaming platforms. To keep up to date with Isaac, follow him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/IsaacNeilson00.