Biography: Lee Neitzel
Lee Neitzel makes rootsy alt-rock music and has been active in the Chicago and Charlotte scenes since 1994. This new project is his first solo venture, and finds him inspired a lot by time – the time he has spent pursuing a career away from music, and now, on his return to writing and recording, learning to live in the moment and not wait for any more time to pass to pursue his dreams.
Born in Chicago but based in Charlotte for the past 15 years, Lee found excitement for the briefest of moments while signed to Charleston label Spectral Records as the frontman of indie rockers Transmission Fields. The band’s self-titled album for the label was released to admirable reviews, with Shuffle Magazine calling it “a little gem for those who like their pop rock like R.E.M. or Built to Spill … a little angular, a little obscure and a lot of fun”. They enjoyed a hectic year touring the east coast of the USA before the adventure fizzled out just as soon as it had begun, and Lee spent the next seven years learning to grow sunflowers and absorbing himself in the routine of a day job outside of music.
An afternoon noodling on some Wilco songs found Lee with a pen in his hand hooked on a vocal melody, and a complete song followed in less than an hour. Sitting in his gazebo and playing the first thing he’d written since Transmission Fields called it a day, he knew right there it was time to get back in the game. Swapping pop-rock for a more rootsy sound influenced by artists like The Shins, Benjamin Gibbard and The Decemberists, his solo writing still finds a little of the edge from his Transmission Fields days, but with a more organic, mature feel. After so much time away from the scene he is working on squeezing as much music as possible into the humdrum of daily life, with his debut EP due out mid-summer 2023.