Brooks Neria
Midwestern songwriter
Brooks Neria is a singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer from Carl Junction, Missouri. He is currently based in Madrid, Spain.
He has played in folk groups, indie-rock outfits, cover groups, and church bands. He is currently spending his time working on his solo project under his own name as well as producing and playing for other musicians and collaborators
His project is centered around his solo compositions and arrangements for voice and guitar. Neria combines personal lyrics, fluid finger picking, and heartfelt vocals to provide a dramatic but sincere loud-quiet dynamic to accompany his narrative poetry.
He explores themes of growing up, lost friends and lovers, immigration, democratic backsliding, and the day-to-day life of a young person living in a world as strange as ours has become.
He recently released his debut single "Telluride" on all platforms. It is a steady building indie-folk ballad about leaving home, inexperienced love, and hindsight.
He is a very active participant in his local Madrid scene, and is currently organizing to play more shows around Spain and Europe. He doesn't enjoy writing about himself in the third person but can do so when necessary.
Press photos
Music
This song was written during a long, slow summer. It was the first summer in which I lived with my partner, and our first summer in a foreign country. Her and I were both teaching in schools at the time, so when summer Read more
This song was written during a long, slow summer. It was the first summer in which I lived with my partner, and our first summer in a foreign country. Her and I were both teaching in schools at the time, so when summer arrived, we suddenly had much more free time.
We lived in an attic in a hot town in Spain. The afternoons were so hot that we'd go to the river almost every day after getting done with our online work that we had scrapped together to make money while school was out.
It was a summer of learning. We had put things off, and this newfound free time disallowed us from putting them off any longer. We worked on things, both as individuals and as a unit. It was happy, sad, cathartic, and motivating all at the same time. For me personally, it was a big moment of becoming more honest with myself about things I needed to work on.
All of the details in the song come from real things, people, stories, and habits, but they are not all as they appear.
We lived in an attic in a hot town in Spain. The afternoons were so hot that we'd go to the river almost every day after getting done with our online work that we had scrapped together to make money while school was out.
It was a summer of learning. We had put things off, and this newfound free time disallowed us from putting them off any longer. We worked on things, both as individuals and as a unit. It was happy, sad, cathartic, and motivating all at the same time. For me personally, it was a big moment of becoming more honest with myself about things I needed to work on.
All of the details in the song come from real things, people, stories, and habits, but they are not all as they appear.
I live in a foreign country with my partner. We met here. We're both from the US. We've both faced the same challenges: work, language, papers, friends, money, and whatever else. In some things, at some moments, she's Read more
I live in a foreign country with my partner. We met here. We're both from the US. We've both faced the same challenges: work, language, papers, friends, money, and whatever else.
In some things, at some moments, she's been much farther along than I have. In other things at other times, I've been further along than her. We've both had moments in which we questioned it all. (I'm kind of having one of those right now lol.)
That's what this song is about. It's about watching the person you love question the life their leading, and the life you're leading together. This one is honestly kind of a bummer but it's one of the more sincere lyrics I've got. It was very much written in real time.
In some things, at some moments, she's been much farther along than I have. In other things at other times, I've been further along than her. We've both had moments in which we questioned it all. (I'm kind of having one of those right now lol.)
That's what this song is about. It's about watching the person you love question the life their leading, and the life you're leading together. This one is honestly kind of a bummer but it's one of the more sincere lyrics I've got. It was very much written in real time.
I wrote this song after I got a call from my high school army recruiter for the umpteenth time. I had been out of high school for 6 years.
I wrote this song on a train ride. I was coming back to Madrid from Barcelona after having just gone to see an old friend. It was beautiful and joyful to see one another, but we had also both changed very deeply. We Read more
I wrote this song on a train ride. I was coming back to Madrid from Barcelona after having just gone to see an old friend. It was beautiful and joyful to see one another, but we had also both changed very deeply.
We laughed together, but I was also reminded of old quarrels we'd had as younger men, and I saw new points upon which we had come to disagree on as adults. I tried to steer clear of them and keep it as pure and happy as I could, and I believe he did as well. We succeeded. It was lovely.
On the train back, I pondered these changes and these happy moments and how love grows and changes even when left untouched. It's bittersweet and beautiful.
We laughed together, but I was also reminded of old quarrels we'd had as younger men, and I saw new points upon which we had come to disagree on as adults. I tried to steer clear of them and keep it as pure and happy as I could, and I believe he did as well. We succeeded. It was lovely.
On the train back, I pondered these changes and these happy moments and how love grows and changes even when left untouched. It's bittersweet and beautiful.