Neil Blank, originally from the UK  shores but now residing stateside, has been releasing some astute electronic music for a number of years. Before the guise of Neil Blank he spent a period of time in the limelight playing with The Stone Roses drummer Alan ‘Reni’ Wren in his early 00’s solo outfit The Rub. Gigslutz caught up with Neil for this exclusive chat about his upbringing, his time in The Rub, plus the journey he’s been on creating his own back catalogue of stunning music:

Can you please tell me about your upbringing?

I grew up in the suburbs of Manchester, one of the those long streets with the same semi-detached house repeated into the horizon.

My little box bedroom was above the front door, I plastered the walls with images from music and design magazines which suggested a more colorful world.

What was the first music you can remember hearing?

My dad mostly played classical around the house but like everyone he also had Sgt Pepper. I remember hearing She’s Leaving Home at age 7 or 8 through his big speakers and being totally captivated by the sound of it.

Were there any specific influences you can remember discovering?

I remember when I was about 14 getting into The Velvet Underground and Nico and just feeling immersed in this world of chaos and beauty. It made me want to be in a more creative state and setting, an instinct I’ve more or less followed since then.

Music discovery opened up through the music press; NME, Select, Vox then later Jockey Slut and Sleaze Nation. Over the years I discovered everything from Captain Beefheart to Television to Squarepusher.

When I was 13 or so I’d buy things like Bitches Brew or There’s a Riot Goin’ On’, hate them first time around, then love them forever after about the fourth listen.

While I was discovering this treasure trove of older music, my friends were getting into techno, so when I started going out my social life was much more around clubs than gigs. I started discovering loads of electronic music, from Goldie to Mr Fingers to Jeff Mills.

What instruments did you learn first?

I started on drums about age 10, my parents very generously allowed a kit in our living room. I was really into James Brown at the time and eventually mastered the break for Funky Drummer which felt like a major achievement.

When I was 12 my brother bought a white Stratocaster which I inherited when he lost interest, still the same guitar I write on now.

Did you find it easy to compose your own music from an early age?

Composing took off when I got into music software and computers in my mid to late teens.

It was never easy exactly, but I did find it natural to teach myself. Over time it was like I could make a new kind of band every time I started a track, using different combinations of synthetic and acoustic instruments, beat sequencing, effects.

A lot of the questions I explored then are still the ones that obsess me now – how do you use the guitar in electronic environments, how can you stretch the idea of what a song can be.

Were you in any bands when you first started learning to play instruments?

There were a couple of school friends I played with, who were also into old as well as new music.

Back in 1999 you joined The Stone Roses drummer Alan ‘Reni’ Wren in his solo band The Rub. How did you join the band?

A school friend was my way into The Rub. He was already in the band and had met Reni through Tony Wilson’s ex-wife who used to co-manage the Roses.

Growing up in Manchester at the time a lot of the people who had been involved in that golden age of music were around, you’d spot members of the Smiths and the Roses going about their lives. I’d met John and Ian on separate occasions before I met Reni, just seeing them and saying hello.

When I met Ian on the street I mentioned I was doing my own stuff, he was really encouraging and said, ‘find your own rhythm, and if it sounds like the Beatles rewind and start again’.

Meeting Reni for the first time was a really powerful experience though as he had been my drumming idol since I was a kid. Then the fact that suddenly I was at his house jamming, it was unbelievable really.

What are your memories of rehearsals?

One memory in particular is of Reni, who we called ‘Al’, demonstrating to me how a bass part should be played. He had this amazing level of focus and commitment with total command of the instrument, like he wasn’t teaching me a part as much as showing me a mindset.

Another time there was some music on in the background and I remember him talking about it, getting to the heart of what it was somehow. What is this music really doing, where is it really coming from, what’s the attitude it has.

Did you think yourself, Casey and Mik made a good noise?

For the short time we were together we did alright, but the magic of Reni’s original demos was really hard to capture, maybe impossible, even for seasoned players which I certainly was not. He just had an amazing feel for every instrument, kind of a Sly Stone-level multi-instrumentalist. You could hear how he varied rhythm and dynamics in really subtle ways across multiple instrument parts.

In retrospect I wonder what it would have been like if he had gone straight to making a really well-produced solo record rather than get out on the road with a band.

Did you provide any instrumentation on any demos?

No those were all baked before I joined. As far as I’m aware Reni plays every note.

Did you jam with Reni in rehearsals?

Yeah a handful of times, even with him on the kit and me on guitar, but most of the focus was on training us up on the set of songs he already had written. It was a very intensive process, getting the songs and arrangements down so we could get on the road.

Do you have any stand out memories playing those gigs?

I remember at the Manchester gig before the show, Al introduced me to Mani – and I was literally about to play bass to this packed audience of Stone Roses fans, it was like ‘no pressure!’

Overall the shows were a mixed bag. I think people assumed Reni’s solo stuff would be on the funkier end of Roses material but actually he was really into straight-ahead rock. We went down great in Glasgow but I think people for the most part weren’t expecting what it was. Some funk in there but mostly a heavier sound at a faster tempo.

What are your memories of how your time with The Rub ended?

After the tour, I felt like I needed a way to get my own life started. I’d not earned anything for over a year and it felt like the band had stalled.

Did you enjoy your time in The Rub?

I enjoyed parts of it – playing music is always a joy and the shows were a massive buzz. But I wasn’t creatively fulfilled and felt I had a load of potential I needed to explore.

What happened after The Rub?

I didn’t see a viable path at the time pursuing music so I pivoted to getting a design career off the ground.

My first design job was at Tony Wilson’s In The City conference, run by his second wife, funnily enough. I got to meet Tony a few times at the office which was fascinating — it was around the time 24 Hour Party People came out. One day he gave me a souvenir pen he’d bought from the Warhol retrospective down at the Tate in London which was a nice little gesture.

Design work then took me to London and eventually New York and across the states.

Fast forward 20 years and you’re releasing your own material under the guise of Neil Blank. Where did the name Neil Blank come from?

My mum’s given name was Blank actually so it’s a family name. I wanted something that was still me in an authentic way, but I like the associations it has to post punk and also to some kind of open creative attitude. That early exposure to all those different styles and approaches were the basis for how I listen and try to make music, so that word blank makes sense for me.

Have you been composing your own material since the days you were in The Rub?

More or less, but in the background as I built up my career in design. As everyone knows music is a really tough way to make a living, so no regrets, but it was always a path not taken, particularly when I’d spent that intensive training time with someone who was part of this cultural touchstone. Deep down I was always curious what I had in me.

I finally reached a stage where I could afford to take a few months off work. That was just before the pandemic when my wife and I were living close to Haight Ashbury in San Francisco. The tracks I did then formed the basis of what would become my first album, A Machine for Dreaming In.

Did you have any specific inspiration behind composing the music you’ve released?

Musically I wanted to explore those mixes of styles I’ve talked about. Genres have become a bit stilted now with the way music is consumed so I was wanting to push against that a bit.

The album was also fed by impressions I had living and traveling in different parts of the states, all during this period of massive change.

We did a tour of civil rights sites and outsider art in Alabama, which is where I shot the image of a malfunctioning digital billboard I used for the cover, literally on the far side of the bridge where Martin Luther King led civil rights marchers in the sixties. I’d also spent time on the edges of Silicon Valley, this place which blends very strange and very banal stuff and influences all our lives.

Then when we moved to the high desert in New Mexico during the pandemic I finished the tracks I’d started and some of the more spacious material naturally emerged.

So all these experiences fed into what I was making, which was my own little rebellion against the algorithms that want music to be in little boxes.

Where do you record your material?

Mostly in the box ironically. Meaning I don’t use much outboard gear or amps. Partly expense, partly I just love how pure the guitar sounds plugged straight into a computer with digital effects.

You released a bunch of tracks in 2020, Where Hope Lies was the first track with some distinct haunting Joy Division / Slowdive sounds. Was there a specific sound you were trying to achieve?

The Martin Hannett stuff feels very relatable to my early Manchester life, that haunted Cold War quality it has. But I was also trying to push new sounds. I bought a zither, a kind of stringed box instrument you hit with little hammers, and got really into combining and layering samples from that with synthetic sounds which imitate strings along with guitar with tons of leslie effect on it.

I’m interested in sounds that are hovering between real and digital.

Where Hope Lies was an early track, I think I was trying to get the Rub experience out of my system. So it has some of that tempo of Reni’s stuff, with the bass on the up strokes. I also ended up training myself on drums again for the finished track which goes for that in the pocket thing Reni did so well.

Lucid Fugue dips its toes into some ambient library music sounds with some great drumming, do you play all the instruments on your music?

Yeah all me, and everything from scratch, no library sounds, no presets. For the drums on Lucid Fugue I played an electronic kit then multitracked it with different drum patches so you start getting complex overlays. I was listening to a lot of RP Boo at the time, so that was my attempt to fold in some footwork, combined with minimal classical influences like Arvo Part.

Round and Round has some distinct Spacemen 3 vocals mixed with Wire backing track, what instruments do you use to create those ethereal sounds?

It’s mostly my old Strat with a load of synth emulations. I tried to use the voice as an instrument on that one too, but yeah just me and a load of reverb.

Wire are a total touchstone for me, lyrically as well as attitude, but the ethereal sound is more from that track ‘Dark Side of Religion’ by Sensations Fix, which I was obsessed by. Am sure Sonic Boom is a fan of that track.

Heads In The Cloud followed 3 years later, sounding even more eternal and otherworldly. Why the big gap between tracks?

Life and earning a living got in the way. Heads in the Cloud was made during the phase I mentioned when we moved from San Francisco with the otherworldly banality of Silicon Valley to the desert in New Mexico and being exposed to all that sky and space.

My wife sang some vocals on it with a load of processing and double tracked synths so it sounds like an AI trying to work out if it’s conscious or not.

2025 saw you release your debut solo album, A Machine For Dreaming In, featuring all your previously insure tracks. Did you always have in mind to release an album?

Yes after a certain point the songs were intended to live together and build as a single experience.

Which of the new songs were you most happy with, my personal favourite is Singing Wires with its sumptuous Cocteau Twins sounds?

Yeah same for me actually. Of all of the tracks that one has pointed most towards the work I’m doing now. In the back of my mind I’ve been trying to imagine what it would sound like if Aphex at his most wistful played guitar for Suicide.

Do you ever play any live gigs? If so what’s your live set up?

The last time was in New Mexico, a few years back so I’m definitely overdue. I actually make videos and visuals for the tracks so it tends to be a full audiovisual thing with me on guitar and live vocals.

Do you envisage playing any gigs back in the UK?

I’m based in LA these days so it’s a long trip but I’d love to.

Are you wanting to release more material? / Are you always writing material?

Yes I have quite a big catalogue of unreleased stuff in various states of completion. I try not to make predictions on when it will see the light of day but it feels closer than it has in a while. I’m continuously writing too so there are always new pieces to consider. At this point a track has to earn the right to be finished because I have a lot of strong material in development. I recently heard that Eno has 11,000 unfinished tracks which was reassuring.

Finally, what’s on your turntable at present?

My vinyl collection tends to be more the foundational stuff; 70s dub, Duke Ellington, Suicide, Can, PiL. Also classical; Bach, Britten, Arvo Part.

I tend to do music discovery digitally. On the newer side Liv.e’s album Past Future and the band YHWH Nailgun on 4AD which are a really welcome new sound. I mentioned RP Boo, also Actress and Dean Blunt I listen to a lot.

LA driving can be quite intense and I actually enjoy diving deeper into that feeling with music. I’ve been playing the Aphex merch desk release on repeat which fits that kind of manic but super focusing feeling as you’re navigating freeways. The Fall sounds really good in the car at the moment too.

 

Neil Blank can be found via his Bandcamp, Instagram pages and here