spanning time and space

Written by Ricardo D. from Home Unknown

Photographs by Rick Perez

Guest writer Ricardo D. from Home Unknown talks to Better Days Festival performer Neil Levin about being balanced as an artist, the meaning of the word Psychedelic, and experiencing music in a different way.

Malibu, California, USA

The sun is setting behind a California cliffside, and Neil Levin sits cross legged, facing the orange and red hues, his silhouette strong enough that it feels like he’s casting a shadow across the fiery star; which boils reality into knots of magnetic energy.

Lost deep in meditation, he breathes out a cloud of smoke, which trails out into the sky above, a connection forms between him and the wandering atmosphere around him.

In his head the thoughts are silent, falling deeper down into emptiness and infinity. He tries to avoid feeling for the edges of the darkness, instead letting himself explore deeper into other dimensions that fold on themselves like the tail of a kite, flipping in high-altitude winds.

The expansiveness grows and reaches deep within the earbuds playing Jim Morrison, singing his drunken lyrics over the flaring flamenco guitar in Spanish Caravan. Neil pushes further into the past, the strains of time unfurling like the leaves of a Martagon Lily, the colors exploding like fire engulfing dried timber, the layers of moss and brush illuminating the space with muted blues, oranges, and reds.

The musical aspects of the song lay out in Neil’s mind’s eye, not sonically, but as shapes on a stage. Guitars as spheres, curving the fabric of space deep within themselves taking center stage, the rhythmic drums as 24-dimensional octahedrons pulsing with dark energy, and a dozen other musical details crowding across each other, speaking through harmonious movements.

As the song reaches its full peak, the colors, shapes, and sounds come together, a full sensory experience laid across the chilled, yet warm, California air, and through the intensity Neil catches the slightest creak from Robby Krieger’s guitar as he strums powerfully through The Doors’ classic tune.

Psychedelic Musician

Neil doesn’t experience music like you and me, and it’s probably why listening to his feels like you’re reaching across time and space. His obvious reverence for the past links up to a spacey future, Neil the versatile connection point between the two, like Elon Musk and Nikola Tesla invented a human time adapter.

His latest record, I Want Blue Roses on My Grave, starts off like a digital enigma, a fantasy enveloped steampunk spaceship that’s as spacious as the inside of a VW Van. But as the folky space funk settles in, the album takes a sharp turn, and grinds right into Neil’s true love: The Blues.

And it’s that juxtaposition that speaks loudest about Neil Levin.

He’s young, young in a way that makes you mad that he’s accomplished as much as he has at this point of his life.

But he’s also wise.

Between his three plus releases, his other band, Counterconformity, studying online with the Berklee College of Music, and a fairly successful pursuit of surfing, it’s easy to understand that the source of Neil’s experiences is forcibly cramming so much into his short Earthly existence.

When Neil talks, he talks fast, there’s so many thoughts and ideas that come out you find yourself holding onto the stream of one thought and swinging quickly to the next like Tarvan jumping from vine to vine in a dense philosophical jungle.

But there’s a method to the rush, a path through a musical world that doesn’t make sense to the typical fan, but rather a genius making sense of the randomness of the universe and trying to express it in a single thought made breathless from excitement.

To Neil, Psychedelic isn’t just a term to describe a style of music, or a genre to place his music into (even though his music is genre-less), it’s the core of what it means to make art, view the world, and experience life.

If you take a second to listen to what he’s saying, between the dreams of reviving the Blues, or his ideas on composition and live instrumentation, you can start to sense a theme of expansive fantastical reality.

As Neil admits himself, between all the music training at Berklee, and all the times he’s experienced music on psychedelics, learning how to perceive music in a wider mental perception, “[I] can’t see the difference between listening to music on psyches and being sober anymore.”

He’s young, but growing. It’s exciting as an outsider to hear the passion behind his drive, like watching a clock grow into an animal; systems becoming feelings, the evolution apparent.

The Journey

In the most modern of ways, Neil is spreading himself across many fields, creating a better balance as an artist, that someone in the past would have never even attempted.

He describes his solo work in a way that is almost tentative, the vulnerability of being the most responsible for a project, which is an obvious weight on his shoulders.

It’s immediately counterbalanced as he talks of Counterconformity. His other musical project that was founded for a group of musical brothers to jam out some psychedelic tunes. Or his Americana side project with his father, or his love of surfing the California waves (which was written about before in Reckless Mag), there’s a lot of promise within Neil’s future.

Getting on these topics, he very obviously relaxes. He talks of his friends and family, how great it feels to be supported, and being able to sit back and let others grab hold of the musical steering wheel, while enjoying being a person who simply exists within the moment of playing music or riding a wave.

When I ask what it’ll take for him to think “he’s made it,” he humbly responds, people listen to my music, and I feel like that means I’ve already made it.

But anyone who takes the time to listen to his music or his words knows there’s something special in store for him.

We’re witnessing the rockets lighting up, rumbling on the launchpad, dust crumbling off as the boosters start to ignite. Anyone that’s had the chance to get to know Neil is patiently counting down, waiting for the clock to hit zero, knowing that he’ll soon blast off to another dimension, his physical body finally catching up to his spiritual self.

To Know More About Neil Levin, Follow @neillevin

About the Author:

Ricardo D is the curator of Home Unknown, a music project dedicated to discovering and sharing independent bands. Read reviews of the songs featured on Home Unknown's Spotify playlist: https://homeunknown.co