Neely attended Glasgow University and holds a degree in Zoology. After graduating, he studied jazz guitar at the Musician's Institute in Hollywood, California, where he met subthunk co-founder Alex U'Ren.
Neely divides his time between writing music for film/television,[2] releasing albums, both under the subthunk banner and as a solo artist, and more recently writing screenplays. His composing credits include music on shows such as Six Feet Under,[3][4] Boston Legal, Samantha Who, Las Vegas,[5] as well as three seasons of orchestral compositions for the popular Dutch show Sprookjesboom.[6][7]
Neely has been called "a creative and progressively thinking artist",[8] whose eclectic style incorporates everything from electronica[9] to "John Barry-like orchestral atmospherics".[10] His Creative Commons released album, Not Fit For Human Consumption,[11] contains elements of Morse Code, old educational film clips (courtesy of the Prelinger Archives) and is part of a Geotracking experiment.[12]
Mark Mothersbaugh is a fan of Neely and subthunk's music. He is quoted as saying "The masses are asses who need subthunk glasses".[13]
Neely co-produced, wrote the screenplay and scored the feature film Dimensions.[14] The film was voted Best Film 2012 at the 37th Boston Science Fiction Film Festival and awarded the Gort Award.[15] Previous Gort Award winners have included Duncan Jones' Moon.[16] Dimensions went on to win Best Film at the London Independent Film Festival [17] and Best Film at the Long Island International Film Expo.[18]