Beyond the Booth with phil in a maze: Recalibrating, Learning, Practising
Author: Petra Stan
For our third Beyond the Booth feature, phil in a maze shares his journey of reclaiming his sound. Recently, Phil has returned to guitar and bass, to balance out time spent in front of a screen. His journey has been about finding freedom in self-expression, letting music unfold naturally rather than racing to release.
What’s your musical background and how far do you feel you are from it at the moment? Tell us about your journey.
Not too far actually… I’ve come back to playing guitar and bass – that initially got me into music some fifteen years ago. I'd eventually traded that for a mouse, a screen and a timeline which, in the long run, ended up taking much of the joy and meaning from making music away. So I've been getting back to it, recalibrating, learning, practising. Less screen time and clicking around.
What are the most rewarding and challenging things about being an independent artist? How do you think these challenges can be overcome?
Hard to tell, I don't know otherwise and I also don't really think about myself within these terms. It's not that I’ve made a conscious decision to become an independent artist, like weighing the pros and cons or whatever. I just like to do things on my own terms and have them unfold somewhat naturally. And that certainly poses many challenges – but also quite a bit of freedom to do pretty much whatever and whenever you want.
phil in Tbilisi
Are you working on any particular piece of music at the moment? Tell us all about your latest music releases. For example, "A Tree For Crying Times," or the Horncore release.
I'm always making music. There were times when I was very very keen on having all of that music see the light of day, often as soon as it got recorded. I mostly did that for my own sake – you put it out there, it’s finished, you move on to the next thing, again and again. This has changed, the race (against my own self) has come to an end. So there is new music coming soon – whenever the timing feels right. Though far more than to release this music I wish to get to play it out live…
What about feedback? Do you worry about what other people think?
I wouldn’t say that I worry all that much but I certainly do care…
Do you think platforms such as Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and social media can help independent musicians? If so, which ones are the best for you?
I think that they make for good servants but poor masters. Which is so obvious – but the risk of becoming a slave to all this without actually realizing or acknowledging it is so real. It can swallow you up. Been there, feeding the beast. I have connected with many great people through these platforms though. Some of them became my close friends, I’m very grateful for that… I guess that’s yet another proof of how much power these platforms hold.
Let’s spread some love: which musicians caught your attention lately?
F: I've been listening to everything that Valentina Magaletti got her hands in, especially Holy Tongue and Moin whom I just recently got to see live at ICA London. I'm a big fan of Spresso, the joint project of Mica Levi and Alpha Maid. Been rinsing lots of classics, Shellac, Storm & Stress, Slint and Unwound. Some drone – Kevin Drumm, Leila Bordreuil, Sarah Davachi, Tongue Depressor, Éliane Radigue, the whole XKatedral catalogue, Yellow Swans. New MJ Guider. Still House Plants, Klein, Ruhail Qaisar, Jespfur, Milan W., eastworks and Farida Amadou. World of Echo label. Carl Crack, John T. Gast, Christoph de Babalon, CS + Kreme. Windy & Carl and other kranky stuff, Raum (Grouper + Jefre-Cantu Ledesma) and Bowery Electric. Some new, some old favourites.
