For this week’s interview, we have guitarist/songwriter/composer Phillip Foxley with us. Phillip’s Sound Cloud channel is alive and thriving with tons of listens and the comments crowd each one of his tracks.
MW: Phillip, thank you for being here!
PF: Thanks for the opportunity and great to meet up here.
MW: So, right off the bat, the first thing I notice about your tracks is that whether they are vocal or instrumental, there is such an outstanding melodicism to the songs. Is that something you consciously aim to achieve or does it just come naturally?
PF: Thanks for that awesome comment. Any melodicism is entirely natural – so natural, I didn’t notice it lol. I just put simple melodies together whilst running through random chord sequences. The songs come together almost from nothing really.
MW: You’ve worked with some amazing singers; how do you go about selecting your vocalists?
PF: Well, I listen to a lot of unsigned music and I’m stunned at the genuine talent out there. In fact, the talent pool is so good I actually questioned what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. In the end, I put it down to the sheer enjoyment of creating and producing original tracks that I’m actually proud of. I digress … sometimes I hear a great vocalist and approach them directly, other times I get approached myself. It’s a bit ‘hit and miss’ but it seems to work out.
MW: Personally, my favorite tracks of yours feature Anna Yanova-Cattoor; can you speak about how you got hooked up with her as a collaborator?
PF: Anna is a gift from heaven. She is such a great vocalist with a real emotional depth that you can hear on each of the three tracks. Her natural talent really brings my simple tracks to life in a way I didn’t think possible. Anna is one half of a professional duo called 'Two Cities One World' and we actually collaborated via the Fiverr website.
MW: I noticed in your bio that you also do film and TV scoring. Do you find that you have to compartmentalize your music creation between songwriting and scoring or do you have a similar approach for both?
PF: Good question – I actually treat them both the same, in fact, this came about almost by accident. To explain; When I re-started writing music after a long hiatus, one of my main concerns was that, because I write songs ‘on the fly’ and therefore anything or any style of music can come out, it became pretty obvious that I didn’t fit into any specific genre. I perceived this initially as a huge ‘career’ weakness. In other words, where would any fan base come from if I constantly chopped from one genre to another? This still haunts me today! The answer (for me) was to pitch my music to film & tv opportunities where musical variety is welcomed – in fact, encouraged (and you get paid by the second J).
MW: Can you tell us about some of your early influences?
PF: How long have we got? My influences vary greatly – just like my music. From Zal Cleminson (Sensational Alex Harvey Band), Yngwie Malmsteen (in small doses), Mick Ronson and David Gilmour etc.
MW: Is there anyone out now who you really enjoy?
PF: There are a couple of superb local artists/bands that I really enjoy listening to. First is the ‘Jamie Porter Band’, the second is an acoustic artist called ‘Daniel Williamson’. Both write excellent, original music and are at the top of their game right now.
MW: Where can people go to hear more of your music?
PF:
