The debut album from Phildel, The Disappearance Of The Girl, is about to be launched to the World. A fine example of alternative pop, with incisive lyrics and a beautiful voice.
Phildel took time out from her busy schedule to let me ask a few quesitons:
Do I
call you Phildel or Zara?
Definitely
Phildel
How’s
your day been?
So far -
short, I’ve just woken up as were out until 2am last night recording nighttime
sounds in a field.
The
Disappearance Of The Girl is a superb album, are you ready for the inevitable
attention that will come your way?
Thank you -
yes, I think so, I spent years working on the album so it’s lovely to be
bringing it to the surface now.
Will
fame affect you?
I doubt
it...I live in my own little world to such an extent that reality doesn’t tend
to have much impact.
What
inspires your lyrics?
It all
finds it root in how I’m feeling, but mainly the subconscious or the ‘dreaming
mind’ - a part of my brain that I’m not really consciously engaged with....I
just let the lyric fragments unfold without coming up with a formula or topic -
sometimes the words don’t make sense at first. But when I look at them after
some time’s past - they make perfect sense in terms of what I was going
through. I think our awareness as humans is funny like that. You don’t often
realise the full extent of what you’re going through until you back on it years
later. But the subconscious or dreaming part of your mind, is always more
connected to how you feel.
When
did you realise you had such a beautiful voice?
Do you hear it yourself?
I’ve never
really thought of it as beautiful, I suppose I just try to make sure it
expresses what I want to express. In fact, out of all the musical things I do -
composing, arranging, playing instruments -my voice is the one thing I’m most
insecure about. Because I couldn’t really use my voice for so many years living
in my mother and stepfather’s house - and when I first started to sing - I
could barely make a sound. It felt incredibly difficult and somehow, it still
feels like a challenge to make a sound - after all the years of being told to
be silent. I suppose it’s all quite psychological.
Who
were your musical influences, and, how much did you crave them when music was
banned from your household?
I was very
young before music was banned from my household - only 8 years old. So I hadn’t
really formed any musical influences. I loved the nursery rhymes I knew and I’d
teach myself to play them all on my toy piano. I remember it clearly - it was
one of my only real joys as a child. Learning to play the nursery rhymes by ear
felt like solving a brilliant puzzle of sound. I never understood why nobody
else in my family wanted to do it.
How big
a part was the musical silence when writing such haunting songs?
I think the
experiences and trauma of the ten years I spent in that household, not just
without music, but without any freedom at all - the sweeping changes to my
cultural identity, what felt like imprisonment for a decade - are absolutely
central to the songs on the album. In the safe haven of my album world - the
world of my own imagination - I was able to confront all of those issues and
say things I couldn’t ever say in reality.
Twitter
or Facebook?
Both...but
I think Facebook allows me to share art and music easier and allows others to
discuss things with me easier.
You’ve
made a video for every track on your album.
What’s the thought process behind that?
I wanted
the videos to show the album’s visual journey I have in my mind. One video
however, “Holes In Your Coffin” I’ve asked the public to contribute footage
for. I wanted to give my supporters the chance to get really involved. It’s
gone so well and the submissions have been excellent. My label didn’t give any
budget for the videos - so I shot and directed them myself using £300 I had to
spare. It took me about seven months to complete them all. I think with art and
music if you have a vision, you just need to get on with it and find a way. No
matter whether there’s outside help or not. Just bring it into existence, no
matter what it takes.
Do you
listen to your own music?
Yes, I have
to re-draft and spend a long time sculpting the arrangements when I work on
music so I listen to the tracks quite intensively for the few years that I
spend working on them. Once the album is finalised I stop listening for a few
years and move on to writing the next songs...
You’re
very complimentary of producer Ross Cullum, and, partner Chris on the album
notes. The perfect team?
Yes - along
with the engineers, programmers and musicians who also worked on the album. I
was so lucky to have had such an excellent team for “The Disappearance of the
Girl”. Ross Cullum is such an intuitive and supportive producer - he completely
supported my vision and the process was entirely free and without any creative
restriction. Ross said he felt that for him, the role of a producer is to
support a great artist and the strongest album emerges from an undiluted
artist’s vision. Many producers I’ve worked with have imposed their own vision
and ideas. For me - that approach never worked out, as I have a detailed vision
for what I need an album I create to sound like. Chris Young - my long-standing
(long-suffering!) partner supports me in everything I do musically. He’s
amazing, I don’t think I’d have the confidence I have without him. In the years
gone by, I’d come home and say...”Oh, this person thinks I should do this...and
I don’t know, maybe they’re right...” And he’d just sit me down and say -
“Yesterday, you told me that for this track you saw choirs of ethereal spirits
and ruins in a countryside valley” - you know exactly what you think this
should be - and everytime you work with someone who thinks they know better -
it never works out. You need to believe in yourself”. He was always right and
I’m so glad I held out for a producer like Ross Cullum and programmers like
Sean McGhee and Marky Bates who really got into the mindset and built on my
album vision to create an album that surpassed my own expectations and that I
am so proud of.
Have
you ever wanted to scream halfway through a performance?
Haha! No.
I don’t
watch many TV adverts, but I believe several of your songs have been
‘borrowed’. Would you turn down any
offers if you didn’t like their product?
Yes, I’d
turn things down if I just didn’t like the way the advert looked or if it
advertised a product I didn’t personally think much of. I’ve always been a
customer of the things my music’s been used on. As a musician of my particular
kind of music, I have a positive perspective on advertising - because in the
music industry today, radio stations don’t often give airplay to music that’s
not genre-specific or hard to categorise...it’s actually advertising people who
are most likely to give that kind of sound a major platform. I think they’re
more creative and courageous in the way they work with music.
I’m
coming over for a meal, what are we having?
My darker
side immediately gets a bit Silence of the Lambs and says ‘you’. But my more
balanced conscious mind suggests salmon teryaki, pak choi and rice noodles - my
favourite dish at the moment.
Beneath
the calm of your music are some quite incisive lyrics, how intentional is that?
The
contrast isn’t intentional at all...we just tried to find the best sounds to
serve the spirit of the song. And the cards fell as they fell.
What
are your plans for the rest of the year?
Maybe a holiday?
No chance
of a holiday as such...I’m playing live dates around the UK later this month,
including the Bristol and Manchester legs of Dot-to-Dot Festival, followed by
Hay-on-the-Wye “How The Light Gets In” Festival. Then I’ll be off
to the USA in July for a month of collaborations with a brilliant US artist
called SLEEPTHIEF. Followed by a trip to Vancouver to work with the wonderful Bill
Leeb of Delirium, then a performance at Vancouver Folk Festival. And straight
back to the UK in time to play the Secret Garden Party, which I’m so looking
forward to. I’ll also be playing Edinburgh Fringe Festival on 5th August, which
will be fun!
I would like to issue a huge thank you to Chris Stone of Stone Immaculate for arranging the interview, and, to Phildel for her time and generosity.
I would like to issue a huge thank you to Chris Stone of Stone Immaculate for arranging the interview, and, to Phildel for her time and generosity.
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