Annie Interviews Phil
2006 Sep 03
Annie: What do you do within Hobbyhorse?
Phil: I play a lot of instruments. I sing some and I write some. I do a lot of arranging. I play guitar, mandolin, baritone and tenor guitar –and other guitar like instruments. I play keyboards on our recordings.
A: Tell me about some sounds you like. They don't have to be “musical” sounds.-
P: Silence is nice. I like sitar really well. Church organ. Large echoey cathedral sounds.
A: What musicians have you enjoyed the most?
P: Dylan, Coltrane, Hendrix, Ravi Shankar, and hundreds of others. Too many to mention.
A: How does playing in Hobbyhorse challenge you musically?
P: To the ultimate degree. I’m not constrained by any style. Our style is what we do. I have tremendous freedom to explore, but also, we both have high standards we hold ourselves to. Originality and meaning constantly push to make it more interesting, real and clear.
A: What are some unique musical ideas that you have?
P: As an accompanist I try to play the song. I don’t want to just noodle, or just play chords, or anything that would generically just work with an unknown song. If you take a segment of what I play, it should be recognizable which song and where within the song I’m playing. Within those constraints it is pretty much improvised. There is more than one way a song goes. Basically I can play almost any of Hobbyhorse’s songs on any of my instruments. I chose which instrument because experimentally we found which instrument works best, or because I feel like playing a certain instrument in the moment. An important part or our live sound is the changing textures of the accompaniment. For recording and arranging I try to write arrangements so that there are always several things going on. But I try to arrange so that the spotlight is on one element at a time that shifts – the voice, the guitar or occasionally the interplay of two things. Everything else is support. The spotlight wanders and lets the music breathe.
A: What other interests do you have besides music?
P: I like laying in the La-Z-Boy. Being lazy. Reclining.
