A Chat with Diego Philips (17.07.2020)
Diego Philips and his band are back with their spontaneously arranged and recorded track ‘In The Dark’. As part of his new album Tides, the single looks at the kind of love that makes everything possible. We sat down with Diego Philips (DP) to talk about the new single, his music and much more!
OSR: What do you like most about being a musician?
DP: I really enjoy the process of creation. There is something very satisfying in seeing your song change throughout the entire process and getting to a final product. What happens after is quite magical as well. After your song is released, it does not belong to you anymore, it belongs to the universe and people can make what they want of it. It is very uncertain and that is what makes it exciting. There is no way to know how your song is going to hit someone’s existence and by what magical way. I think this is why I like it so much because there is a certain magic to it.
OSR: Is there a hidden meaning in any of your music?
DP: Tons, but I believe I should not reveal it too much. I want the listener to fully immerse into the music and to look for their own questions and answers. My music talks about a lot of things. I tackle relationships, love, spirituality as you can tell I have an obsession with deep topics of life and I want those raw emotions to be able to act as a mirror for the listeners where they can find meaning and comfort in the music by engaging their own experience in it and project their emotions.
OSR: Do you play a musical instrument?
DP: I play the guitar and I sing. I can work my way on a piano and pretend that I can play it but I wouldn’t say that I’m great at it. Also, my guilty pleasure is to play on unattended drum kits when I see one but that is just for fun.
OSR: Are you creative in any other disciplines?
DP: I really like photography, I dabble with analogue cameras when I can. I also just enjoy being creative in general and trying to find creative ways to do things.
OSR: What was it like making the music video for ‘In The Dark’?
DP: My friend and photographer Amir Mahdavi called me one night and he told me that he had an idea for a music video, he just rocked up at my place one hour later and shot a one-take video in my room. The whole process maybe took an hour and was very spontaneous. We are used to working together and I trust his ideas, so we are able to do things in that way.
OSR: Does your music fit into your local scene? If so, how do you take advantage of that? If not, how do you overcome that?
DP: London has a booming scene for indie bands. It’s good and bad as it is very saturated but at the same time we have never struggled to get gigs. At some point two or three years ago we used to gig once a week. After a while, we wanted to focus on better gigs so we gigged less but for better. There are tons of venues and gigs every night.
OSR: If you could date any other musician, who would that be and why?
DP: What a strange idea to be wanting to date a musician, with their “dreams” and “aspirations”.
OSR: What was your creative process for making ‘In The Dark’?
DP: This song was a different one, I wrote it a week before going to the studio for the recording of our album Tides whilst watching the last season of ‘Stranger Things’, I didn’t really know what to do with it as it was not arranged or anything. I then played it during an acoustic solo gig at The Victoria in Dalston and people seemed to like it, so when we were at the studio I played it to the band and we came up with the arrangement with the help of our producer James Yates.
It was spontaneous and unexpected, and we arranged it in a couple of hours, showcasing the talent of the musicians I’m working with. The spoken word part also happened by accident, when Emma Hughes came to the studio with Linnéa Ljungblad to record backing vocals. I had this little piece written in French and Linnéa just laid the words down and it sounded great.
OSR: Once the pandemic has passed, are you planning any tours or gigs?
DP: We had a really good response to our album, so the next step is to play live again and I do miss it. I guess we just have to wait for things to go back to normal or find a new way to do things.
OSR: Have you already started thinking about your next project? If so, are you excited about it?
DP: Very excited, the next project is already finished and just sitting on my hard drive. It is different, more like a concept album. The reason I’m waiting is because my vision is very different for this album and involves different aspects, especially the live experience will have to wait. It is more an art orientated project so I’m waiting for the right moment to start getting in touch with museums, galleries and more visual art orientated institutions.
Thanks to Diego Philips for chatting with us! You can find more about him on his website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.
