Monday, March 31, 2008
Phildel
Chinese/Irish, London-born Phildel grew up in a liberal household with her mother and father until their divorce. At the age of seventeen, just weeks before her eighteenth birthday, she decided enough was enough. She wrote a letter to her mother and step-father stating all of the things she had spent the last decade thinking - that they did not have a right to change her name, to force a religion upon her, or to throw off their responabilities as parents. Then she packed the few belongings she had, picked up her cat Fayger and walked out. The combination of Phildel's natural musical talent and the experiences of her life, the isolation she felt at such a young age, cut through into her music. Lyrics in her epic song Switch-Blade invoke this feeling ofdesolation - "If I took you straight up to, the loneliest landscape you knew, boy would you care, if you lost me there?". The life Phildel lead was so dramatically different to that of everyone else she knew, so drastically cruel and unfair, her reality was one that many could only imagine. And this nature of her reality being almost, fictional, made it feel like she lived in a permanent fantasy. This element of imagination, fantasy - a unique universe also became Phildel's trademark. Her instrumental arrangements are epic, fantastic and other-worldly. So often, her imagination was the only thing she had to escape to. With the stresses of her every day life, her dreams were full of horrific nightmares, each night would be a new string of multiple nightmares and in songs such as "Dragonfly Keeper" the lyrics invoke this mythological dream-like and dark, menacing connection "Things they found in the well, things they discover that fell from the sky. Labyrnths lead to the grave, nights I keep you awake, afraid to die". On a more inspiring and up-lifting note - some of her songs reflect her discovery of freedom, liberation and the beauty of human nature. Inpired by her father and his unending kindness as well as her love for her younger sister, songs like "Piano B" emerge.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
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