The Power Of Songs
Music is more than melody and rhymes; it's the universal language that narrates our collective story. Take a journey with me as I talk to all types of people in the music industry about the power of songs. From the first songs that pulled them into the love of music, to the songs they've encountered along the way that had a powerful impact, we will have great conversations about the power of songs.
The Power Of Songs
Air freshener smoke machines and everything In between: The Phil J Experience
In this episode I sit down with drummer and artist Phil J to discuss his lifelong musical journey. Phil shares personal stories with me, from his early days drumming in church at age 6, to discovering artists like Michael Jackson, Andy Mineo, and Jon Bellion that shaped his artistic development. He opens up about influential songs and pivotal moments where music's power became undeniable for him. Whether it was a concert that sparked his creativity to have air freshener fog machines his siblings manned for his at home performances, an album that changed his approach to producing, or a song that provided him solace during difficult times. With wisdom gained from years of professional experience, Phil also offers advice for aspiring young musicians that I'm excited to share with all of you.
Okay, we had like a bunch of air fresheners in the house. My dad used to always have these karaoke machines and so we put this karaoke machine in the middle of the room, put it on the stool and told my had my brother and sister, like hey, I need y'all to like just spray, like craze, I need I need to foggy years of I can perform With air fresheners.
Phil J:Yeah, so they're going around the room spraying air fresheners. It's foggy. This is a bunch of air fresheners just around the room and I'm dancing, singing Michael Jackson, while, like, while the concert's playing, I'm doing a cold concert and then my dad walks in like yo. What are y'all doing right now?
Chris Estes:Welcome to the power of songs podcast, where we explore the powerful connections songs have throughout the journey of life. Look, the first time I met like this is what the first impression I had of you, phil, was like this guy's got dreadlocks and he's on the drums. We're, we're good. I, this is good. I dare you to name one drummer with dreadlocks? He's not good.
Phil J:Hmm, you know you can't name one. You're right, and you know you're right. I can't. I can't think of anybody, like every single one of them.
Chris Estes:Every single one of them, bro, and the longer they get, the longer the better they are. Like Carter Beauford, bro, His dreadlocks are now.
Phil J:You know what? And I'm living testament to that, because the longer these are getting, bro, I don't know, what's happening? I'm just like I'm just getting better. I don't know how, I don't know why, I don't even practice.
Chris Estes:It's like the power of it man, there's power. I wish I could have dreadlocks.
Phil J:I would have like the, I think you would have extra fly with dreads.
Chris Estes:I'd have to wear a hat because I'm kind of bald on top and I just shave it anyway, so just like I go crumb down, which is pretty normal now, but if I did have dreadlocks, I would probably have to wear a hat on top. You pull off the beanie too, man.
Phil J:I don't know why. Why I started this whole beanie thing and it's like my wife got me a beanie one time and I'm like, oh, these look good on me, especially with the dreads, like If your wife likes it, you better.
Chris Estes:You better roll with it, man.
Phil J:I think there's a main reason I'm even wearing them.
Chris Estes:Thanks for being on the podcast. This is going to be a really fun one. I've been, you know, been kind of mourning the fact that you're about to move out of our sweet little home. A fair hope to the big city of Nashville for greater and bigger opportunities, blah, blah, blah. But I was like I got to get filled in before he leaves, like we got to have a sit down and talk about Absolutely Songs, because you're your song, your musicality, your repertoire of songs you do in church, out of church, wherever, your catalog of like what you know, what you're.
Chris Estes:I'm so excited about hearing your answers to these questions because I know you've got a long history of music, so oh yeah, I got a lot of. I'm going to dive right into the first one, which is always the best, and it leads to a lot of, you know, a lot of different answers and rabbit trails that I'm happy to go down with you. What is the first song that you remember hearing? Like actually hearing and falling in love with music? Like because we all grew up around music and you hear your parents music, but there's a point in time where you're like, oh, that's it.
Phil J:Okay, well, I would say Okay. So Fred Hammond, oh, come on. So my dad was always playing gospel music in the house all the time, and even like in the whip too. It's like this is always playing, it's always playing. It's like Fred Hammond had this. We all know Fred has a very R&B approach to gospel music and I was like man, this is, this is swarov. I like this.
Chris Estes:He was one of the first to like they kind of brought that flavor. I would think to that like he goes, that new gospel sound.
Phil J:Yeah, and then you had Donna McClurk in, and then Kirk Franklin, obviously, and then. But just like that, let me down a rabbit hole, almost to like trying to find like different, different types of what was the Fred Hammond song that really hit you? Bread of life.
Chris Estes:Yeah, how old were you, I was probably.
Phil J:I was probably like eight at the time.
Chris Estes:Were you already drumming? Yeah, yeah.
Phil J:I was already drumming.
Chris Estes:Was that your first instrument?
Phil J:Yeah, that's been then. That's the first instrument.
Chris Estes:Yeah.
Phil J:And like in my main instrument, obviously, but yeah, but yeah it's. And also the drummer for Fred Hammond I forget his name, dude. I was just going down a rabbit hole there and things oh man, this is, this is the stuff. I love this stuff and I even try to start playing it at Worcestershire Services. I tried to. Growing up, I mean, my uncle wasn't having it like now that this is this is not doing that.
Chris Estes:I'm going to bow the back a little bit, and it's Fred Hammond.
Phil J:Oh man, it's gospel music.
Chris Estes:So you were already drumming at eight in the church.
Phil J:You know? No, I actually started drumming in church at six. Wow, yeah.
Chris Estes:You guys are just like y'all are different man. You just musicians like you that start that young are just different man.
Phil J:I just like I was just kind of pushing to the role, yeah.
Chris Estes:My normal church life is like hey, yo get on the literally the Christmas before there's like.
Phil J:This is like a within a month. It's happening in the month my, the Christmas before my grandma got me a drum set. I'm thinking. I'm going to take this home. He's just gonna practice on it?
Chris Estes:Did your grandma get that for you to get back at her? Is that your mom's mom or your dad's mom?
Phil J:My mom's mom.
Chris Estes:Yeah, she's like I'm gonna get back to my daughter fixing to get a drum set up in that house.
Phil J:Well, my mom got lucky because the next Sunday coming up they fired our drummer. That was there, Whoa. I walked in and just saw my drum set up there I'm like, hey, yo, what's going on Grandma was prophetic. It's just like hey, baby, you're going to play drums this morning.
Chris Estes:I'm like, Okay, I mean at that point, how long have you had you even started really playing the kit?
Phil J:Yeah, I was playing behind our drummer, in which I knew he hated it, like I was double drumming before double drumming was even a thing Behind my drummer playing actual drums and like you can see the frustration on his face, I'm like, hey man, bear with me, I'll say, like one day, I'm going to get it.
Chris Estes:In that era, was there a click involved or were you guys just playing? No, no click.
Phil J:No, it was strictly, you got to keep time.
Chris Estes:For all those listeners that don't know the click is what musicians here in their era. That's pretty much the metronome right. It just keeps you on time, which is pretty common now. But imagine back then.
Phil J:Back then it was non-existent.
Chris Estes:So that drummer was like yo you can't just turn the drums down either. It's like yo, it's there.
Phil J:Yeah, so, but the finding for it having like heavily influenced how I approached drumming too.
Chris Estes:Was that the guy you replaced? Oh yeah, so little did he know he did. He's about to get the main stage. He had no idea. So your first Sunday and they're like, you see your drums right up there. They tell you on the right then like hey, you're drumming this or you, you play yourself.
Phil J:I literally walked in thinking I'm just going to play behind him again. Yeah, like I usually do. I guess he just got tired of me. He was like, nah, I can't do it no more, he can get a go.
Chris Estes:Wow, what was that? Do you remember what that said? Like what was some of the songs you were playing then?
Phil J:We were playing like. I didn't find this out until like maybe like four years ago. Like half the songs that we sang at the church I grew up were like songs that we made up and always sing all the time.
Chris Estes:Wow.
Phil J:I'm thinking these are like songs that everyone's thinking, like they were fire bro. Like I still remember some of them. Yeah, ain't, no way we wrote some. We wrote some of these songs Like they were way too good, like because my church was a very charismatic church, so like very, very energetic, like it's just it's popping every Sunday.
Chris Estes:Yeah.
Phil J:And we didn't play a lot of the like, more popular songs like from Don McClure and our friend Fred Hammond or something like that. So that part of my life really shaped how I approached playing drums as far as like energy wise, like I'm always full of energy on drums. Oh yeah, that's just how I grew up playing in church.
Chris Estes:Yeah, so good man. So when did you? I used to heard that Fred Hammond song? When did you? When were you able to start playing that in church, did you guys? Was that years later?
Phil J:When my dad started doing a leading choir at my church, because at the time, like it was weird, like my mom and dad were going to separate churches at the time and so my grandma, she pretty much wanted him to come to our church and like start a choir, and like that's when we started like actually playing those types of songs. I'm like, okay, all right now. Okay, we in there now, like my dad started introducing the stuff that he introduced me to to my church and we would, every first Sunday we would have like a choir day. So, like I'll tell you, those were some of my, those were some of my favorite Sundays, because like we were playing the stuff that I was listening to all the time, like it was. It was like Just fit right in.
Chris Estes:That's so good man, so all right. So you started with Fred Hammond. What was the first mainstream or secular, whatever you want to call it outside the church song that you listen to?
Phil J:All right. So this is kind of like a loaded okay. I don't know if you remember Michael Jackson's 25th anniversary concert. I do.
Chris Estes:Yeah.
Phil J:That was like one of the most iconic concerts.
Chris Estes:Was that the one when he broke out the moon dance Right? Was that the one he did?
Phil J:No, no, no, the moon dance for the first time. No, no, no, that was.
Chris Estes:That was an award show he did yeah.
Phil J:But the 25th anniversary he had, like Britney Spears there, Whitney Houston.
Chris Estes:Hussier.
Phil J:And so my dad always had a thing of like anytime like an award show or a concert would come on, he would tape, record it Because, like he knew, he would go back and watch it, because there were some of the songs or performances you liked, or there were some songs that his kids would like, you know.
Chris Estes:Yeah.
Phil J:So he recorded this one and, dude, I think I was probably in either. No, I was still probably in elementary school, because this was like 2001, I think. And every day after school I would pop that tape in and listen to the whole concert. So I was introduced to a lot of music just in that one concert. So like Shaggy wasn't me. Oh, dude Shaggy.
Phil J:Dude like that performance is seared into my brain. Whitney Houston I forgot what song they were singing one of his songs, but like just hearing some of Michael Jackson's songs, like presented to me in a different way instead and instead of from Michael Jackson.
Chris Estes:Yeah.
Phil J:And then like just seeing how he impacted a culture.
Chris Estes:Big time for decades.
Phil J:And seeing this as a kid in elementary school.
Chris Estes:So what was the song that really stuck out to you, you know?
Phil J:Rock my world. You know you did. I think it's called Rock my World.
Chris Estes:Yeah.
Phil J:Because he did it with Usher at the very end of the concert and I doubt I'll always wait for that part. But also Billie Jean, yeah, yeah, dude, like when it got to Michael Jackson. Oh, I forgot the Jackson Phile did it too.
Chris Estes:Oh yeah.
Phil J:So their performance was like that, honestly, was set it off for me a little bit. I was like, man, this is so funky, yeah, like I feel good watching it and I'm mimicking all the dance moves. Like if it wasn't for that concert I don't think I would have been dancing as early as I was Like just like dancing and singing. Like it got to a point so bad, bro, where Freshmen are in the house, my dad's always had these karaoke machines and so I put this karaoke machine in the middle of the room, put it on the stool and told my had my brother and sister like hey, I need y'all to like just spray, like crazy, I need to fog in here so I can perform.
Chris Estes:With air fresheners. Yeah, so they're going around the room.
Phil J:Spraying air fresheners. It's foggy. This is a bunch of air fresheners just around the room and I'm dancing, singing Michael Jackson, while the concert's playing. I'm doing the cold concert and then my dad walks in like yo. What are y'all doing? Right now and I'm sorry. I'm sorry, yeah, it got that bad. It was very like, but that's how much he inspired me. So I would say Michael Jackson, it was kind of the catalyst for me wanting to down the line, pursue doing music.
Chris Estes:Yeah, so at that point so you had the friar by it, that understands a tape and the TV Like there was a VCR, vch, beta VCR tapes it was so long ago that's what you were listening to watching. So did you? From that point, how did you get into music discovery? And because back you didn't have streaming back then, you didn't have downloads.
Phil J:We had LineWire.
Chris Estes:Yeah, I was going to say, did you have LineWire? And yeah, because I, so you were able to access. Yeah, I got so where did you go from Michael Jackson?
Phil J:Did you go down like Funk Trail or so I think shortly after that time period we got a computer and so, like YouTube was sort of I think it was just popping off then.
Chris Estes:Yeah.
Phil J:And so I think around this time in middle school and so I'm being introduced to a bunch of different music just from people in middle school, yeah, because I'm like, oh, it was like we were pretty sheltered, like growing up, like even though, like my dad was more of the guy to introduce us to like old school or secular music. Yeah, my mom was more like no, we don't want none of that. And she lightened up a little bit as years went down. But he would like artists like Stevie Wonder, the Whispers, midnight Star, some of these artists people don't know about, like they're super old school. Yeah, but like whenever we would go to like a barbeque or something like that, like my dad is like blastin' that and so, like that, I got off on the tangent.
Chris Estes:But that's good man.
Phil J:Yeah, that, like just all that music, also played a part. Yep, you know also me wanting to pursue music too.
Chris Estes:It's funny. I have a friend from North Carolina who said the exact same thing when he was young. They'd have barbecues and he would sneak out to go listen to hear what they're listening, to Say what they'd listen to the good stuff. That's so funny.
Phil J:Yeah, but like a line why yeah, that's what's funny. Like so line why I played a huge part, because I'm like, okay, I'm hearing all these songs at night, middle school going YouTube. Fine, like just I'll just click whatever was on there. And like I was introduced to all like, all genres, like, but mainly like R&B stuff like Chris Brown, a bunch of other artists but Chris Brown, oh, and T-Pain.
Phil J:Oh yeah, and like, just like those artists because I had kids at school, like always like bumping in this music. I'm like I like the melody of this particular song I don't know what it is, it's like I'm scared to listen to it at home. So I'm just finding a line wire and then put it on the CD and then put it in my CD player and then put it in my headphones and then we're good. That's funny man.
Chris Estes:Oh line wire man. So when did you? You played in church for your whole life right.
Chris Estes:You've always been in our church. We're fortunate to have you for this last few months now, but you bring an energy man that's like none other. What I love about performing in church and I approach it the same way is like you need to bring the same energy that you would have in a live performance. It's like you don't have to. You know there are moments in their songs, obviously, when it's more reverent, but energy should be there, which I love. I love playing with you man I'll never forget.
Phil J:when I first met you or first saw you, I'm like man, that dude is jumping Like literally like anybody else up here. Like man, I like that, I like that dude man. And then when I finally got a chance to meet you, I was like and he's cool too, okay, all right.
Chris Estes:I think the church needs that. They need to, you know, because people engage with that and they're used to seeing that anyway. But it's I've always felt, and I think you pray the same way, like you should bring 100% plus to what you do to serve the Lord in praise and worship, and it can be fun, it can be joyful, absolutely you can have a blast with it, which I've done with you, which has been great. But my question is this so you always been in the church when and I've seen you play the song which is Phil Jay for all the listeners his album, his albums and songs are under that artist's name and YouTube some pretty cool YouTube stuff getting into that no air freshener smoke, but there was some dance parts to it for sure. What was your first band that you did outside of the church? Like your first music endeavor you did outside of church music.
Phil J:So pretty much my first year in college I met a guitar player named Shay White and a bass player in Quentin Ayers. So we were all in jazz band together and pretty much Shay was like, hey, you good, I want to make a band, you want to play drums, cool. So I didn't think that none of it. Yeah, how old were you at that point? Like what were you? I was like fresh in college, so I was probably like maybe 19.
Chris Estes:Okay, so you hadn't done any outside bands before that? No, we were strictly church like everything and your line wire concerts with the air freshener.
Phil J:Yeah, that's it.
Chris Estes:Outside of that, there's nothing else.
Phil J:There's nothing else. And shortly a year after we had that conversation, I was already like full time drumming. Like I was playing drums full time in the rest of history. I've been doing that ever since 2011. Wow, yeah, 2011. Yeah, it's been a while. It's been a while, that's crazy.
Chris Estes:I said the first. What was the first band like?
Phil J:Man, it was wait, let me take that back. That was the first band I played with, but my first actual gig was like a country gig Wow.
Chris Estes:Okay.
Phil J:And after that country gig was when the other band was formed, but I played a country gig Now to be honest, that's easy music for you, yeah. And I'll never forget this day. But that country gig changed my perspective on drumming, which helped me when I got a chance to play with the band I play with now.
Chris Estes:How did it change it?
Phil J:So obviously I grew up in a black church gospel drumming, you know what I'm saying. So, like it's a lot of chops, a lot of feels, you know. So I went into the first set of this country gig doing that, having these guys looking at each other like, yeah, we shouldn't did this. But luckily, and it's crazy, there was a bodyguard just right by the stage. I knew I recognized him because I'm like he looks so familiar. He used to come to the church and play with a different choir that would come in and sing.
Phil J:I'm like yo, this dude's nice, like he's not doing much, though I'm young so I'm like I didn't know he's in the pocket. He saw me on our first break. He was like hey, come on, you're doing too much. You're doing too much, brother. He's like I see all in their face, they're never going to call you again. They're like what? They're never going to call you again For the second set. Look at me, the entire set. The pocket will get you paid, brother.
Chris Estes:Oh, that's a good friend. The pocket will get you paid. The pocket will get you paid.
Phil J:That line has stayed in my brain forever, bro, and that changed my perspective on drumming.
Chris Estes:Going into everything else I did, so what was the song which this is one of the questions to you like there's multiple songs I've been talking about, but the pocket will get you paid is such a great phrase. What was the song in that set? You're like, okay, I'm going to settle into the pocket. And you're like do you remember?
Phil J:I don't remember the exact song, but like the very first song that we started on the second set, I immediately saw, like every other of the other band members, it's like what happened, okay all right now Can we get somewhere, but I saw the importance of it not being about you all the time and seeing the very tangible evidence of you not making it about yourself all the time.
Chris Estes:Yeah, because you're really. I mean drummers are driving the shipment. They can. That energy can overpower, or it can in the pocket. You can set in the pocket which, honestly, is like how you serve the song in the band Absolutely and not shrinking back with just being more serving. Yeah, which?
Chris Estes:country music lends itself to yeah, all right. So, man, you are so musically diverse and I really encourage you listeners to go check out all your stuff because I just think there's such a wide range of what I could see as influences and the best way come out in how you play, how you write, how you perform. So, as you go through it, you touch on a few of these. But are there other songs that really impacted, like who you are today as a musician, that you would say? This song was so powerful, like it changed everything, not the bodyguard, but a song.
Phil J:I'm surprised a lot of people don't know about him. He's like a hidden treasure. But John Billion.
Chris Estes:Oh dude, I love John Billion. So many people don't really know about him.
Phil J:He's like and that's the level of famous ISPriot to be, where no one knows who I am but I can still sell. I can go on forever. But the song he played was a song years ago called All Time Low, and some John Billion would do. On his YouTube channel he would post the creation process behind pretty much everything he put out at the time and I just fell in love with his creative process. It was so cool to see someone else create a song that I fell in love with instantly. I was like, okay, this is how you did it, I also do this.
Chris Estes:What were some of the things that you took from that? What were some of his features?
Phil J:Just his freedom to create, whatever the first thing that would come to his head, not second guessing something or playing something over and over again until it feels just right to him. At first, some of the stuff I'm like I don't think I would have done that, but man, wow, this sounds so good. And they're also maybe like realize, man, it's so important to be uniquely you. Whenever you're approaching, creating something, I'm like man. That's why I fell in love with that dude.
Phil J:I'm like man. Seeing someone that passionate about creating something and like it affects you in that way, I'm like man. I'm like everything he drops. I'm like I'm rushing them to listen to me.
Chris Estes:Yeah yeah, how did you how?
Phil J:did you find him? I happened, so he was on a and this is a. This can you even go back to another song that brought me to Christ? So, andy Minio, yeah, he had a song called a young years ago that led me to Christ, wow. And so Andy Minio, years on the line, did a song with John Billion called rat race. Yeah, oh, yeah. And so I was introduced to that song. Yeah, no, I was, I was. I was introduced to John Billion through that song yeah.
Phil J:I'm like yo, it's got a nice, nice vibe to him and then, like I had at the time I was still a little sheltered kid at the time Like I was still like didn't want to try and like dip my toe into the secular world. Quote, unquote you know, yeah, because like I saw some of the songs, like that he was putting out word like explicit, and so I'm like, oh no, this is for me Until. Like I'm like you know what, man, let me, just, I'm playing these. I play these songs, these type of songs, all the time for my job. Listen to the song, yeah, and rest his history. I had all the time. Love was the first one. Yeah, I'm like this is it is everything I grew up listening to put into like one one song. That's all John Billion does Like no one knows he's created, like some of the top hits for like all last year.
Chris Estes:Yeah.
Phil J:Like creating like the Jonas Brothers. Yeah, that whole album John Billion, john John Bates, the whole album John Billion, tory Kelly, all that John Billion, like no one knows all this stuff. He's a beast, he's a monster. Like he's writing hits like it's nothing.
Chris Estes:Yeah.
Phil J:You know, and that artist, him yeah.
Chris Estes:So his artistry is so good man. It's like you have some guys like that that write really well, that could write really well in multiple genres and their artistry is, you know, good. But I feel like John's the guy that just at every level is so so out there and so good. I heard about him from an artist like he's not because most people don't. He's not out there like that way. Like you, you kind of get the inside scoop of had a friend that was like who loved John Billion, was impacted by him.
Phil J:Yeah, check it out. I'm just glad you, I'm just glad you knew about him. Yeah, anytime I would mention him to somebody like who was that? Oh my gosh.
Chris Estes:How do you?
Phil J:know about this dude. He's changing the culture Like like, singlehandedly. Nobody knows about it, I know.
Chris Estes:How old were you when you heard that that song?
Phil J:I was probably 20, 24.
Chris Estes:Yeah.
Phil J:At 24. 2016. 31 now I'm probably doing the math wrong.
Chris Estes:Minus two, add the three. Yeah, I mean because at that point you had a lot of exposure to multiple styles and you were doing yeah.
Phil J:And yeah, it's, and, but it just is. I aspire to inspire to some. I aspire to inspire someone else to want to create like that.
Chris Estes:Yeah, and you produce too, so it probably impacted the way that you oh, yeah, it changed my life.
Phil J:I literally, it literally brought a halt to how I was creating music. Yeah, and I started creating things from scratch. Yeah, I was depending heavily on like samples back then because I couldn't like play keys like as professionally as I could. Now, yeah, and like it's it just, it just opened my world and, like it's like, stopped depending on like other. Like he doesn't do samples, he doesn't do samples, like he creates his own sample. Like I could do that, like I play drums. I got mics, I could do all this.
Phil J:Yeah, so everything is, it is impacted. I create everything now like everything else. Everything I put out now is pretty much like all. Thanks to John.
Chris Estes:Oh it's huge. I said that's a pretty big impact.
Phil J:That's probably been your biggest impact than you'd say oh yeah, yeah, absolutely Without a doubt, yeah, no doubt about it Wow.
Chris Estes:So what are some of the favorite songs you've worked on that you're like you've created. You've got a body of work out there that you've done. You've got new stuff coming, yeah.
Phil J:No, what's going?
Chris Estes:to happen. When you get to Nashville, You're going to be the biggest. Just remember he was on my podcast. First I brought Phil J. It's like I'm the guy introducing the John Bell. You know. Let's say this is Phil J. I'm the guys at the inside scoop. What's some of the favorite songs you've worked on?
Phil J:I was hmm, I have a few. First would be the Bottom, because that was a song that was heavily inspired by John Billion at the time. It was the first song I made after finding John Billion. And then now to the stuff I'm creating now. I would say some of the things I'm creating right now are some of my favorite stuff, because this is the stuff I've always wanted to create.
Chris Estes:How's it different now?
Phil J:It's different now because I'm putting every aspect of my musicality into the music instead of like and then also like, trying not to cater it to a certain demographic either. It's just like it's creating music for the love of creating music, which is something that I wasn't really doing when I first started doing this thing 13 years ago. It's stuff I love now, and it's not to say I don't love all my password, but all that was sort of catered to a certain demographic.
Chris Estes:Yeah, it's an evolution. I think that's. A great approach to creativity is to create what you feel and what you love first, and then the audience for that will come, because you're kind of like Prince in the studio, right? You do all your stuff, you do every part. You're that guy.
Phil J:At the time. I mean at the time it was just a way to save money, but now I just genuinely love doing it all and I haven't gotten to a place in my career where I need to delegate certain things yet. Yeah, that's good man.
Chris Estes:So the podcast is the power of songs and actually, before we get to that question, I want to ask you one more about your favorite songs. So that's your stuff that you've worked on. What are your favorite songs that you have done in the church and outside of the church? This is an off script question, so Phil hasn't been able to prepare for this one.
Phil J:So a song inside of church and outside of it. Inside of it I would say it was Israel Houghton. I want to say oh, wow, yeah. I remember this vividly. Yeah, not a good video.
Chris Estes:That was a fun project. I worked on that one.
Phil J:I'm not surprised. I remember that video. The video was cool, but that song itself. It had a huge impact on my drumming.
Chris Estes:Yeah.
Phil J:Because there was just one feel in there. Me and my brother were always trying to get it. It was one thing, it was maybe a few seconds, that one feel and the whole song. It made it feel so good, but the song itself a freaking banger dawg.
Chris Estes:Yeah, it was a banger. It is a. For all those who don't know, bangers are big songs. This is an industry term for big songs. They're bangers.
Phil J:Yeah, I mean just outside of the church that has, I guess I would say, a song called Skin Tight by Ohio players.
Chris Estes:Oh, come on.
Phil J:Yes, yeah, we still play that song through this day. I love playing that song Because one I get a chance to really play drums and really have a solo on that song every time, so I have that opportunity to just do crazy stuff on that song.
Chris Estes:And knowing you, the solo is different every time. You play Every time.
Phil J:Like you never know, I might stand up and flip a stick. That's my opportunity to be a performer on the drums every time, yeah that's so good, man.
Chris Estes:I'll never forget watching you do solo with some triggers, billie Jean, where you did the bass part with your mouth. I mean, you got you pretty much assembled all the structure of the song, looped it kind of like Ed Sheeran's style where it kind of kept going. Then you sang the song, you were drumming with a little. I think you just had a kick and a snare, right, yeah.
Phil J:Yeah, I'm trying to be innovative with how I'm creating, even for live. For the live aspect, how can I give something that's memorable and no one's really? Obviously everyone's looping stuff no one's singing a bass.
Chris Estes:I used to sing my loop like that man, that was pretty. I mean the bass part that you did just vocally, I'm like wow.
Phil J:Yeah, I'm like ain't, there's no one I know so far that's doing that. I'm like, okay, let's capitalize on this.
Chris Estes:It's fun, man, it's fun, all right. So back to the other question. The podcast is named Power of Songs and you have seen in all different aspects you're from the church, outside the church, what you're doing yourself, like what are some memorable moments that you would say, man, I've seen like the power of what a song can do.
Phil J:I mentioned it earlier but I didn't really get into it. I mentioned Andy Minio in the song you know and how it brought me to Christ.
Chris Estes:So I want to. Can we just camp on that for a second? So you grew up in the church. I mean, you're drumming at six years old Like it was part of your normal life, right? And I think this is one thing with people that grew up in a faith family, in church there's a moment where the faith becomes your own. You have to decide like what is your faith? Was that kind of the process, or how old were you when that happened?
Phil J:I was a senior in high school but leading up to that point I was, I guess, not rebellious, but like secretly, like not wanting anything to do. You know what we got, because everything I was seeing with my family it was like man, like yeah, this is what they're saying. They're saying thank all these people, they pray to you, like and all this is going on.
Phil J:I'm good and I was not saying anything to my mom or anything. It's like man she would kill me. But my brother and sister will always go to this camp every summer and, like my mom, you should go to this camp Like they go every year. I'm like, no, I'm good. And like it was one year, Like she knew we didn't have the money. Like paid for my ticket and like you're going to this camp, I pay for it. Like come on. You're going to the camp. The camp changed my life.
Chris Estes:How are you with your mama?
Phil J:So there was an artist there named Fidel. So that was my first time being introduced to Christian hip hop. I don't know what he's doing now, but that's when we got back. I started going down like a rabbit hole of artists. Like my cousin, he used to always play lacquerade but I wouldn't really like really pay attention to it. Yeah, so I found in any minute he was connected to lacquerade and all that. But his song Young changed my life. I was listening to it on the way over here, just kind of reminisce a little bit. I'm like man the first lines it don't matter if I'm young, this life isn't mine, I'm living for him. Now I'm not wasting time.
Phil J:Wow, like it's got you it got me, bro, because my brother and sister, they were living wholeheartedly for Jesus, like unashamedly In my head. I'm like man, I would love to do that, but I don't feel like I'm worthy enough for it. I've done some crazy stuff even at that age. And that line, that song itself, that song, the power of songs, bro, this song changed my life for eternity. Yeah, that's wild.
Chris Estes:That is wild. That's what I love about all the different genre styles within the Christian music space that it can carry that message, that it can have that truth to it but also very relatable to where. It's like you know you would listen to I love A&E stuff, man. It's like, yeah, you would listen to it and then all of a sudden like something like that turns and it hits you that way, yeah.
Phil J:So good yeah Wow.
Chris Estes:What about? So you've done? You know you've played all different types of venues like. What other power have you seen in songs?
Phil J:outside of that experience. I would say well, for me personally if it were from one of my concerts, and this is also something that's seared into my brain. I was doing a concert, maybe like four years ago in Georgia somewhere, and this kid in the wheelchair knew every word to every song I was doing. So that was very new to me and my brother pointed it out, because my brother was like my hype man at every concert. So he pointed out he's saying every word right now.
Phil J:As a set's going on. I'm paying attention. He's really saying every word right now and so I had to change the talk to him. He was battling cancer at the time. He said a lot of my music was helping at the time and then a few years later I had a concert back there again. I found out he went to be with Jesus. But it was cool to meet him and to hear him tell me I have songs that have lived to this period, brother, and he's not the only one. I'm constantly getting messages. When I came out when I dropped Noy Soul 3 last year, just constantly getting messages from people. This particular song, or this entire body of work, has helped me, has led me back to Christ in the sense too. That was the first project where I was a bit more vulnerable than I usually was. On songs I was scared to be vulnerable, but yeah, just from my own music I've experienced the power of songs.
Chris Estes:Yeah, it's a beautiful thing, man. I think they become soundtracks to people's journeys in life and that is a powerful moment when you see how that's impacted somebody. It's given language and voice to what they don't have language and voice to and you can feel it. I remember a voice, that guy, dude, I will never forget. Voice to God and your brother man, like that song.
Chris Estes:I lived that song with Dante and I was in the studio when it was captured, worked with him on making the decision to go with that song. It actually wasn't even supposed to be, it wasn't on the list of songs to do, but we had a clearance with. He had a song that he wanted to sample, tupac, and Tupac's estate was not sampling anything basically, especially not in the Christian genre. It kind of held things back. So Dante was like let's just go do. I got this song Voice of God and he wrote it after his grandpa passed and I remember it was such a powerful song at the moment and all that stuff. But, dude, when your brother did that song like that, that changed my experience with the song, like the way he sang that song, man was beautiful dude.
Phil J:Yeah, man, that's to this day everyone can agree. Like that was the perfect song, the perfect last song to hear from him before he left. Like I still listen to that song. I pretty much listen to his voice, like every week. Like I have a playlist of him leading worship. But that song like yeah, and all of Dante, you know what I'm saying All of Tupac man, that boy put some stank on it. Oh, I did when I shared it with Dante.
Chris Estes:I sent you that message. He said I can't sing it that good. It's like he crushed it, but yeah, that was powerful. So that was his last song that he recorded. Yeah, yeah.
Phil J:And I wouldn't say it's the last song, but like because I found like a bunch of music in his computer.
Chris Estes:Oh really.
Phil J:Yeah, like I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do with it, but yeah, he recorded a lot of stuff.
Chris Estes:Yeah, that's how you guys are man, and musicians that are that and artists that are that deep into it like you and others is they just never stop working and you just have lots of stuff that's Rain's always going.
Phil J:Yeah, it's always going, man, it's always evolving, Will you?
Chris Estes:you think that'll make its way into some of your new stuff.
Phil J:Oh yeah, absolutely yeah. Yeah, I'm saving that for something special though, like something like like very special, like I plan on it in the future to really create an album centered around my like entire story. Yeah, and I'm having some of that stuff, like it's definitely going to be a part of it.
Chris Estes:Yeah, yeah, I'm so excited about your new season in Nashville, man, I'm over the morning, the depression that comes with you leaving and the inner struggle that I've had with that. Now I'm happy for you and I want you to be blessed and all that, and also I'll see you when I'm in Nashville. Yeah, man.
Phil J:Because you're always there, dude, I'm outside, like when you're not here. You're either in Nashville somewhere else.
Chris Estes:I know You'll be one of the regulars there, man for sure, yeah, man.
Phil J:Yeah, it's exciting. So I'm just being there, yeah. And I find out like, okay, just being here, you meet anybody, yeah, anybody. You never know who you're going to run into. I'm like, okay, this is where I should be. That's true man. That's true, cool man.
Chris Estes:Well, I have one more question that is not against Offscript. We've gotten through all the song stuff that I usually ask the guests, but the question is this what would you? You've experienced a lot of musical life, starting at such a young age. What would you, what advice and what wisdom would you give a young teenager right now that's starting to explore music? And now there's no more limewire, so we're in. There's definitely no more beta VHS taste, but there are. You can record, you know, you can, you can stream stuff and you can record it, and the access is like everybody has access to everything, right. So what would you? What would you give some young aspiring teenager advice for one right now?
Phil J:If you have like, if you have time, like your teenager, you got all the time in the world to you know, build to pay. Like you have no, like nothing to take care of. Like you have time to work on your crafts. Like that, that was the most, that was the most pivotal time for me to work on my craft and my teenage years, yeah, like, every day, like practicing my, like practicing my instrument and I.
Phil J:And now that we have access to like anything like YouTube is, is there like, just try to find musicians that that that inspire you specifically in a certain way and try to. I want to say like, let let their style of playing or whatever inspire you and you create your own style of playing. That's how you do that. You know, that's what I've been doing for years. So, like, but like, practice, practice, practice. I know, I know it's such a cliche thing. Like, like you got to practice, you got to practice, but no, like, well, like I've been doing. I've been. I've been a professional drummer professional for 13, but I've been playing for way longer than that.
Chris Estes:Yeah.
Phil J:Like I, I, I, I went to bed at an opportunity to be a professional drummer if I didn't practice. Yeah, Every like every opportunity you get, you just got to practice. I think I said practice like 15 times already.
Chris Estes:That's a lot of practice, man.
Phil J:That's true, man.
Chris Estes:You know you can look at the professional athletes any kind of profession like they they do have to practice. You do have to get out there and and and practice. And especially as drummers man, I know the producer drummer um, who is. He's done all kinds of huge projects but he still has travels with a uh the um, little practice drum pad yeah. And, as a period periodinals, what does it call it? The period perioditals, yeah, perioditals, yeah, he does the periodital exercises all the time. So, yeah, he drops out. Yeah.
Phil J:It, it. It doesn't matter how old you are, how long, how many years you've been playing like, like real drummers, do we still? Do we still bring out drum pad? Yeah, do we still bring it? And we practice like and we warm up before it gets.
Chris Estes:You know, you gotta warm up.
Phil J:Yeah, and I'm 31 and I'm still like I'm every opportunity I can.
Chris Estes:I'm like I'm trying to.
Phil J:okay, let's get we got 15 minutes let's try to learn this little field real quick, you know yeah.
Chris Estes:So good, man. Thanks for thanks for being on One parting question. What's the current song you're listening to right now? That's that's having an impact on you.
Phil J:And it's super short. Vittorio Monet of.
Chris Estes:Philip Fallen Love yeah.
Phil J:Like it's it's a one minute song. I wish I wish it was longer. It's like I'll be in the gym. Like it's a song you don't think you, you don't think you will listen to in the gym, but like when the gym's okay, yeah, that's all that's coming on. It's it's, it's a vibe, bro, if you haven't heard it.
Chris Estes:Yeah, I have heard it. I love Vittorio Monet. She's her stuff's great.
Phil J:It's still it's fired up.
Chris Estes:Yeah, awesome man. Well, phil Jay, thanks for being on, yeah.
Phil J:I appreciate you for having me having me on the podcast man.
Chris Estes:Everybody check out his stuff. You just need to hit Spotify, apple music, definitely, youtube is fun and his Instagram's always always fun. So yeah, all right, man, that's a wrap. I don't know how to end this thing. Looking at my producer at the fall, how do I end it? Goodbye, bye.