There are few musicians as omnipresent in Calgary’s music scene as Tom Phillips.
As the host of jams and regular afternoons and evenings at several spots around town, such as The Blues Can and Mikey’s Juke Joint, he’s always there, always playing.
Hopefully that familiarity doesn’t breed apathy among local music lovers, because Phillips also happens to be one of the best artists this city has to offer, as witnessed by his latest release Plastic Machine.
Prior to the mid-December release of that album — you can read Mary-Lynn Wardle’s fantastic interview with him to promote it — Phillips sat down with me in the Wild Rose Taproom for this week’s Scene In the Wild Podcask.
In a incredibly candid and enjoyable conversation, we discussed such things as: his early beginnings in music, including a period spent in Toronto; how he became so entrenched in the scene with all of those regular afternoons and evenings; how his latest backing band The DTs came to be; his last record, the all-covers Mr. Superlove, and how that influenced moved him forward; his struggles with alcoholism; and his new album, which is almost entirely about his newfound sobriety.
Thanks, as always, to Lorrie Matheson who produced Scene In the Wild at his Arch Audio Studio, to Wild Rose for supporting the Podcask, the Taproom staff for all that they do and to Phillips, himself, for sharing his time and talents.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
And if you do, please seek out past and future episodes on this site or subscribe and download it for free from the iTunes store.
Cheers.
