Q&A: Phill Vidler

In celebration of Training Them Live, a decade-long Medway project that has sadly ended but brought us Under Seige at Rochester Castle, Rock Schools - which I have been a part of - and other TTLgigs, Phill Vidler dropped in for a Q&A session. 21-year-old Phill is arguably TTL's greatest export and the Medway musical mogul has a lot to thank them for. I sat down with the man behind the spectacles and gained unprecedented access to his memories and knowledge.

JB: So Phill, what inspired you to become a music artist?

PV: I was bought a very cheap toy drum kit by my uncle one Christmas. It had a really cool eagle logo on the front, so I wanted to play drums. The main thing that started me on guitar is that my dad played guitar before he died; though when I was 7, we had these guitar teachers come to my school and give a presentation on why they should teach us guitar. I asked my mum and she signed me up for it! I also got taught keyboard by my sister, before carrying on learning on my own!

JB: Wow, it sounds like your whole family is musical! I'm the only musical one in mine *laughs tragically*. So you were inspired at an early age, tell us about some of your inspirations and why they inspired you to write your own material...

PV: In the gloomy recesses of 2002, I came across a song called 'Year 3000' by Busted so I learned it, and the rest of the album, on guitar. This was where my 11-year-long excessively pronounced American accent was born; SO glad that’s turned into the lesser version that it is today. They inspired me to write my first few songs. I was also inspired around 2007 by Joshua Radin and Secondhand Serenade to write a lot more. I’d only written a few songs, and then by the end of 2007 I’d written a helluva lot. In the last few years my inspirations have been David Bowie, Biffy Clyro, Bon Iver and Walk The Moon.

JB: Right, I'm actually seeing Busted live at the O2 next week (as McBusted), so it really proves the influence that they had on both of us in the early 2000s! So you continued to write music and perform, what did your debut album "The World's Not Looking" (2013) provide for your audience?

PV: My debut album was the biggest musical challenge I’ve ever given myself, because it was a double album, and I didn’t know how to produce music. So as well as having to write the majority of the second half of it, I had to learn how to produce it at the same time. I’m glad I did, because it’s now led to my future career as a producer that I’m studying for now! While I’m proud of it, I do feel like the range of genres on the album was fairly isolating to people who like certain genres. Someone who likes blues isn’t gonna buy an album with two blues tracks on it! That’s why with my second album, “The Benefits Of Devolution” (August 2014), I stripped everything back and just focused on the one genre; I think it works better as an album because of it.

JB: I see what you mean, I've only ever written lyrics to songs because my musical knowledge isn't solid enough to produce entire compositions. Tell us about the album that is to be released in June of this year, which is intriguingly named "Heliotropic".

PV: The album that is coming out in June, “Heliotropic”, will be my first album from my new project - Phill Vidler and The Farseers. It’s an alternative indie release, with a far more contemporary style, a mixture between The Killers, Walk The Moon and The 1975.

JB: Certainly sounds interesting!

PV: I’m really excited about it, because the backing band (The Farseers side of it) are gonna be there for the gigs! The album itself is split into two halves (because I can’t just do a simple release *chuckles to self*), where the first half is representing Summer 2014 to now, and the second half is a flashback to things that I got through from Autumn 2013 till Summer 2014. 'Heliotropic' comes from the Ancient Greek meaning “turning to face the sun”, and the first track is supposed to signify sunrise. Then the middle track is the intermission, or sunset, and then the final track is a metaphor for being darkest before the dawn. The whole thing is very pretentious *laughs*. But I’m looking forward to releasing it!

JB: Well I'm definitely looking forward to it, save me a copy! But what gave you the confidence to become commercial and actually put pen to paper: writing your own material and performing? What advice would you give budding artists like yourself?

PV: I started performing when I was around 12, when I started doing my school concerts (you know that part). You get this bug as a young performer - you just have the need to perform. My mum started taking me to jam nights and open mic nights, and I started making YouTube videos - covers of songs I liked and some originals. Then I got involved in a project called Training Them Live. They got me my first proper gig, at Rochester Castle, in front of 3000 people. It was absolutely terrifying, but it was a necessary trial by fire. From there, I did acoustic gigs around my hometown and carried on writing, getting (hopefully) better as I was going along, and now here I am, with 2 albums, a third on the way and several EPs that have become my portfolio.

JB: Sorry to interrupt you there, Phill, but you make it sound like your albums are your babies! *laughs*

PV: I guess they are really, they're a part of me, of my soul. Music has been a massive part of my life. My advice would be to make videos so that you’re getting used to performing to something that isn’t your family, and then get gigging. Find open mic nights near you, make terrible flyers when you think you’re good enough to promote yourself and hand them out to everyone at the gig. Get your name out - your name being remembered is as important as the words you are singing.

JB: I watched your rendition of Ronson and Mars' Uptown Funk, how was that as an experience?

PV: Oh blimey, it was a tribulation. It took me around 7 hours to record the whole song on my software, and then I was editing and mixing for a few more hours, and then the next day I filmed the video segments, which took 4 hours to get everything done, and then I was editing until the early morning. I don’t like leaving a project that I’m doing overnight- for a start I have a terrible sleep, and then it’s just more to worry about doing the next day! I’m proud of how it turned out, and I’m definitely going to be doing some more covers in that way, perhaps a Wombats track.

JB: I'll look forward to hearing it. Thanks for dropping by Phill.

Phill Vidler, remember the name.

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