A Conversation with Sam Phillips – HuffPost 10.25.13

Mike Ragogna: Hi Sam, do you have a couple of seconds to talk about Push Any Button?

Sam Phillips: I do!

MR: Outstanding. How did Sam Philips dive into this album versus the last one?

SP: The last music that I did was called the Long Play project and it was a digital music and art installation on the web. Basically, I did four EPs and a ten-song album in the course of a little bit over a year, so I was writing very fast and recording very fast, which was great. It was instant gratification because as soon as I finished five songs, I could instantly get them to my subscribers and listeners. It was really fun, but since I was working so fast, I had a yen on this collection of songs to really take my time with them and work on the arrangements and the performances, just take a little more time with the production. SoPush Any Button was a little more considered. I did have a little detour on the way; I scored a TV show for my friend Amy Serman-Palladino called Bunheads, so that took about a year’s time away from Push Any Button, but then I went back to it and finished it. It took a little while to put together.

MR: What about the writing on this new one? How did you approach that? Did it collect, or did you say, “Okay, this is the new project, now it’s time for creating material?”

SP: You know, one of my friends asked me, he said, “How does an album come together? Is it like there’s one song that is like the daddy and then there are all of a sudden all of these little baby songs?” I thought it was a very funny image. But it was interesting that he asked that because the song “Pretty Timebomb” was actually written during my Long Play project and I just felt like it was, for some reason, part of something else, it wasn’t part of that project so I kept it, I didn’t record it. “Pretty Timebomb” was the first song that I recorded for this project and it seemed very unconsciously that all of the rest of the songs came as I worked. I do work very hard and it takes me a long time for songs. I do really try to edit and use craft to try to make them the best I can make them. I’m not a stream of consciousness person that doesn’t edit at all. Some people are like that with songs; they just strum a guitar and something great comes out, but I work with things a little bit more. That’s always been the way I do it.

MR: I imagine you come at creativity from different angles because you’ve had to deal with visual elements inspiring music, such as when you worked on Gilmore Girls and Bunheads. Do you get inspired by particular stories? Is it mostly biographical or do you get inspired by what’s happening in the environment and politics? What inspires you?

SP: A million different things. It’s always something different. I think more than anything, it’s just being open to creating something. I know that sounds really tentative and very mundane, but I think that’s the first thing. You set the intent that you are going to be inspired and you’re going to begin a journey working on something. Usually, I’m wrestling with a melody that I love or that haunts me and I can’t put down and I want to try to interpret. Most of the time, I feel like I’m an interpreter of what the melody’s trying to say. I’m not usually trying to take a lyric and put it to music. That’s kind of an odd thing. Other things that inspire me…sometimes it’s cultural things but I try to come at it from a more emotional way rather than just from an intellectual place because I feel like after all, it is a song, it’s not a book or an article. It’s something that you should be able to listen to over and over again and should open up like a flower. It should have different layers. It’s a tall order, but that’s my attempt.

MR: This is your first physical product since 2008’s Don’t Do Anything. With the Long Playproject and the like, it seems like you’d gotten very comfortable in the virtual world. Why the sudden physical release?

SP: I actually had a yen to do that because I have been working with collage and I have, with this project, also done these album covers and I wanted to house the vinyl I was making in these album covers that have erased the old images. I collaged new images onto them in sort of a statement about the record business and a fondness for vinyl. And with the new and old meeting, I feel like the music is also like that on Push Any Button. It’s a little old and a little new. But I also heard from my listeners that they wanted something physical and they wanted CDs, which surprised me. I loved making the vinyl, but a lot of people wanted music on CD so it’s interesting. It’s just an interesting time in music for people because I feel like MP3s are meaning less and less to a lot of people and CDs are not the ultimate format and vinyl is not the ultimate format. I think it would be interesting if some new format did come along that was actually green and was very sturdy. I wonder if something like that did come along and was convenient and fit all of the things that we want out of music storage that would really take hold or if people will just want to house their music streamed. That’s the way people are predicting this is going to go, but I still have a feeling that a lot of music fans want to own their own collection.

MR: Until you said “physically own the collection,” I was going to say that your vision described playing it all live.

SP: Yeah.

MR: I feel like we’re at that point where “they” have to figure out another way to do that. I imagine that a lot of artists have noticed when they tried to have a purely digital career, what happens is they’re having problems finding and getting their royalties to live off of them. I know a lot of people just want to show their creativity, but on the other hand, it’s such a challenge to try to collect on works that are online except from established sites like iTunes and Amazon.

SP: It is, although you’re not going to have those costs of making a physical product. What’s happened is that there’s so much focus on the format that people forget about production and that it actually costs to make records. I use real musicians and an engineer. There are people involved that need to be paid. I’m not just in my closet making a record with GarageBand. That’s fine, people do that, but that’s not everything, and I think most of the records people buy and are popular are not made that way. They’re made with other people who are experts at what they do, whether it’s playing the drums or doing production, so it is a challenge. But you know, music has been around for thousands of years. I don’t think it’s going to go anywhere. We all love it, we crave it, the record business was kind of an odd thing in the twentieth century and just because it was that way for a little while doesn’t mean it’s going to be that way forever. I think it’s all taking a different form and I also think that the different formats are joining together and becoming more powerful. Music to picture is certainly one of them but there are a lot of actors who do recording projects, Broadway theater music are getting together with the visual arts of music; a lot of people are doing different projects like that. I feel like that is probably the way it will survive, not just through a record bought by millions and millions of people.

MR: So you took a different approach musically with Push Any Button. It feels like there’s an angle with some of these songs, like a nod to another era. Was there any intention of that when you approached this album during the production process?

SP: Yeah, a little bit. I’m always trying to get the songs cut down in different feels to try and get the essence of the song down. It took a few tries for some of them. Others we played and knew exactly where to go with the song, but all the while, in my mind, I was thinking of the late sixties, early seventies with The Wrecking Crew here in Los Angeles. They were a famous bunch of studio musicians who played on a bunch of different pop hits. The thing about evoking them especially is that it’s not one particular artists or one particular kind of musical sound, it was just a general feel of them having to figure out a lot of different kinds of music as well as different feels and styles. I know the styles aren’t that diverse on Push Any Buttons, but it was an interesting feeling to have in mind. I have a fondness for that era, but I also wanted to have everything planted firmly in the here and now. It’s not exactly a nostalgic record, it’s maybe just more of that certain approach. We did it song by song, we didn’t just rehearse a bunch of songs live and then record them. It really was over a period of two years. Each song is a different universe.

MR: With “When I’m Alone,” and “See You In Dreams,” it almost seem like the songwriting is of a caliber and a quality of your classic singer-songwriters from The Wrecking Crew period. Do you admire them?

SP: Oh, there are some amazing songs from that era. I love songs and I love melodies. I think I can best explain it in fashion terms–It almost feels like music today. Instead of a very well-made suit, it would be something more like an old pair of jeans or a very loose, flowing dress. It’s more casual, in a way, I guess, and maybe less craft. That’s a good thing; there’s more freedom, there’s more innovation, there’s more creativity. But I do miss some of that really crafted, structured songwriting from the past. So yeah, it was fun to go back and do that. Probably the next project will be the opposite of that.

MR: One of my favorite topics on this project is “Things I Shouldn’t Have Told You.” It reminded me a little bit of the Carly Simon song “No Secrets.”

SP: Oh, I don’t know that one.

MR: “We have no secrets, we tell each other most everything,” and then the chorus is “Sometimes I wish that I never, never knew some of those secrets of yours.”

SP: Oh, that’s interesting.

MR: There are some truths that when a singer-songwriter spotlights them, there’s this big “Uh-huh” for the listener.

SP: Well, I couldn’t resist throwing a few things in that I did want to tell the listener. “Are we going to stay in one place in the oil fields?” and “Don’t ever change,” of course we do need change to look at environmental issues. I threw a few things in there.

MR: Ah, the ol’ shopping list song.

SP: Yeah, I think the Tin Pan Alley called it, even worse than the “shopping list,” I heard it’s “Laundry List.” But it is exactly that; it is a laundry list and even that harkens to a different era.

MR: Let’s talk about a concept that you brought up there: If you don’t have a planet you can live on, game over.

SP: That’s what I really don’t understand people not being aware of, in terms of climate change, but also in terms of people getting so wealthy at the planet’s expense or at other people’s expense, I always wonder where they think they’re going to live. If you obliterate the middle class in this country and make a lot of poor people, do you really want to live in that world? It seems like such an easy concept, but it’s mind-boggling that people don’t see it that way. I think you’re absolutely right.

MR: Yeah, and the amazing thing is watching people vote against their own interests. They send people to Congress who don’t even represent them, people who represent their re-elections and their own worldviews.

SP: Yeah, and I wonder if sometimes, too, that we as creatures just resist change. If what happens to the health care act actually makes things better, “Ooh, that’s scary” because that’s change, you know? I think sometimes we as humans fear change, good or bad, and maybe sometimes, it’s just that simple in terms of some of the voters. They’re afraid of something different even if it’s going to make things better. I think the great thing is we will have a chance now to see it make things better and hopefully, that will bring about even more change.

MR: And while we’re at it, I am so sick of the word “socialism” being touted whenever someone makes mention of a program that helps needy people. You look around the world and virtually every other civilized country have nets for their citizens. But apparently, we don’t like nets anymore, but when we do, we’re socialists. That word is so antiquated no one even knows what it means anymore.

SP: Yeah, I know, it’s just ridiculous. You’re so right.

MR: Anyway, back to Push Any Button. From your perspective, what is the most revealing song on the album, the one that says the most about Sam Phillips?

SP: That’s hard. I feel that even when I’m trying to write songs for other people–which doesn’t happen that often, I don’t co-write a lot–but “When I’m Alone” was actually written for another artist. It’s a long story why it didn’t get into the hands of that artist, but it’s kind of funny that even that song is very revealing. What I try to do is not take all of the oxygen in the room. I try to leave a lot of room for the listener in the music. That’s the kind of music, that’s the kind of film, that’s the kind of book that I like. I like to be able to listen or watch or read and have a place for my own thoughts and my own experiences. So I’m really trying to stand at a distance and create this little world where somebody can muse about their own lives rather than focusing on myself. I so appreciated when I saw Sigur Ros in 2006. I loved their tour where the lead singer was behind the scrim because it made you really think about the music. At the time, the songs were longer than usual and I felt during the whole show like I was in a different world, I wasn’t at a normal concert, and I love that. I hope that at some point, I’ll be able to do that for people as well, to give them a bit of perspective and take them out of their lives and help them see things differently.

MR: May I ask you just a couple of personal questions if I’m not obnoxious about them?

SP: Okay.

MR: What is the reason behind becoming “Sam” Phillips after introducing yourself as “Leslie” Phillips?

SP: Well, that’s actually kind of a long story, but Sam was my nickname growing up. When I started making records, it was for a gospel record company and I really was very young and idealistic and felt that maybe I could contribute something spiritually to the world. What was interesting was that the whole thing transformed me. I learned a lot about the shortcomings of fundamentalism and then also started wanting to become a better songwriter, a better musician, and as I was doing that, that world was very critical. They turned it into a thing where they wanted me to do a lot of propaganda, telling people things that they already knew or believed and I felt that spiritually, I had grown or moved on. So finally, I just left that record company and felt that I wanted to start over and write better songs and actually grow, spiritually, on the personal side of things. That’s exactly what I did. I left that record company and started with Virgin America and decided to go by nickname to draw a line between them. I was probably too young to be making records at that point, so I wanted to start over and earn the trust of my audience and get better. So that’s why I went by my nickname from then on.

MR: Thank you for talking about that. I think there’s also no coincidence here that the T-Bone Burnett album happened around that time, right?

SP: Yeah, I think a lot of things were dawning on me and thought I still think politics are very, very important, I still think love is more important and that filters down to the way you see the world and the way you’re going to vote, hopefully with eyes wide open, knowing all the issues. There were political things that started rumbling at that time that I was uncomfortable with that had now become this whole full-blown, right-wing thing in this country. That’s something that I didn’t want to be involved with. I also think that people using politics in religion to feel powerful and get power is wrong. Really the spiritual man’s power is going to be love, and if you’re trying to use politics or graft or manipulation or anything else, I think you get into some stuff that doesn’t belong with what you’re doing.

MR: Again, beautifully said. And there were so many rich, fake-o evangelists working the ignorant and the system.

SP: The fundamentalist leader I remember who was most interesting was Francis Schaeffer, whose dad was a Christian author. Frankie went hard into the anti-abortion and fundamentalist right-wing politics world, and then a few years ago, wrote a book completely reversing it all. He completely came out of that world and wrote a book about it. I think that was very brave and very interesting because he was one of the main forces of the anti-abortion movement and that was very interesting.

MR: For many, I bet it’s like the next day after being drunk, only this time maybe drunk with power. Who knows. Sam, I also wanted to ask you a standard question, what advice do you have for new artists?

SP: Oh, I think have a sense of humor and don’t be afraid to put that in your art. I think one of the things that I see missing from every art form these days–except for comedy, of course–the humor is really absent. There are so many dramas on television that just don’t have an ounce of humor in them that I think would be just so much better if they did. A lot of artists take themselves too seriously. To me, it’s very charming, someone who’s trying to reach the greater truth. I would say learn to do a lot of different things as well. Be open to the next hybrid. Rock ‘n’ Roll was a hybrid of a couple of different kinds of music and I think not only are there other music combinations out there, but I also think we should look between the art forms. I think it gets really exciting when people start combining the other art forms–theater with music and technology. I think there are a lot of interesting things on the horizon and I’m very hopeful. But back to that previous question one more time, the only thing that I really do want to say is that I’ve spent maybe twenty-five years now as “Sam” doing my music and I feel that I’ve done so much more work as Sam and I’ve worked very hard to not become a pop star but to become a decent songwriter and performer and record maker. But those beginnings were the beginnings and that’s the way it is. I flinch a little when people ask about that because I feel that the majority of what I’ve done in my life is these other albums. Although they were wacky beginnings, I do appreciate you focusing more on the last twenty-five years rather than the first four of my career. I wanted to add that because I guess it’s just weird, although there are a lot of artists who got their beginnings in the church because that’s where they could sing and people listened to them. That’s where they found their audience and then moved on and moved out of that as they got older. I guess it’s not that odd but it is important to me that I have spent the majority of my time doing what I’m doing now.

MR: Earlier, I was curious about your history, and I thought that was a gentle way to back into it the way we did.

SP: And I understand because it has become such a weird political polarization and I feel that the church has been used by politics, really, and it’s very sad to me. It’s sad that they felt so powerless that they gave in to a lot of these politicians who try to manipulate them and use them. I hope that will change.

MR: Sam, this has been really beautiful and I’m glad we finally got to do the interview.

SP: Thank you so much, take good care and hopefully we’ll speak soon.

MR: Absolutely, and all the best.

Transcribed by Galen Hawthorne