Been spending these last couple of months up in grey matter, tryna come up with melodies, tryna come up with lyrics, tryna come up with emotion. There’s value in going deep but I’ve been feeling the walls move in closer and closer – as truth comes, melodies develop meaning, sound turn music turn art. That’s a point I can spend some time in, and I must, but it’s also the first sign that the music I make needs to be released into worlds. Your world. 

I’m currently recording melodies, and I’m pushing to focus all of my attention on it. This is always the hardest part for me, but I’ve been finding joy in it this time around. Progress. 

I can feel these songs coming together and wanting to be off my mind, out with you, so that I can focus on new truths. Replaying the past is good only to a certain point. Now damn, my past is still in your future, crazy how that works.

Been surrounded by new people recently, been feeling a new creative energy and a new mindset forming. Sometimes all of this, in light of not making any real money, feels null. At the end of the day though, it’s crazy to think that I’m capable of creating all this by myself, the music, the songs, the production – the design, this website, the visuals on both TikTok and Instagram. That must be worth something – being able to put music out in this way. It’s worth that you’re listening, I’m doing this for you. None of these motherfuckers do what I do and hey, gotta be proud of that too.

Speaking of new people I’ve been surrounded by – I recently shot images with @josephesapa. He’s a photographer based in the UK and man we took some great images. It’s cool being able to bounce ideas off another creative mind – I’m hoping to get to do that again soon. You’ll be seeing another post of more of my favorite images soon.

Energy I come back to again and again is a night at the club. Free minds.

The club as a place of heightened reality: Everything matters, nothing matters, life is more black and white than outside – you love the music or you hate it, you wanna fuck the guy you just met or you don’t. Decisions are easier being forgotten the next day or discredited due to the coke. The way it should be. 

Real life ain’t like that and some of y’all bitches act like it is. Nothing is black and white, it may be for a night but it ain’t for the rest of your life. There is no taking sides, there’s compassion and there’s understanding and there’s working through differences. Fuck off with all y’all gossip. 

Music is best when its got confidence to be loved or hated. I been tryna make music like that. It touches or it don’t, and if it doesn’t we’re still cool. These emotions also visible and I’m tryna use visual media for this upcoming album more and more. Great music videos special, it doesn’t have to be elaborate, the aura matters. Being independent I can’t afford big budget shit but hey, I’ma do my best in the upcoming weeks to deliver visuals to the songs I’m writing. 

Also been discovering new artists through Youtube recently, less on Spotify – the visual element keeps me hooked a while longer so I can enjoy more new music without jumping ship.

These dudes big vibin’ and they reminding me of keeping it simple – make music and make visuals for that. I’ma try and stick closer to that myself, I been thinking too much, I been trying too much. I gotta get back to doing more. Cause trying is different from doing you feel me.

Can’t do quantity cause I’m still stuck on quality. So I’ma double down and give you more quality. Hope it’ll pay off if not I’m changing my mind but only in another life. This life dedicated to quality. 

I’m gon’ leave you with these few lyrics as a teaser of the upcoming album. I’m working relentlessly, hope you’ll love it as much as I love it already in this unfinished state. If you love it half as much it’ll be your favorite album of the year. 

Godspeed, love you endless.

LOVE AIN’T FAIR, WE COULD GANG UP ON IT, GANG

THIS LOVE IS THICKER THAN BLOOD, YOUR ASS THICK, ON GOD

No Mind out now

No care where your love come from /
No mind, No mind, no

My new song No Mind is out right now, if you haven’t listened yet, it would mean the world to me if you did. A track about keta and fucking, we both know we don’t care where the love come from in that hole.

Been at clubs a lot lately, those with the no photo policies. Sucks for me and content but the memories will make for a real good lyric. 

Been with you for long and gave you diamond, you sold ’em for drugs and man I can’t fault you.

Look I got you diamond / 
Look they turn to dust / 
Lay a big white one

I’ma keep these hands taped until we’re all together in love.

[Verse I]

I can pay a rack 
Go just give me love 
Love on white line

Look I got you diamond 
Look they turn to dust 
Lay a big white one 

[Prechorus]

I thought you’d die

[Chorus]

God know where this K from 
No mind, no, no mind 
No care where this love come from 
No mind, no, no mind

[Verse II]

I can pay two rack 
Go just get that fill 
Now your lip blue

Hope you’re enjoying the song, hope you’re enjoying what I’ve been putting out, there’s been a song every month for the last 5 months now.

There will be a short break now, cause I’m working on the second part of my Together We Are Love album series. 7 all-new songs which are in the works already, pretty deep into it. 

I’m fucking stoked to be making muisc, to have all this in the works. Lots and lots of love. Love you endless. 

Remember to share the music, make TikToks to it, put those songs in your playlist. 

Love, phl. 

See you musically in a few. Visually, I’ll never leave. 

All Cap V Out Now

I guess I don’t gotta care about who you are if all I see is that All Cap V.

It’s been a few weeks but if you haven’t heard, my new song All Cap V is out everywhere. A chill one about fucking –  that’s the shit I write about best.

I can tell you got your head in the cloud, that’s cloud nine if precise. Our type of love is different than theirs, and I’m talking them with their love useful. We don’t got external use for our typa love so it’s up to you and me to create it within ourselves. 

This why our love look different, that’s why our love feel different, that’s why our love mean different.

And sometimes the love we got is only transactional. 

[Verse I]

We got romance they don’t fuck with
Late night calls is good with we 
We no, no worry ’bout each other life, lie 
Behind these walls 

This shit bouncy, this shit fly 
Insane to expect varied results 
I call at 3am, that don’t lie 
You won’t care about my life 

[Prechorus]

Tonight transactional 
You’re with dick now 
I’m at peace now

[Chorus]

See, life all good with you inside
My mind quiet on this ride 
You’re the only one tonight 
You’re the only one make me feel right

I hit it all night
Take my mind off him all night

[Verse II]

They got roses we don’t fuck with 
Your body’s good enough, bitch 
This life don’t want nothing in between we, no
Nothing in between

[Outro]

Hit it from the back like I don’t know you 
Y’all look the same with that All Cap V
I got these memories, I got these memories 
Got these playing tricks on 3am me

I hope you’re enjoying the song, add it to your Playlists, show it to your friends, give it some love. This one is special to me, I hope you’ll allow it to be special to you. 

Love, phl.

My new song 'Naked Like That' is out now!

I wonder how much truth you put into your I love you.

These words hovering, just above my chest, whispering to the blood rushing below. Would you lie all naked like that? The one thing I know for sure is that if your words real, like the sweat on our skin, I could die all naked like that.

This one is special to me. It began with this TikTok:

I am in deep with the sound of this instrument, the chords it produces and the way melodies are embedded. Been wanting to work on a track based on a sample for a long while, finally I found my starting point. Experimented, fucked around, ended up settling on a slowed and pitched down version for my final track. 

Always into lush pads and full songs, this gave me a perfect basis to record. Writing went quickly, the idea of three truths that are hovering, not entering my chest as an image i love. 

Lyrics.

[Hook]

Three truths on my pec 
Would you lie all naked like that 
I could die all naked like that 
Would you lie all 
I could die all naked like that

[Verse I]

I can’t see them diamonds 
I’m too close to them you 
A carat five, fuck you
A carat five, now I seen you naked 
Your word meaningless 
Got me all uncertain under certain circumstance

[Prechorus]

Guess you could love me once 
And I’ll be good for life 
Guess I could stop the chase
With this moment in mind

Guess you could leave by morning light 
Just stay for the night

[Verse II]

I can’t catch them feelings 
I’m too close to them you
Struck out the side thats you vs. one 

Head back, float
First time I seen you relax 
Only know you wired on shit I can’t pronounce 
Wired on shit like I’m used to

This all news to
All new to us 
All news to

[Bridge]

Love move slow in my vein
Forgive my growing pain 

I hope you’re enjoying the song, add it to your Playlists, show it to your friends, give it some love. This one is special to me, I hope you’ll allow it to be special to you. 

 

Love, 

 

phl.

5am Violence

The physical aussault of techno does something to me, how come inspiration for music hits in dirty club bathrooms? I guess I can see your beauty far more clear in contrast to the brutalist minimalism of punding kick and bass. You become more beautiful and I become more aware. There is a kind of honesty in your movement, something I don’t get to see in you elsewhere. 

More: it’s the unwavering beauty of people present, I ain’t ever seen as many beautiful bodies as I have at Unreal Amsterdam, and I’ve been on the lookout my whole life. There is something visceral that pulls beauty onto techno floors. It has pulled us.

This inspires – the more beauty I see, the more beauty I can put to the page. So I spent an hour writing lyrics, on my knees, amid lines and bumps, a certain type of atmosphere of human euphoria and resilience. 

The main floor as church, and seeing as we were in Amsterdam we wanted to continue and headed to CHURCH, a gay club in the heart of the city. Too many mirros in that place, too much seeing without seeing reality.

These last couple of months have been heavy on miles traveled; visited the island for some much needed vitamin D. The atmosphere is special, I couldn’t imagine a more beautiful place. Orange blossoms as messengers of coming heat. I continued writing what began influenced by the smell of piss, this time in the shade of olive trees; contrast is what makes shit interesting. The combination: letting go in being more present, with beauty around, is analog to a dancefloor; we shine brighter everywhere, and everywhere I can see connections to us.

Since being back in rainy Cologne, at least the cathedral still here, there is only one place I wanna go: back to the island. As I’m currently working on singles, reveling in the freedom it allows me, my mind already jumps to the future and the album I have to write: We Are Love. To be able to focus all energy and all depth I can give into that, I planned a writing trip for the whole of June – this will afford me enough time and energy to create 7 all new songs. I cannot wait to get going, to sit under sun, remembering 5am violence and connecting it to beauty and love. That is what I do best.

If somebody wanna link in that time just hit me up, we got bodies to explore and I’m just happy to be there and look good. For that to happen I’ve started the cut, since bulking I gained 20kgs which of course ain’t all muscle, also fat. So to get that off, for summer, I’m on 2100 calories. We’ll see how that works out, that shit ain’t easy, but hunger is beauty. And I wanna be a part, so let’s suffer. 

Flew to Berlin to talk some talks, see some faces, nothing came of it. Always the city of my dreams, always the city where life seems to happen the easiest. I guess the energy is infectious and creativity is found there. Always surprising, but these labels and the industry don’t seem to care for me, so I’ma do my own thing. 

If you’ve noticed I always try and make everything I do look the best I can, make it feel the most thought-through and make it stand the test of time, and quality. Contrary, it is very on trend right now for major-label-backed artists to throw all that out the window and give a ‘bedroom musician’ type vibe – doing marketing and TikToks from their bedroom, their tiny home studio and shit like that. Labels wanna present musicians who are more relatable, more ‘close’ to everybody else – for people to see them as peers and for other creatives to look at them and think: hey that could be me.  What they don’t know is that hundreds of thousands of dollars are poured into the creation and marketing of said ‘bedroom music’. I think that’s fucking hilarous. It also makes everything easier: why spend lots of money on sets, production, high quality cameras and concepts, when these motherfuckers can just sit in their bedroom and film on an iPhone. 

Fact is, your favorite indie artist probably ain’t that indie. 

Which, looking at it like this, is funny, cause I’ve been careful throghout time not to do low quality shit, bedroom type things, filming with a phone and being content with that. Maybe I should’ve done that, cause it seems to work for these fuckers. Now I’m too far gone, and I’ll keep my own shit up, which costs me hundreds of hours. I hope some of y’all see that. I hope some of y’all know that I am actually indie, and I do shit myself, from writing to producing to singing to doing these damn artworks and videos. 

The only thing artists need is taste. If you ain’t got taste you got nothing, no voice of an angel can save you. The way to visual taste is clearer and more easy than to musical, lyrical taste. Especially if it’s about creating. You’re creating in time, and taste in time is hard to achieve, you either have it or you don’t. If you happen to know indie artists who display taste throughout their music and visuals, please give me a shout. I’d love to see and learn more. 

I’ve been loving Cowboy Carter recently, and I suggest you take the time and listen front to back. It has worlds burried within. 

My top 3 are: 

  • Bodyguard
  • Jolene
  • Riiverdance

 

Just last week downloaded Opal, an app for your phone to stop you from wasting time. I been wasting too much time, attributing it wrongly, in face of my own scrutiny to research. Bullshit. It told me if I continue spending 3 hours on my phone each day, that will add up to 17 years by the end of my life. What a fucking waste, looking at other peoples lives instead of living. The app has been helping to cut down. I hate consuming, I love creating, so I gotta stop taking the easy way out. Go and create.

The only thing I’ma consume is drugs and art. 

Need my studio to feel more like an artists space, working on some renovations at the moment. I want the violence in here, so I can write my best lyrics and make my best music. 

 

Love you, 

 

phl.

Art When out now

My new song ‘Art When’ is out now everywhere!

Cherry lips in crystal light of clubs inspire me always, this song breathes togetherness. There ain’t nothing more honest than kissing lips, and you look like art when we do. You are my Lisa at the Louvre. These synths as recollection of artificiality of a club, these lyrics as real as they get. 

Talked about creating songs in my interview with MYP-Mag recently – usually I take long to finish music. This was different – creation flew by like 3am talks with your loved one. Suddenly shit makes sense. Came up with the synth melody you hear in the last Chorus first. I love it, but as Hans says: sometimes you have to kill your darlings – so it does not get much space on its own, I wanted to shorten the track. You can hear it in the background of the last Chorus still, and I love when you get to uncover different elements throughout various listens, at first you’re mainly focused on the voice and harmonies, but after a few listens you’re exploring production elements, such as this synth melody. I want to make each new listen and exploration worth it. The melody is worth it. You’re allowed to fall in love with something again and again.

[Verse I]

Crystal glitter on your cherry lip 
That ain’t gloss, that’s passion bitch 
Mm, I can taste it all 
Mm, I can taste it all 

Look at you ex on his way to god
Why you keep praying to be popular too?
Still see him in the way you fuck 
That’s him in the way you fuck 

[Chorus]

You are art when we kiss 
Got bruises on both sides of my lip 
You my Lisa at the Louvre
This the right place, this the right time 

You are art when we kiss 
Bruises on both sides of my lip 
Right place right time 
Bruises on both sides

[Verse II] / [Bridge]

I know you still on his dick 
That’s fine, I’m good with you two 
I be your lover in breaks 
Be your lover in breaks 

I’ma pick you up and carry you 
To him 

As mentioned, I will now be focusing on singles, which means more music more quickly, more freedom and lots of fun. I’m aiming for a minimum of a song a month, I’m hoping to be able to give you twice that.

Thank you for being here and for listening. Here’s a quick acoustic Chorus for Art When, this will be on socials in a few days:

— phlwest

I watch time fly, these cycles always repeating, so I’m back in the studio working on new music. It feels like I never left, it feels like I’ve never been here. Creativity as silence, fleeting, like air. And still it’s got me in a chokehold, no life in my lung.

These last couple of weeks have been spent with Merch, on Together Magazine, on creating more than just music. If you haven’t yet, please go ahead and check it out. These are the ways for me to generate income, as music has become commodity. 

The Magazine gives Behind The Scenes access to the creation of Together, with many unreleased Images, lots of poetry, a Podcast Interview talking queerness, music making, and everything in between. I would love for you to check it out, I’ve always dreamed of creating a visual magazine for a release, and I finally was able to do so for Together. 

These four shirts have been years in the making. I’ve wanted to create something wearable for ages, just never been content with quality or fit of the garments I’ve tested, not been happy with the print quality or had companies outright refuse to print the designs I wanted to get out. There is still a lot of censorship around queer art and our expression, and I am confronted with this again and again. Finally I decided to make everything myself, just like I do with my music. 

I’ve invested in a Heat Press, I designed shirts, found the perfect garments to print on, and I’ve been in the studio heat-pressing this shit myself. Now I’ma be honest, they aren’t selling as well as I hoped they would, so if you haven’t copped, reconsider. This is a passion project and I wanted to make sure you could wear something truly phlwest. 

I’ve edited my first real Vlog making these Shirts, which is mainly about corporations not wanting to print my bare ass on shirts, cause of some bullshit content policy of theirs. I did some censoring of the video for TikTok, but apparently I wasn’t thorough enough, so that video got taken down almost immediately, adding a strike to my account. The very thing I’m talking about happening again…

Here’s that video on Instagram:

 
 
 
 
 
Sieh dir diesen Beitrag auf Instagram an
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Ein Beitrag geteilt von phlwest (@phlwest)

I love these Vlog Style videos, they are a tool to provide a more in-depth look into the way I work. There’s tons of shit I do that y’all probably aren’t even aware of. I’m still not sure most of y’all know I actually produce, sing, write, mix, publish all this music myself. It’s pretty fucking unique so I gotta make it a point to use that for content. The studio needs some renovating, but I’ve taken this very physical experience of creating merch as an opportunity to film a vlog. I love the outcome, and although it doesn’t work on instagram at all compared to my other shit, I’ma try and push these for TikTok and see if I can censor myself enough for the account not to be banned lol.

All this means no sleep and no time off, between going to the studio to make music and doing content for the music itself, to making these vlogs – which take a lot of time editing and filming. I really wanna cling to quality, and although it’s not really what I see around me, I need it for myself. I wanna see my work the way I envisioned it in my mind. Y’all can interpret later. And I’m listening. But I need to create it the way I want it to exist in the world – otherwise why do this at all.

New music will come sooner rather than later, there’s lots to do for Together still, there’s content to film and Clips to shoot, but I’m eager to push on and release some more singles. 

Stand-alone singles usually mean more freedom, more experiments, more quick-judgement. I like that every once in a while. I’ve learned a lot doing Together, so I’m equipped to focus on these next few songs. Ready for some fucking bangers. I’m excited to be back in the studio, experimenting, carving my space in music. I’m working on being quicker with everything I do. As mentioned, I’m doing it all, so that always takes time. I hope to come up with time-saving ideas in the near future, making everything a little less cluttured, more structured, more enjoyable. These songs are going to be life.

Recently went to amsterdam for a smoke sesh, saw some friends and it quickly turned into a promo night for my new album. I took some Posters and we dotted them around the city, these memories still big in mind. Love the city, although people seem snobbish to me. We ended up in De School until morning light, which turned a chill Amsterdam weekend into a 140BPM Rave. Rather that over anything else though. Can always count on the ravers. They are family, even in Amsterdam.

Once back home to get back in the swing of things I updated my playlist, check it here:

These the songs for a month of spring, excited to be listening with longer days and sunsets that turn our skin orange. 

Gonna be stuck in the studio for a couple of weeks now, I’ma be back with new music, right here. I hope you don’t gotta wait too long. Excited for whats to come. 

Also, if you want some more insider infos and more updates, don’t hesitate to subscribe to my newsletter below. You’ll get something special soon, promise.

– phlwest

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