Exposed Vocals Interviews Sidlo Philips

Exposed Vocals: How did you hear about Exposed Vocals? What made you
decide to sign up?*

Sidlo Philips: – I heard about Exposed Vocals via Twitter.

Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made
you decide to become an artist?*

Sidlo Philips: I grew up in a small town outside Gothenburg, Sweden. I
learned to play guitar when I was around 15 years old and have played
in various bands/projects since then. One day, I decided to make
something on my own and not be dependent on other people. Since then
I haven’t looked back. Music is the one thing that has made any sense to me in life, the rest is just about getting through the day.

Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your
inspiration behind it?*

Sidlo Philips: my real name is Philip Sidlo. My friends have
been my inspiration as they have always been telling me that “Sidlo” (my
last name) is a great artist name so I just went with it. No real
afterthought.

Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever
give your music away for free? Why?*

Sidlo Philips: I think it’s great, it allows smaller artist to get
their music out there without major label backing, the
downside of that is that it is harder to stand out in the crowd as
music production has become easier and more accessible. I
prefer to give away my music for free as when you take money out
of the equation, you know you are making music for the right reasons. But money is such a big part of the music industry and if you want to get your music out there, it can get expensive.

Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any
smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?*

Sidlo Philips: Haven’t really figured it all out myself yet but
one thing I’ve learned is to be patient with your songs. If you make
good shit, good shit will happen for you eventually.

Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you
handle that?*

Sidlo Philips: Yes. The mistakes may not be noticeable but they still bother me. I do try to take lessons from every mistake, whether it’s in my mind or not and never
feel like I’m “complete” at anything. It’s always about growth as the better I get, the happier the listener.

Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you
think our readers would enjoy hearing about?*

Sidlo Philips: Never been on tour, however would love to do a tour in the near future. 

Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What
is your usual songwriting process?*

Sidlo Philips: Sometimes a song is made by sitting in your DAW and experimenting. Sometimes I get a bass line in my head just as I’m about to sleep, I quickly record it on my phone by humming the melody and the next day try I’ll try to recreate it in my DAW. Lately my inspiration have been coming from visiting different places, seeing different things and just escaping from everyday life.

Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do
you use to share your music?*

Sidlo Philips: I have a website: www.sidlophilips.com. I share my music via Soundcloud. If my track is released through a label they release it on Spotify, iTunes, Tidal, Beatport, etc.

Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might
find on your mp3 player?*

Sidlo Philips: Haha great question! I don’t know maybe “Britney Spears
– Work Bitch” not that it’s a bad song or anything just the fact that
it’s a Britney Spears song haha.

Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year
off, what would you do? How would you spend it?*

Sidlo Philips: I would start with buying myself a bigger apartment and
create a studio room, properly treated with bass traps, diffusers and absorbers. I would probably buy some unnecessary upgrades for the studio just because I have the money
and I would definitely travel to New York and produce music for a couple of weeks.

Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?*

Sidlo Philips: I’m saving up for a Avid Eleven Rack right now, a guitar amp simulator processor because sometimes I miss playing guitar and the guitaramp plugins out there do not do it for me. I’m always looking for new headphones too because I might have a headphone addiction but that’s not something I really should be talking about. I used to have a lot of gear and I’ve already gone through so many different setups. Everything from speakers, controllers, audio interfaces, keyboards etc until I learned that gear are just tools. If you don’t know how to work with what you got, your results never get any better. Now I have a Macbook 15″ connected to a Focusrite Saffire 6 Usb that outputs to my Yamaha hs7 monitors. I also use the Ableton Push 2 for producing and mixing. I use AIAIAI TM2 Young Guru for headphone production and I use
Beyerdynamic Dt-990 Pro for headphone mixing.

Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works
best for you?*

Sidlo Philips: I haven’t fully learned the best way to promote myself, But I have found in general consistency and quality are the two things that are most important when posting and sharing content with fans on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, etc.

Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists
(Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?*

Sidlo Philips: Would love to perform with Dubfire at some underground
club in Europe. He’s seems like a “down-to-earth” guy and he plays
amazing tracks.

Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you
want to talk about?*

Sidlo Philips: I’m in the finishing stages of producing an album with
the Indie-Pop band Ennui from Sweden that will be released this year.
I have a collaboration in progress with a songwriter and a singer
that’s really fresh so can’t really say much about it yet. Other than
that I will produce and release an EP with my own songs. Been wanting
to do a larger release for a while where I can represent myself in a
better way other than releasing single after single. I will also try
to come out and play as a DJ more this year.

Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?*

Sidlo Philips: For starters I would probably have more money. I
don’t know actually, would probably be at home playing video games or
something. When music’s been a part of your life for 10 years it’s
hard to imagine yourself without it.

Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What
was going through your head?*

Sidlo Philips: It was Gorillaz self-titled album back in 2001. I was
ecstatic and couldn’t wait to get home and play it on full volume. I
still listen to a lot of songs from that album, it’s great!

Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities
while trying to stay ahead in your music life?*

Sidlo Philips: It can be difficult at times since I’m not just working
on my own music. I have several different projects going on where I’m
producing for example a band or a collaboration with a songwriter. But
I don’t see it as an issue because as long as you’re doing
music in any way or form you evolve. I’m also coming to
terms with the fact that I don’t have to sit down and work on my own
music every day. It’s about the quality when you open up your DAW and
want to create something. If I try and force something that isn’t
there the creative space becomes a place I associate with negativity
and frustration and that’s just counterproductive in my opinion.

Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?*

Sidlo Philips: An EP, a couple of singles, maybe a remix or two and
some shows.