We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Phil Park a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Phil thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
I’ve always been an artist and creative my whole life. As a kid I knew I wanted my future to involve creating music. I started taking guitar lessons from my mom’s best friend when I was 4 years old, and at the same time was taking piano lessons from my mom. I would occasionally not pay attention to my studies in the classroom and write song lyrics, then go home after school and put them to music or a drum beat. Even through high school I would make tons of sample songs that I would record crudely on a tape deck. Then I got a little more professional with the recording process when I went to college to study Music Technology and Audio Engineering. Music has always been in me and is what I will always do wether or not it makes me enough money to only do this.
As far as a regular job. I have no ambition to only work a “Regular” job. That being said, I have worked many of them to pay the bills. Here’s what I appreciate about working a steady job, even though the particular work I have no passion for, it has allowed me to meet a diverse amount and type of people that I would probably have not encountered if I were to just stick to the creative crowd. And a lot of these people have now become good friends that have created instances and situations which have inspired me to create even more.
Phil, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I have always created music since I was a little kid. Took many applied lessons with various instruments over the years and when I got to college I enhanced my Music Theory and Engineering skills even more. For the last twenty years I have always played music in bands and whatnot trying to earn money from gig to gig, but it was never enough to make it a full time job. I could just play cover songs with a corporate/wedding band and make a modest living out of it, but I’m not big on playing cover songs. I highly prefer original music. In 2017 I finally step up to the plate to make music a viable job that I can do exclusively by creating my own Music Company/Record Label. I don’t have too much knowledge when it comes to the business side of things and have been learning a lot over the last several years. Still learning. I did this because I was never big on pursuing getting signed by a major record label. I heard a lot of horror stories about the industry from friends that have gotten signed to a record deal and non of that sounded like it was for me. I’d rather make enough to get by doing this then have a label get rich off of my work and be treated like trash. In this recent adventure I have released about 13 albums since 2018 under three different solo projects. Each project has it’s own style and persona. My main project under the name Park is more of my free for all project in which I have albums that range from acoustic, to hip hop, to indie pop rock and so on. My second project is under the name Kid.Philip which has a Synthwave, House, Electronic Dance sound. And my third project is called Boo Bear which is more of an indie pop/ alternative rock genre in which each album has a particular theme to it. My thought process behind making three separate projects instead of just combining is so that after years of releasing a lot of music, a fan who listens to all 3 but never realized its all the same person was just an interesting concept that I was wanting to test out. It’s more of letting the fan or listener be more immersed into the creative process without even realizing it. I will always make these albums but my biggest goal is to score music for film, write jingles for companies and/or brands, and music for commercials. I would also enjoy writing theme songs for TV Shows, Podcasts, Gamers, etc. Music from me will never stop coming.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect in creating is that tingle you get when you come up with something that you think is truly special. You get excited, pumped, and extremely optimistic with what could potentially come when you release that particular piece. And once you have that feeling again and again then you never want to stop. And as long as you stay true to yourself you will always be able to do this. Yeah, you’ll get writer’s block here and there, or something may not work itself at the moment, but just keep going. For example, I have a song on my most recent Boo Bear album that I wrote over a decade ago and tried using with 2 different bands and a few of my previous albums until it finally found a perfect home on this album. And on the same record I have another song I really love that I wrote and recorded from scratch just a week before I had completed the record. Just let the creativeness keep coming.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
I think society does a fine job as it is in supporting artists and creatives. If there is a view of this not being true then I imagine it is because there are so many forms of art and now with social media it gives creatives more access to present their creations to the world which in turn creates more and more people to pursue their creative passions. It can be argued that this is spreading the creative ecosystem thin and there is too much content getting released and muddying the waters. But that’s not a bad thing. It just means now people in society searching out new content can make a job out of finding new and found creations and presenting it to the world. The whole social media word of mouth type of thing. So I guess I would say the best thing society can do to support the creative community would be to share your findings and spread the word.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.park-music.com
- Instagram: @parkmusicrecords
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ParkMusicandMore/
- Twitter: @ParkMusicLLC
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh-kJ6ZzIH4kV2iaHh_jf8g
- Other: https://linktr.ee/ParkMusic