We recently connected with Phillip Enkey and have shared our conversation below.

Phillip, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I’ve recently released “Comeback song” which I wrote for anyone who has experienced trauma, tragedy or heartbreak. This song hits home for me in a real personal way. When I was a young child I was in a car accident. My brother and I watched as our mom took her last breaths in the front seat. That experience has affected me my whole life. I wrote this song as an acknowledgement that the hard parts of life cannot be inevitably avoided. Rather then suppress, avoid or ignore them we should embrace them, learn from them and move forward. While shooting the music video for this song, there is a scene where I go back to the car accident that killed my mom and I reconnect with my younger self who is still in the car. It was a really emotional experience for me and I feel it was really healing. The actress who Portrayed my mother waited for the scene to end. Then she got out if the car and gave me a hug. I can’t explain how thay felt. It was the ending I hoped for on that day.
I was honored to be joined by others who have endured unimaginable traumas. We shot a scene in the music video where I am joined by others who have felt loss and tragedy. One woman, Trista, lost her baby a few hours after his birth. Marlene had a cancer diagnosis and now lives with a rare kidney disease. Mitch can’t walk without difficulty due to his fibromialgia diagnosis and many surgeries. Sean lost both of his parents as a teenager, Kara survived physical, sexual and spiritual abuse. Karina has gone through so many health struggles, Robin is a survivor of domestic abuse. Chelsa was hit by a semi truck and in a coma for 4 weeks having to relearn to speak, eat, walk, read and write
Being joined by these individuals felt so empowering and humbling. We met together and supported each other. It was beautiful. This is why I do music. To help others find healing. Music is my medicine

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Phillip Enkey, I’m a full time singer songwriter from North Carolina and I write songs for those that are hurting. Art is a really vulnerable and precious resource. Most of us are so much with really important things that we don’t notice how much we are influenced by it. Especially music. We don’t know how much we need art until we lose a loved one, or go through a break up, or experience rejection that really hurts. That’s when wet find that poem that really speaks to what we are feeling, or we hear a song that somehow puts our aching into a melody. I write songs that can be a medicine to the pains that those I love are enduring. Losing my mom when I was young and going experiencing adoption, experiencing sexual abuse, addiction, chronic pain from 3 back surgeries, learning my mom had given up a baby for adoption before she died and meeting a sister I never knew I had, joining the Army and marrying my highschool sweetheart and raising 5 children together has meant that I have relied on .usic for years to cope with the ups and downs of being a human.
My goal isn’t fame and recognition. My goal is to leave a legacy of music that can help others to heal. I run my own private music business for events of all kinds. I provide live acoustic singer songwriter music for weddings, reunions, parties, corporate events, festivals, restaurants, markets and gatherings of all kinds. This is how I provide for my family. While I do this I work with Grammy nominated producer Randy Slaugh who produces most of my music. My goal is to leave a music playlist before I die that can be a musical medicine cabinet for those I love when I’m gone.
I take a different approach to writing, producing and creating visual content. I interview individuals and families that have or are experiencing the topic I’m singing about. When I wrote “Stonger than yesterday” which I wrote for people dealing with chronic illness, I interviewed dozens of people who had cancer, lost someone they love to cancer, were a personal caregiver or were fighting cancer themselves. I used the notes from these interviews to write the song. In the music video, we showed the real people who were fighting for their lives.
I hope to bring the vulnerability and the passion thay comes from these experiences to each event that I perform. I lean om authenticity and love as the foundation stones for sharing my music with the world. I hope that anyone who hears my music or hires me for an event walk away feeling seen, loved and moved.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. This book is a gamechanger for navigating relationships and as a result will help anyone excel in business. All business really is, is finding what you have to offer that others need and helping. If you can learn to let go of all the unnecessary baggage of human relationships and communicating then you will save yourself so much time and grief. One of the 4 agreements is “Don’t assume” why other people say and do what they say and do. This causes most the problems we deal with especially as artists whose art is their business. “Don’t take things personal ” is another agreement which is crucial for artists. Our greatest asset as artists is our creativity, if we can keep that creative as uncluttered as possible we can connect with pportunities, venues, business owners, producer and other connections that can lead to success. As an artist who is in the business of selling their own art, I have to invest the most in my own healing, self development and growth in order to find success.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The mission for my music is to show the world what love can do. I love people so much. Everyone I meet I can’t help but love them. Whoever is reading this right now, I love you. I think I am this way in part bc when I was a kid who lost his mom there were so many strangers who stepped in to make sure me and my brothers were taken care of. We were “adopted” in a way by so many different people stepping in to help my dad after mom passed away. Before my mom passed, she has fostered 19 children in the foster care system. Her and my dad were talking about adoption since she had complications with her last birth. She spent her last years taking care of children who didn’t have a home. I hope to carry on her legacy with my music. I hope my songs will give people a moment where they feel seen and loved the way my mom made those kids feel seen and loved when no one else did. This is my mission. To show the world what love can do. Music is the language I am speaking to accomplish this mission.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/phillipenkeymusic?igshid=NGVhN2U2NjQ0Yg==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/phillip.enkey
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@phillipenkey3136?si=q3iBhc85GlCLQOoH
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@phillipenkey?_t=8gD0rKDag8Y&_r=1