he Phil Harrington Band 'The Laundry Room' (Burnt Offering)
Irish heat, Californian cool.
Maturity, intelligence, loss, disaffection....
An emotional spin-cycle, tumble of pain and eventual release....hope...some kind of serenity...somewhere new to go.
From such a heart comes 'The Laundry Room', the new album from LA based Phil Harrington Band...following twelve years after the release of his heartfelt solo album, VOCE.
The Laundry Room is, at first listen, the classic break-up album. Intensely personal lyrics of love and loss, pain and distance...the surreal state of post relationship, all woven into an infectious musicality...a warm, accessible funk, with echoes of Ireland and Jamaica, the deep south and the relaxed charm that can only be LA.
Says Phil: "It was born from the devastation I felt following the collapse of my second marriage. I knew, from previous experience, that I simply had to process this stuff.....it had to come out through the music...the truly cathartic process. This had happened with my first album but this time around it was even more intense."
Despite this, the songs retain a universal appeal...any damaged heart will find some comfort among this new collection of songs. Any foot, waiting to tap.
A few of the album's highlights:
'If I Ask'
Says Phil: "That is actually a song about somebody who has died...or who is dying inside. I don't know where that came from as it started life as a heartbreak song and, as the band started to work on it, it moved to a curiously fictional place."
The process of writing and recording can do that. Take a basic feeling to a different place. Again, a cathartic move.
Another song.
'Choices'
Phil "This is a song about a big release from a state of intense emotional pain. It's a state you are in when you don't know you are making a choice, When you enter a serious relationship you are buying a ticket for a rollercoaster...so don't be surprised if it fucks up! You are the author of your situation. You made the choice...nobody else."
Five years in the making, the album saw Phil hook up with Phil's long term friend and producer ex-Boomtown Rat bassist and songwriter, Pete Briquette.
In short...a Californian, Irish odyssey....through the pain to reach a positive conclusion.
Phil Harrington Band. Soul music for the heavy heart! Completed with Armin Schuech, Andreas Reiff and Andreas Zachrau who make up the band.
Phil Harrington (some background notes),
Born in Cork, Ireland and brought up on the edge of Dublin, Phil Harrington's youth emerged through a swirl of music; his father singing 'rebel songs' of the day, often focusing on Irish folklore. His mother, by contrast, classically trained, operatic and dramatic.
Somewhere between the two came Phil's constant muse. By the age of eight he was sitting earnestly behind the house piano, copying the songs of the day....copying the vocals from the radio. Too young to use this musicality to connect with his own feelings, he drifted from his talent.
By the time of adulthood, Phil was schooled in medicine although his rising artistic leanings guided him towards other ventures - where he befriended Bob Geldof, before switching to 'alternative medicine' and in particular music therapy, which seemed to make more sense.
However it was at the age of 31, during a Dublin based workshop on personal transformation that Phil rediscovered his true calling. He now admits to being 'in a mess', with pain, stress, loss of love and a huge swirl of emotion welling up from within.
He knew, from that day, he had to let that pain out.
He knew he had to sing. Play music. Write. Perform
The simplicity of that answer astonished him and he began writing his debut (solo) album, VOCE, a disparate blend of contemporary style....an unlikely meeting place where ambient dance, folk, acid jazz and celtic influences would settle. The ambience gently soothed by a production team, including Pete Briquette.
It was a beginning.
As all good albums should be.
Performance will come next, with live dates planned .....as well as Phil's central role in the musicians networking website, www.youbloom.com
Somehow it all ties in. The Laundry Room and Voce (Burnt Offering) are available from YouBloom at www.youbloom.com/web/philharringtonband and from iTunes, Amazon.com, etc.
