Philip H Bleek

ID 0:02

This is a Vision Australia Radio podcast.

Kate Cooper 0:04

On Vision Australia radio, welcome to our conversations on the work and experiences of merging writers. I'm Kate Cooper, and our guest on today's program is Philip H Bleek, songwriter, singer, spoken word, poet and photographer. Philip has performed his original songs at venues in Australia, Europe, the United States and Canada, and participates in the ellipsis poetry events at Arthur art bar in Adelaide. Philip's songs can be heard online through SoundCloud and one page link, and we'll find out more during our conversation about where our listeners can hear his works. 

Welcome to the program, Philip. You've been writing songs since you were 14 years old. Would you begin by telling us about what inspired you to become a songwriter-singer?

Philip H Bleek 1:10

Thank you, Kate. It's been very nice to be here. Thank you for inviting me. I think it all started innocent enough. I think it was just some homework that turned out to be a bit more fun than some other homework. I think it was just some writing tasks that I took on board, and then I think it had some freedom for me to write whatever I want, which which I quite enjoyed, and maybe didn't know that, or didn't realize to that extent, how much freedom it can provide me and in privacy and just just room to express my own opinions and thoughts, and really, what turned out to be really limitless amount that I can really go anywhere I want. But, yeah, I think it's just started at school.

Kate Cooper 2:03

And when you write songs, Philip, do you start with a melody and let the lyrics flow from that? Or do the words tend to come first? Or do you come up with a concept and then work simultaneously on the words and lyrics?

Philip H Bleek 2:16

Well, I'm quite set in my ways. It's actually to the question of lyrics or music. For me, it's always lyrics and always like 99.9. I think I only have a couple of songs that started from music, but I usually just write. I don't question. One of the things that I've learned for the years is that when a fault arrives, I would just write it down. I don't I don't plan too far ahead. All I've learned is when it does come, you just write it down. So I make sure I have something to write on piece of paper. Usually I have notebooks or notepads right on me, because I got very long time ago, I got quite upset I didn't have one around. 

So I've since then learned to always have something and you just write. I don't question that first original part. I find it's quite magical, and I don't question it, or don't really think of what's going to happen later. You just kind of write and let it be, even though it might change, or there might be some mistakes. I might go all just go nowhere.

Kate Cooper 3:25

But when it the inspiration arrives, you just kind of ride the wave and deal with the results later, and you play a resonator guitar, and your bio on one page link tells us that you got into alternate tunings to expand your musical repertoire. Would you explain to us, first of all, the difference between an acoustic and a resonator guitar?

Philip H Bleek 3:50

Okay, so an acoustic guitar is made out of wood, and there is a sound chamber underneath the strings that produces the sound. So when you play the strings, the noise, the sound it produces, kind of vibrates through the sound chamber and comes back out. That's what gives it the volume. With a resonator, it's quite different, even though some resonators can be made out of wood, a lot of them made out of steel. There is a metal cone instead of the sound chamber. There is no what looks like a hole on the guitar. There is not... underneath the strings, there's usually a chamber looks like a looks like a bowl of, if you imagine a bowl of cereal upside down without, obviously, without anything in it. It sits in there. And the bridge of the guitar, which is what the strings are on, sits right there. 

And that actually produces the sound. It makes it a little louder. Pre-electricity invention, as a 1920 invention to make guitars louder, and their body used to be made of metal, although now they do with all sorts of other materials, but they're a lot heavier and they're louder.

Kate Cooper 5:14

So Philip, Where were you when you first fell in love with the sound of a resonator guitar? And what was it that most appealed to you?

Philip H Bleek 5:23

Well, it's quite different sound than an acoustic guitar or an electric guitar, and I was kind of aware of them through old blues musicians, so I knew what a resonator guitar is. Although the first time I did see it, it was quite a sight. There was a fellow at the Gov. Actually, we used to have an open mic at the Gov many years ago, and there was a guy who brought one because they're incredibly heavy. Actually, he let me have a strum on it. People don't realise how heavy a tricon resonator guitar is. It's just you can play slide, and it's just a different tone and a different approach to things. 

And you asked about tuning. So, so I won't go into complete details, but there's a there's a thing about it's called Western harmony, and it's, it's been used for about 300 years that these rules that we agreed on, that if you tune a certain way, you can play certain chords on the guitar. It's called standard tuning. Obviously, there's a lot more to it than that, but with a resonator, you can change the tuning. I mean, you can change it on any guitar, but with a resonator to play slide, you can use alternate tunings, and it just gives you more freedom, because everything you've learned for many years on a standard tuning, it all just goes out the window because all the strings are tuned to something else. 

So it just gives it a bit more colour and more variation, and it's almost like a new world that opens up to most people find themselves in a bit of a I won't call it a rut, but they're stuck in their own ways. They learn a certain way, and they kind of stay there, but then you can completely change that. You can also just change your instrument. That's another advice people have when, when you get sick of, maybe not sick of, but you get kind of stuck in your old ways. You can just pick up a completely different instrument, because even though it is still a guitar, it's very different. 

Makes me think now that I should have brought one along. I didn't realize we were gonna have so many questions about this. I didn't bring one. I... maybe next time.

Kate Cooper 7:41

Thank you, yes, maybe next time. Philip, at this point, would you perform one of your songs for us?

Philip H Bleek 7:47  [plays and sings]

You
we won't believe,
even if I tell you
how the truth
is so much more even possible
and then fiction,
while what really happened
is this stream
that finds the river
and the angles Multiply. 

I want you to make it in your Mind.
A deep symbol,
Oh, Oh,
and the bird who clipped our wings
is very hungry for new things,
just to cure
Through the curiosity
and the angles never found.

What is, buries
underneath wilder shovel
gathers dust
Decent Jesus.

Kate Cooper 11:16

Thank you so much, Philip, and the song that you've performed today is from your upcoming album. You have seven albums of original material and two book collections of lyrics. How and where do you get your albums produced and your lyric collections published?

Philip H Bleek 11:36

Well, I'm a independent artist, so I do a lot of things myself. I do get some help from my friends. Just to step back a little, I work slightly backwards. So when I write something, I usually will just let put it down, and not much will happen with it immediately. I think sometimes you can get quite excited about brand new material that might not be the same a bit later. So I will, I like to put things down and then checking it a bit later, which makes me always late. I'm always behind on my work going back in some form of chronological order. 

To be honest, I'm quite behind.

But the album takes me quite a lot of time to put things in order, or arrange things, or the songs that I think that fit together, I would record them, either by myself or with some friends. A lot of times, I will set up just at home, just to have the freedom to record again, again, I have recorded in a studio, and it's it kind of puts you on a spot to kind of produce, and it's not necessarily your best take maybe, but you're paying by the hour, and you kind of have to get it and get out and do your best and again, which maybe at the time, is fantastic, but then you kind of play back a month or two later and be like, Oh, well, I could have done this better, or I could have sung this better. 

So I tend to do things at home, and then I'll we'll mix it somewhere, and sometimes I produce physical CDs, and sometimes it just goes online, which is just easier. So a lot of my stuff's on band camp because it's free. You don't have to be subscribed to band camp. It's free to just stream, and you could sell things there as well. I can say that I make a whole lot of money from it, but that's an entirely different conversation.

If you Google my name, you should find something without two going too far. Don't forget the H in there. But yes, if you Google Philip page bleak, you should be able to find something to stream or listen to. And bleak is B, L, E, E, k, that is correct. Yes. Double, E, K.

Kate Cooper 14:24

On Vision Australia Radio, you're listening to our conversation program, Emerging Writers. Our guest today is Philip H Bleek - songwriter, singer, spoken word, poet and photographer. Philip at the November 2024, edition of the Ellipsis Poetry event, you performed a poem and also a song lyric. Would you tell us about how you decide whether a poem will remain a poem or also become a song lyric?

Philip H Bleek 14:55

Excellent question. Well, when I do go to spoken word night, I usually bring something very new. And I read when I go to those performances, I know some argue that it's a place to recite and perform. I don't do that. Hence, I'm don't participate any competitions. I.. we won't go into that. I have an issue with judging creative work by people who I do not recognise as my judges, so I just don't go to those things. Think poetry is very much a private and free and you can't really tell someone that he's right or wrong. It's really a matter of opinion.

So when I go to these things, I usually read something that's very new, compared to when I sing songs, it's songs that I've learned and I practiced and I rehearsed, and I've arranged, and I went through them quite a lot of times. So so not to do that yet again, I my concepts, which I will do up to 30 songs. I would like to read, something brand new from a page, something fresh, something that I would test if it stands on its own two legs. And that's usually how I go. I just, I'll just take some that's new out of something that's I've written quite late. 

So if, for example, the November stuff, the things I wrote there were only a few weeks old, one of them was a song that I can actually play and sing, and that's actually usually with most of my stuff. I can read it, I can play it with myself and an instrument, and sometimes it becomes a more advanced track when I collaborate with other people.

Kate Cooper 16:57

Thank you, Philip, would you perform another of your songs for us?

Philip H Bleek 17:01

Now I'll read you one from any script that I brought over. This one actually is a song too, from a previous album, but I will just read it as lyrics. It's called Deadly Flower.

Welcome to my deathbed. I will die within the hour. You can keep me company as I cross through the sacred tower and the gates of redemption, the hymn of a song I cannot survive without doing wrong. In the balance, I keep the secret of life, how to start another day with a clean cut of knife. My kingdoms in the air to roam. You are welcome come around to our fire. No, we don't see you that seldom, each time you come around, you leave upon us a mark you lead us in and leave us outside in the dark, the glories in the days, in the process of time, the road travel, that's the prize, and the crime walking on heads try to reach for The Sky does not worth the goal, no matter how high and my death will occur swiftly to carry on. I'll reborn in this struggle of living. I live like a faun.

Kate Cooper 18:37

Your lyrics have a very powerful rhythm to them. When you are drafting, how often do you read aloud to yourself to nail that rhythm?

Philip H Bleek 18:48

Well, it actually goes back to something we didn't cover before. So when I write out of out of love for music, the initial goal, which is not a plan for the individual piece, but overall, the umbrella is always to make songs. As I told you, I'm not big on the word poetry, and I don't really consider myself necessarily a poet. Poetry is is almost a private expression. Let's put it politely. But when I write, the aim is always to end up having a song, which just sometimes doesn't happen. That's the plan, but it doesn't always work out. So you kind of keep trying. And the way songs work for at least with my experience, for every good song, there's hundreds of mediocre songs and there's 1000s of bad songs that you'll never hear and you never heard before. 

It's actually, I find it funny. Sometimes they say, oh, one hit wonder, because that whatever, whoever that person is, spend a lifetime playing. Music and writing songs and performing. They may be known for one song because one song was decided that it's a hit for reasons that have nothing to do with the artist. But as you would write, you would write many songs, or you would write you know, you learn a lot of material that goes usually nowhere or gets edited out or ends up on the, as they say, editor's floor, but I always have, so yes, there is a rhythm to my work, because my plan that not always works out, is always to end up with a song out of love and respect for music. 

Because I think an individual has a certain taste that's very... it's a private matter, but it's also a matter of exposure, because you see, you might have heard something 1020, years ago that got stuck with you because It influenced or had a part in your life. And there's so many things that we don't know. There's so many songs or so many same as books or writers or, you know, we never even heard of them. So it kind of just gets stuck with it and influences not only your life, but your tastes, or your even your thoughts. And some people don't like lyrics. For example, I stick to lyrics. 

Your next question is about my favorite musicians are, a lot of them. It's very much about the lyrical content. Some people need, you know, a good drum beat and you know, they want a boogie. They don't. They don't really care about what the lyrics say. You know, a lot of a lot of good bands really depend on a good drama. If you actually go down to the nitty gritty of music, of kind of rock and roll, it really depends on how good of your drama is. The quality or the poetics of your lyrics is really down the line. So it's kind of up to, up to the individual. 

I always, always, like a good story, I suppose, yeah, we said that we would talk about musicians who've inspired you. Are there particular ones who stand out? Are they good songwriters? Well, good in my opinion, I suppose, as we just discussed. So I like people like Charlie Parr, who plays a resonating guitar and tells kind of stories. I like Jason Molina, who I just got a record in the mail. I got one of his old records. I also have one thing that you didn't cover, is I also collect records. I'm also a record collector. 

In my long bio of things that I am and things that I am not, I have records, and it covers pretty much the last 100 years, pretty much since they started making vinyl available to the public, which was about, I think, 1920 so it's pretty much 100 years. And I tried to explore a lot of pockets of genre, but I always seem to come back to lyrical content and how people used that opportunity to say what they want. For example, in the in the 20s, in the blues era, they couldn't say a lot of things directly, as they did. And you will be surprised how many reference to food there are in the 1920s and it always goes quite dirty, if you think about it now. But they couldn't say certain things. 

But you know, if you, you know, give me your biscuit and squeeze my lemon, and, you know, it all had other connotations that people kind of used. And I like that, you know? And then there's a certain way in country I like country music, there's a certain like, it's happy music with with sad, sad story telling, really, but, but the music is actually quite uplifting. So there's usually a balance to think. So I like to explore different little pockets of time and genres, but for me, it always goes back to lyrical content.

Kate Cooper 24:13

And Philip, we said earlier, you've been writing songs since you were 14. When did you first start singing in public?

Philip H Bleek 24:22

Well, actually, I just had earlier anniversary. It's been 20 years. So 20 years ago, in November 2004 I bit the bullet and I went to an open mic in Broome. That was just we were there traveling, and there was a sign on the just on the street. There was, like a little fly on the street say, you know, come down to the open mic. And it was a Wednesday, and I was like, well, we don't we're not doing anything. So I went down there and I butchered about six songs, and here I am, 20 years later, brilliant.

Kate Cooper 24:56

I have another question. I've been asking guests on this program. Do you have a favorite place where you like to write your songs, your lyrics. Does it vary? It does vary?

Philip H Bleek 25:07

I used to think when I was much younger, I used to think that inspiration, creativity requires some kind of late night hour. Maybe I'm not sure how to say this, but yeah, when I had time, or more time than I have now, then, then, yeah, you'll you also find yourself doing other things. That's another known. You find yourself doing other things, and then it kind of comes to you. But then lately, I realized that you can write whenever you know, whenever it comes to you. So if I get a line or a verse, it could be anywhere, you know, I've... written the middle of the night, I've written first thing in the morning. I've been told not to ride in the car when I drive, because that's not safe. 

But you know, if, if a line comes to you and you need to write it down, and you don't have the biggest memory like I do, because if I don't write it down very quickly, I might just forget that, and that will kind of upset me a little bit. So creativity comes. You can use it, you know, you Nick Cave goes to work at, you know, eight and five or whatever, and he sits by a desk. You can control that. You can tell yourself when maybe now's the time, or now is the only time I have, or, you know, you don't need to wait to two in the morning. And to be creative, it depends. It you need to want to do it. 

That whole cliched image of a writer sitting by by a typewriter and staring at the page that never happened to me. I've never, you know, I've never crumbled empty pages and threw them to the bin as a basketball shot. That seems like a Hollywood cliched if you if you are a writer, and you write or exactly as you are, if you are singer, you would sing. And if you play an instrument, you will play that instrument. So if you do these things, you want to do them as much as you can by choice, whenever the time arises or whenever time you have.

Kate Cooper 27:10

Thank you so much, Philip.

Philip H Bleek 27:12

Thank you very much for having me. It's been a pleasure.

Kate Cooper 27:16

Our guest on emerging writers today was Philip H Bleek - songwriter, singer, spoken word poet and photographer, and we'll hear more of Philip's creative work in our selected extras program here on Emerging Writers next week, which will also feature readings and comments by Pam Macon And Michael Randall. 

This program is produced in our Adelaide studios, and can be heard at the same time each week here on Vision Australia radio, VA radio, on digital, online at varadio.org and also on Vision Australia radio podcasts, where you can catch up on earlier episodes. Oh, thanks for listening to this Vision Australia radio podcast. Don't forget to subscribe on your preferred podcast platform. Visit VA radio.org for more.

ID 28:21

Vision Australia, radio blindness, low vision, opportunity.