About Phil
Born in Fradley, England, Phil bounced across the Atlantic living in Montreal, Canada, then Birmingham, England, then landing in California. He attended San Diego State University studying Education for Elementary School. After graduating, he enjoyed a stint in Europe working as a band tour manager for The God Machine, which brought about memorable runs with bands such as Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds and The Cramps.
Returning to San Diego, he started his own band while finalizing his credentials to be an elementary school teacher. After a few years as a teacher, he was recruited to teach at the Museum School, a fledgling charter school originally within the walls of the San Diego Children's Museum, eventually becoming the school's Director and shepherding it through independence from the museum and for the next 23 years. He was named as the Arts Educator of the Year by the New Children's Museum in 2009.
Phil has been involved in a number of bands including Maquiladora, Little White Teeth and his current band, The Color Forty Nine, having toured in Europe, the US, Mexico and Japan. The Color Forty Nine collaborated with world famous, Grammy winning singer Rubén Albarrán from Café Tacvba, and Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery Award winner, Hugo Crosthwaite to produce a song and video, What Would I Know?/Yo qué sé?
His bands have also collaborated with documentary film makers to create sound scores and some of which were played live in screenings.
Phil has performed with various theater companies including the now defunct avant garden San Diego Company, Sledgehammer Theater, and the San Diego Repertory Theater. He has also acted in a variety of independent films and shorts.
As an avid traveler and photographer, Phil enjoys capturing details that can be easily missed.
Almost as an accident, he began capturing these details in long form, through still frame videos that allow the viewer to pause and stay with the moment. An ideal response to the rapid consumption of information and images on social media sites, these prolonged photographs, or long photos, often capture incidental moments that pass through the frame, such as an off screen rock thrown into a lake, snowflakes rising and falling in a vortex, or a swimmer held in frame by a river's current.
With the encouragement of trusted friends, he first presented a piece at the Museum School Art Auction in 2023, and entered a piece in the Last Group Show at Bread & Salt in 2023.
He was then extremely honored to be invited by Michael James Armstrong to have his first solo show at Ice Gallery in San Diego in February of 2024.
He is equally honored to have a solo show at Bread & Salt on March 8th, 2025.
Filmography:
- The Origin of Man (2000) - Actor
- Valley of the Dog Songs - (2004) - Protagonist & Composer
- Tijuaneados Anónimos (2009) Composer
- Tierra Brillante (2011) Composer
- A Forest (2016) - Actor
- Artesanos (2016) - Composer
- A Thousand Pines (2023) Composer
- Lily (2024) - Actor
- Hostiles (2024) - Actor
Selected Recordings
- The Lost Works of Eunice Phelps - Maquiladora
- Little White Teeth - Little White Teeth
- The Color Forty Nine - The Color Forty Nine
- String ladders - The Color Forty Nine
- Eternally Grateful - The Color Forty Nine
- A Whisper - The Color Forty Nine
Moved by Music - Podcast KPBS (2021)