Philth

Hey guys. Just wanna say thanks for leaving the comments on my tracks. I recorded all of those back in '89 or '90. I can't really recall. Those songs were written by myself and friends whom I hand-picked to help with lyrics and other instruments. They're heavily influenced by 80's thrash metal bands such as Exodus, Testament, Slayer, Metallica, Dream Theater, Megadeth etc...

I've been playing guitar since January of 1985. That's the year my parents got me my first acoustic guitar. After that, all I wanted to do was learn all the songs that my older brother's friends were playing in their "garage band" Saturday jam-sessions; I so wanted to be part of those jam-sessions. Well unfortunately, I never got a chance.

The guys my brother hung out with were absolute assholes! They were roughly 3 years and older than me and were into drugs and booze. All I wanted to do was learn to play guitar. Turns out, I used to practice everyday, all day learning from Guitar Magazines and some friends who knew a few chords here and there. As time went on, I was good enough to play along with a band--- well, turns out that I eventually became a better musician than my brother's dip-shit friends, and that definitely didn’t make things easier for me. Their jealousy pushed me away and I never got the chance to play in any of their jam-sessions. The only thing I had was the ear and ability to pick up songs easily from cassettes of my favorite bands.

I did that for a long time until I got to high school where I met some cool people. No one knew I played guitar since I was always the quiet one. I finally hooked-up with some guys from school and we had the shittiest band ever! We played a bunch of Metallica, Slayer, D.R.I., Anthrax, Suicidal Tendencies, S.O.D., Motorhead and all kinds of other fast and heavy songs.

After a year of farting around with those guys, the “band” seemed to have deteriorated. I sat around for another couple of years and decided to hook up with some cats I knew from promoting. Oh, back then I was an underground band promoter/engineer at that time. I don’t recall how I got involved in promoting OR engineering, however, I became a well-known face in the underground Thrash/Grind scene in Los Angeles. The shows I was responsible for promoting--- I was also the sound engineer for said events.

The guys I hooked-up with who helped me, I eventually became good friends with and decided to write/record a few songs just for shits ‘n giggles. One weekend, the guys took our demo down to Mexico to a radio show that featured local heavy metal acts; it turns out, that our music got an incredible response during playtime. During the interview, there was a crowd of staff-members filling the hallways because the DJ asked vocalist Sal Garcia to sing along to the demo. He did and he made one helluva commotion. Good times!

Well, we never got a chance to play live or anything: I think that would have been very cool. I was just too involved in my production company at the time that I didn’t really want to make time for forming a band or even rehearsals for that matter. In hindsight that was very selfish of me.

After that era, in 1993, I became a husband and father. I didn’t do anything afterwards until 2005. That’s the year I joined Butcher. I’ve always kept an acoustic guitar at home and strummed it every once in a while, but I never wrote anything. I just focused on keeping my fingers in shape. Of course in the 80’s, I was always trying to keep up with the “shredder” guitar players of the time; Blackmore, Schenker, Malmsteen, Iommi, Maiden, Hammet, Di Meola, Satriani... I used to harmonize solos from these guys!

Now, here I am in 2007 with a 4-song EP under my belt from a band that’s tied to one of the biggest bands to come out of the 90’s (and just-so-happened to have been my favorite since ’95 or so)---  still with a 9 to 5 day job! Sure, I enjoy my job; however, I’m really starting to dig writing music for Butcher’s upcoming album.

I’m a simple, single dad that lives in a one-bedroom apartment here in Los Angeles that just loves to play the guitar. I’ve never had visions of being a “rock star” or anything like that. However, now that I’m in a very cool band which I dig very much... I think I may have to change all that!

Cheers guys!
~Phil

Okay, this song is considered a "filler" track being that it was something I wrote in the studio while recording the other "Jacob's Ladder" tracks. Ugh! Can you hear all my mistakes on the guitar? I sure can! This song amazingly- has NO solos!!!

I recorded this in '95 with a Zoom Rhythmtrack RT-123 for drums and bass; a Korg TONEWORKS AX1500G for guitar into an Akai DPS12.

Can someone please drop some vocals into this track!!!
They don't even have to be the *original* lyrics... be creative!!!

Here's an instrumental piece I recorded with a friend of mine- this band was called "Vendetta" and I wrote and recorded all the guitar parts in one sitting! Hehe!

Old song from '89 or so from my studio project band!
Good times with good friends!

Old song from '89 or so from my studio project band!
Good times with good friends!