My Name is Peaches Music Foundation is proud to present Phillip-Michael Scales as our featured artist at our next Midnight Vibes event. This Detroit Metro native is a singer-songwriter with a sound that should be heard by the masses. He has always had music around him growing up and he just loved performing and singing. Being in high school bands, he found, really resonated with people, so he stuck with it. He was even in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat with Donny Osmond at age 9. This sparked the desire to start making his own music.
Phillip calls his music “Dive Bar Soul” with a blend of indie rock storytelling and the passion of the blues. His influences include an array of artists with some not even being musicians. He credits great artists such as The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Bill Withers, Chris Rock, and Donald Glover as being the greatest influence on his career. Specifically, he thinks Bill Withers was great in the way that he could just “cut to the heart of the matter” and his music was simple and singable, but also sophisticated. There was also a rock band called The Weakerthans that he considered their lyrics as “poetic” and “incredible.” Phillip also admires John Mayer’s ability to take a small feeling we all have and just expound upon it with just enough surprise that it is not predictable. Even a single song can evoke some emotion. He claims the song by Paulo Nutini called “Through the Echoes” just “rocked” him.
As a singer-songwriter, Scales doesn’t really keep up with the trends as he really doesn’t write for other people, it is more of what inspires him. He claims to have a bit of a pulse on what is going on in his indie, bluesy, AAA radio corner of the industry, but there is a lot that he really doesn’t know about in “the industry” as a whole. His song ideas come from all different places. He keeps a daily journal which keeps him in touch with what he is feeling each day. He also exposes himself to great art on purpose just to stay open to ideas. Not really big on collaborations, Scales writes the majority of his work alone. On the other hand, he does have a hit song, “Find a Way” featured on talk show Ellen that he co-wrote with Tony Esterly.
Phillip-Michael Scales is a force to be reckoned with. Period. He stands out mainly because of his range of experience he credits to growing up doing and watching a lot of musical theatre and having a love of writing and reading novels in high school. Also, his parents were fans of Motown, so they always had it playing around the house. Ultimately, he maintains his curiosity, which may keep him unique in the songwriter realm.
Every time Phillip writes a song, it is new. But he goes through phases of writing every day for 2 weeks and churning out 3 songs he really likes, then phases of just handling business matters. It all comes with the job. The key is that he does not have a set writing process. Depending on where he is at the time, sometimes learning a new riff or progression on the guitar will inspire him to write. Also, reading a line in a book may spark some creativity. In the end, he believes that all artists are looking for something that resonates and the same can be said about his audience. He will definitely reach his ultimate goal of reaching as many people as possible with his songs and performances. If he stays on this track, he will surely Find a Way.
Phillip-Michael Scales will be the featured artist at Midnight Vibes February 10, 2023 at midnight.
Tickets available at https://midnightvibes.eventbrite.com
