We’ve been closely following the climb of Philip La Rosa. From sparkling singles, to blossoming ballads, it seems that there is no melody too ambitious or concept too deep that he can’t tackle.
Upon the release of his soulful track Baggage, he took some time to fill us in on the creative process behind bringing it to life in video.
Light bulb moments, crying in the studio, and an undying love for pop: Philip La Rosa divulges some candid truths behind the making of his latest single Baggage.
HAPPY: Hey Phil, how’s it going? What are you up to at the moment?
PHILIP: I’m great, buzzing with excitement! Right now? Drinking my morning coffee with my partner while the sun shines through our apartment.
HAPPY: Can you tell us a bit about where music started for you?
PHILIP: My journey in music started at 10, got interrupted at 15 when shit kind of hit the fan with life and being a teenager. Then started again when I was 19, thanks to a gentle nudge from a close friend. The last eight years have been a whole lot of writing, learning, and recording.
HAPPY: Your latest single Baggage is an incredibly timely ode to the human connection. Was there an initial spark that ignited its creation?
PHILIP: There was! I was reflecting on the relationships I have in my life and how deep and meaningful they were and why. When I realised the importance of vulnerability and being your truest self, a light bulb went off and I went down this rabbit hole of “why haven’t I been this honest with everyone?”, “why am I scared to be vulnerable?”, “why are my walls up by default all the time?” After digging through past traumas and processing what my life has been for me so far, I found myself feeling a mixture of happy and sad emotions and the next thing I always do when I need to process those feelings and my past is sitting at the piano. And so Baggage was born!
HAPPY: There are so many different genres incorporated in your music. What words would you use to describe your sound?
PHILIP: I feel my music has been evolving dramatically since my first release back in 2016. I’m influenced by so many great artists that I find myself just doing what I love and what inspires me at the time. That’s what I love about Pop, it’s a container for so many different genres and sounds, where I get the freedom to kind of do what you want. I do feel Baggage is the most “me” I’ve felt in a long time though. I feel this is the start of a new chapter. So I’ll let you describe the sound of Baggage and I’ll run with that moving forward [laughs]!
HAPPY: You’ve released a few singles over the past year… did you approach the writing/recording of these tracks differently at all to past material?
PHILP: It’s been different every time. With Baggage I went to the studio with a rough melody, the first verse, the pre, and the start of the chorus, then the Banton Brothers and I had a writing session and workshopped it, shared some tears and recorded it. All done in two days. The recording process was very different. I feel like the Banton’s never stopped recording on the day, even while I was trying to sing through the tears. It was an emotional two days but super rewarding!
HAPPY: Are these singles a taste of something bigger to come? An album perhaps?
PHILIP: A couple more singles for 2020 and hopefully that LP I’ve been working on will be finished early next year. It’s hard to say, I’m a picky creative that won’t stop tinkering with my songs.
HAPPY: What was the creative process like for the video for Baggage?
PHILIP: It was amazing! One of my favourite videos I’ve worked on. I was explaining the idea to the photographer (Angelo Di-Benedetto) who was going to shoot the cover artwork and how I wanted to tie the cover into the video, creating a super simple and symbolic video by wrapping myself up as baggage. He instantly put his hand up for the music video and after two weeks of planning, we shot both the cover and video in the same day. Angelo gave me reign to edit the video myself with his footage and SPX. So what you see today is thirty plus hours of me sitting at my desk making Baggage come to life visually.
HAPPY: What are some of your all-time favourite music videos?
PHILIP: Ooh. tricky one! Can I choose Beyoncé’s collection of visual albums? If not, I’m loving Annika Grace’s Anybody Out There and Pink’s What About Us.
HAPPY: When venues open back up, where would you ideally like to perform your new music?
PHILIP: I haven’t even had time to think about this, everything feels so up in the air, but I’ll get back to you once I know.
HAPPY: Cheers for the chat!
PHILIP: No thank you! It’s always a pleasure!
Dive on into Philip La Rosa’s huge new video for Baggage:
