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Middle of the Afternoon - Kat Man Du 8/14/08

Phil Murphy was born and raised in Philadelphia, PA. Since his early years, he has always loved to sing and write original songs. Songwriting is one of Phil’s favorite aspects of music. In the earliest stages of his songwriting, he decided that he wanted to produce catchy hook driven rock/pop music; music that everyone could enjoy no matter what genre they prefer. With influences such as The Beatles, Lifehouse, and Howie Day, Phil brings a unique sound to his original compositions.

In the summer of 1999, Phil formed his first band Full Service with guitarist Joe Woods and vocalist Jim Wible (now of Doyle’s Law). Although Wible’s stint in the group was short lived, Woods’s brother Kyle joined on bass and Frank DiElsi on drums. In the band he was the lead vocalist and a key lyrical songwriter. Having no professional vocal training prior to this point, the band started small and slow but soon began to grow in popularity. As the response grew larger, Phil set a few goals for himself: he wanted to learn to play the guitar and start studying vocal music. By the summer of 2001, both of his goals were achieved and he started to grow as a songwriter.

In late 2002, Phil and Frank decided to leave Full Service and start a new band. In the new band he would become the lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and main songwriter. The band’s name was Outset, formed alongside Brett Talley, the producer of both Full Service albums made during their run together. Thus began the endeavor that would occupy his musical existence for the next six years. In addition to Talley’s talent for his instrument (guitar) and production knowledge, he and Murphy had a unique songwriting chemistry and were able to craft some of Outset’s finest work together. Susan Steen, a highly capable musician with no prior experience playing bass guitar, joined shortly after and was a natural fit. Frank would eventually be replaced by Josh Dannin (now of the Crash Motive).

Playing under Outset, Murphy and the group released two albums 2006’s Define a New Beginning and 2007’s Dreaming Out Loud. The band had the pleasure of opening for national acts like The Rembrandts ("Friends" TV show theme), Sister Hazel, and The Spin Doctors. Outset’s single, “Yesterday Night” was given airplay on 93.3 WMMR and 93.7 WSTW. In 2007 the band was voted Best Band of 2006, Album of the Year 2006 (Define and New Beginning), Song of the Year 2006 for “Yesterday Night” and Phil was given the Best Frontman award from WSTW’s local music show Hometown Heroes hosted by Mark Rogers.

In February of 2008, the band went its separate ways, which left Phil wondering how to proceed musically. For a few months he prolonged Outset and played songs off of their previous releases with new members, but soon realized that the best foot forward was to become a solo act. Which brings us to the present, armed with twelve his best songs to date, Phil plans to begin recording his first solo album, Love and Loss in the fall of 2008.