Today we’d like to introduce you to Philip Diox.
Philip, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My name is Philip Diox; I am a creative. I just turned 20 years old. I was born in San Diego, California, though, as a child, I moved to and was raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. I have always been independent; As you may be aware, Ohio is a very team sport-oriented area. When my peers were focused on football practice and boy scouts, my attention was directed at landing a kickflip or building a jump for my bike. Of course, that was a bit tough as I constantly felt left out of activities, friend groups, etc… due to my lack of legitimate interest in extracurricular participation, though it was a fair trade-off for my self-satisfaction. I would spend the summers with my father in California (where he stayed after I and my mother moved to Cincinnati). This was a routine for me after our relocation. In California, I was Riding mountain bike trails, surfing, and skateboarding, basically just doing all the things that couldn’t be done easily or without getting strange looks in Ohio (I can elaborate further if necessary)… Up until the summer before my freshman year of high school, I was certain I was going to make a career in action sports. As I grew older and became more independent as an individual. I found it hard to transition back into the world of tailgates and team sports after spending the summer in the wild west… I began to become bitter about my residency in Ohio, and I realized that just about every industry I would be interested in pursuing was in California. I was incredibly fortunate to spend any time there, but when I would return, it felt as if I was just out of reach of all I could ever want… now that I am older… GOODNESS, GRACIOUS AM I GLAD I WAS RAISED IN THE MIDWEST!! All of the California things I had been interested in were fun… though I’ve come to believe it was the starvation of the summer fun/California high which led me to my true loves; Art & Music. I believe there is a reason why so many creative people come from the Midwest, that being, you kind of just have to come up with your own things to do if you aren’t interested in the few established options… I had always been told of my creative inclinations, but as a child, what people would say I was, wasn’t really that important to me… regardless of my awareness to it, my life motto in everything has always been “I just do shit”… people ask, “how did you do that?” or “why did you do that? “ or “How did you come up with that” and I always say “idk man, I just do shit.” As a freshman in Highschool, I heard the wailing sounds of Jimi Hendrix’s guitar for the first time. I had always been interested in music… I used to sing along with the wiggles; my first memory was of bringing a Johnny Cash Cd to my mother intrigued by what the shiny disk was. There are also plenty of home videos of me running around with a tiny guitar as a toddler… Though it wasn’t until hearing these incredible electrified solos that I decided to take it upon myself to pick up the guitar. Throughout that whole year, there were very few voluntary times that I wasn’t hunched over a Guitar trying to figure out a cool riff. In the words of the rapper Lil Uzi Vert “All my Friends are dead,” my best buddies were the members of the 27 club… I began exploring the discography of Hendrix, The Doors, and all of the psychedelic rockers I could find… I taught myself as many guitar licks as I could, my favorite being Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile (not to be confused with voodoo child slight return). As I grew older and had satisfied my hunger for guitar skills, Jim Morrison and Bob Dylan began enticing me with their poetic riddles. I had always listened to words, but it wasn’t until the first time I heard Bob Dylans Highway 61 that I was halted in my tracks by the power of language. I put down the guitar for the first time and began focusing on my linguistic skills. Not necessarily with the purpose of songwriting, more so just wanting to weave vague, eerie, emotion-evoking narratives like my heroes before me. For a Highschool kid, there wasn’t much I could do with it other than have a teacher try to institutionalize my work, but little did I know, I was gaining a useful skill for my future pursuits… Fast forward to my Highschool graduation(2021). I had definitely set my sights on a creative career. I could clearly see the end goal, though how I would get there was a complete mystery. Although I still am far from my ultimate goals today, I do have a slightly clearer idea… Beginning the fall after my graduation, I introduced myself to a local recording studio and began presenting the last few years of my writings with the intention of recording an album. After spending the summer working and saving up for the recording process, I was set on ensuring my work would be in the proper hands when It came to production. Unfortunately for us broke young people, professional recording is not cheap! What I wanted to execute was way far out of my budget… I decided to continue working to save up and elaborate further on my songs. This proved to be incredibly beneficial. While previously I had only briefly dabbled in songwriting (the “songs” I presented to the studio were poems that just happened to have a rhythmic potential), I began revising and writing with the intention of the poems being converted into songs. My guitar skills had certainly taken a hit… Though all the hard work in early adolescence allowed me just enough musical knowledge to pair some chords with my words… By February 2022, the songs were ready to record, and my budget was just enough to record the album! February 2nd, tracking of my debut album, “The Double Dealing Diox,” began. With the help of some very talented musician friends (shout out to drummer Donnie Vossler, bassist Cole Sellers, and the recording engineer/owner of ADI Studios in Franklin Ohio, Steve Falaeros), by mid-March, all 9 songs were recorded. Contrary to what I thought, that was the easy part… I would come to learn that post-production was just as important, if not more important, than recording. Between March and September 2022, I began searching for the proper post-production engineer. Although in modern times, self-production is easier than ever… I was weary of taking on my first project alone given my lack of experience, and like I previously stated, I wanted my debut project to be properly executed. I’ll revisit this shortly… Now although I didn’t have full confidence in my production skills, that didn’t keep me from playing around with GarageBand… while searching for the right engineer to take on finishing my studio album, my antsiness to release music was eating me alive. I created a challenge for myself. Between August 2nd and September 2nd, 2022, I wanted to prove to myself that I could write, record, produce, and market a body of work. I ended up doing that, and it definitely was worth it… (I did cheat a bit because it was mastered by a really cool audio engineer ((who let me crash at his apartment when I didn’t have a place to stay )) named Keefer Barnum, he is a really cool guy). This project was appropriately titled “This Is Not The Album”; why? because it’s not the album, it’s my debut EP! I ended up going all out for this EP… I created music videos for every song, printed t-shirts, and, most importantly POSTERS. The “HAVE YOU SEEN HIM” poster was a bit of a landmark moment for me and my becoming a “Clifton celebrity,” as I’ve been called… I basically just littered these posters (attached with photos) around the University of Cincinnati area, and the people just loved them! Definitely was a sign (no pun intended) that I should keep going with my music, as well as my wild marketing ideas… Though I do feel a bit guilty… My Southern California influence crept its way into my art; I confess to you, Voyage Ohio, that I stole the “HAVE YOU SEEN HIM” poster idea from the 1987 Bones Brigade Skateboard film “The Search For Animal Chin.” But then again, all art is really just theft, disguise, and re-implementation… As the Good Book says, “ain’t nuthin new under the sun”… Now, back to THE ALBUM… It took about a year for me to find the correct mixing engineer… Thanks to my fellow local artists and good friends Mark Joshua and Dravin Downey (both incredible artists), I was introduced to a fantastic audio engineer by the name of Micheal Smith. Since September 2022, Micheal and I have been working tirelessly at completing this Album. FINALLY, just about 1 month ago on June 23rd, the lead single of “ The Double Dealing Diox” was released! To continue the theme of the previous successful marketing campaign, this song was titled “ON THE RUN!”. Not only did it continue the “missing” persona, but it perfectly encapsulates the essence of the song… ON THE RUN! Is a satire… Dubbed by friends & engineers as the “b*tches and h*es” song, OTR! began its life as a joke poking fun at redundant themes in modern music. As the production process progressed, I discovered a new personal meaning. That being how well it encapsulated the chaos that one may feel while attempting to leave someone/something behind, hence its title ON THE RUN! Feelings of anger & resentment are translated into bombastic & petty “rap-style” lyrics. ON THE RUN! as a metaphor, is a “h*e phase”… The fun you have on the surface (fast-paced/fun beat) is merely a distraction & futile escape from the true issues that lie beneath (emotional and metaphorical lyrics)… Releasing this song was another incredible milestone. It also was the first time that I really was able to dabble in content marketing… I did implement the poster strategy, but not the way that I had with the HYSH campaign. My focus was mainly on videos… With the help of my incredibly close friend and phenomenal photographer/videographer extraordinaire Jordan Bartow, I was able to pair this fast-paced and energetic song with equally exciting short videos and attention-grabbing social media posts… Long story looong (sorry, I just realized how dawn out this narrative became) the ON THE RUN! release was a personal success and another incredible experience and stepping stone towards my goals as a creative… In August, the second single, “THE INSOMNIAC’S DREAM,” will be released, accompanied by a short film thanks to a talented local filmmaker by the name of Clark Comstock. Soon after that will be the album “The Double Dealing Diox.” For now, I am just continuing to plot my next projects, learning more about the audio field, and saving up money… The creative path is not an easy one, but it definitely is and will always be worth it… I’m sure I will hit plenty of rough patches, but as I constantly say to myself, “If It were easy, everyone would be doing it”!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Haha, I didn’t realize that I had other question boxes; so sorry for the EXTENDED response to the last one… It has been very tough, I’m young, and this is my first time on earth. I’m constantly learning and making mistakes… I think the three toughest things have been budgeting, keeping motivated when things are moving slowly, and patience (which definitely all tie into one another…) when you’re working on little to no budget “passion projects” with other people who have their own lives and obligations, things take time. Though I think that I’ve been using that to my advantage. When things take a while to get done, or you have to save up money to do something, you have time to think and elaborate further on the initial ideas… in this world of instant gratification, it definitely has been a struggle to stay motivated and keep my nose to the grindstone, but I have grown so much. Plus, I am a strong believer in divine timing!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I consider myself a writer over everything, but I’m most recognized locally for my designs and music… Hopefully, after the album release my recognized skillsets will expand a bit. For the time being, I believe the allure my work has and what sets me apart is the “in your face”‘ approach. Not only with the design but with the presentation… I will spend a few days walking around the city putting up posters and handing out fliers. Definitely not the most efficient, but certainly has been the most effective strategy for building my brand…
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Oh man, I think probably my birthdays at my grandmother’s in Sacramento. My dad and grandmom would have me take a nap, and when I would wake up the kitchen would be decorated with birthday things and garden gnomes… They would tell me that they had no clue what happened, and the gnomes set everything up! I 100% believed it, and I still do to this day! I can’t imagine that provides the readers any insight into who I am as an artist… I was going to put a more recent memory, given I still feel like a child. Though, for whatever odd reason, I can’t really recall many memories. I think this question actually serves a larger purpose in grounding me; I need to do a better job at living in the moment. I tend to obsess over distant things, like future goals and past mishaps. Well, actually, now that you have me talking, I remember a memory that has to do with my art. I used to love the wiggles! I haven’t really watched them since I was a child, and they got rid of the main guy because he had some inner ear vertigo issue, a shame truly… I remember when Jeff (the purple wiggle) went missing. Sounds eerily familiar to one of my marketing premises… Another memory was actually when I got to go buy some pants from hot topic that were black and purple checkered. Definitely with I still had those today… I love purple; I remember as a child, I always was looking at purple clothes. Unfortunately, a lot of the purple clothes I liked were by skateboard brands and oftentimes were profane…
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/doubleddiox www.doubleddiox.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doubleddiox/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100085799960309
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqfKpq6jXxkI8GFlYP9MV_g
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/14HMiNMA1hoVnc58qLRnJh?si=wGnhVNpOTaiYxbCVghSdNQ
Image Credits
Concert Photos
Avery Lockmiller
Jordan Bartow
