Phil Hoy

“I’ve been told my lyrics are sincere and honest and the lyrics are something I care a lot about. I always want my songs to mean something rather than just taking the easy option.”

Up n’ Comin’ NI is thrilled to introduce this week’s artist, Phil Hoy, a 27 year old singer/songwriter from Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim. “For the last 3 and a half years I’ve worked as a tour guide at the ‘Gobbins’ in Islandmagee but I’m now starting a new job at ‘East Belfast Mission’ as part of their ‘Turas’ project which promotes the Irish language in the unionist community. In my spare time, I enjoy (apart from music) films and tv and would be involved in my local church.”

Music has been a large part of Phil’s life from a very young age. “When I was in primary school, I ‘accidentally’ said I was allowed to do violin lessons (although apparently I had been told I wasn’t allowed to) and ended up doing up to my grade 3. When I got to 1st Year I watched ‘School of Rock’ and thought “that looks class” and so asked for a guitar for Christmas. 15 years later, I’m still playing away at the guitar. When I finished school I went on to do Music and Audio Production at uni which I absolutely loved.”

Drawing inspiration from artists, Phil says, “My first love was ‘Busted’ when I was wee and then ‘Relient K’ in my early teenage years.” He also enjoys bands like ‘Modern Baseball’, ‘New Order’, ‘Joy Division’, ‘Sonic Youth’, or ‘Blink-182’… “But my favourite band of all time is ‘mewithoutYou.’ Whilst their music was heavier than I would have listened to at the time, I fell in love with their lyrics. They dealt with everything from love, pain, loneliness, faith and doubt. And also talking vegetables and circus animals. I still believe Aaron Weiss might be the best lyricist of all time!

Phil was lucky enough to see his favourite band, ‘mewithoutYou’, perform live. The first time this happened, he even met the singer! “Another gig highlight was seeing Peter Hook playing the ‘Joy Division’ and ‘New Order’ discography and all these 50 year old men crying when he played ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ and dedicated it to Ian Curtis!

When asked to define his own genre, Phil says his music would fall into the “emo/indie/alternative-rock/pop-punk spectrum” … so I think it is safe to say that his music isn’t defined by a genre, but rather the genre is driven by the lyrics. “The lyrics deal with subjects such as (unrequited) love, faith and doubt, mental health and low self-esteem.”

During my teenage years music was always something that helped me through loneliness and not having a great time at school (bullies, low self-esteem etc). I started writing my own songs when I was about 14/15. They probably weren’t great but they helped me get my feelings out!”

While the lyrics are the driving force to Phil’s music, he says that only occasionally will he write them first. Usually, he instead, sits down with his guitar and will discover a riff or a chord progression, and that will inspire the direction of the song. “I usually then try and come up with a melody. I spend some time thinking about the mood of the song and what I want to write about. I try and write a bare bones of the song structure and some lyrics. Sometimes I finish the lyrics then and there and other times I go for a walk and try and come up with lines that fit and rhyme with what I already have!”

Having used music as an outlet in his younger years, Phil tries to keep his lyrics as real as possible, drawing on his own life experiences. “This means they’re sometimes more personal than I would like people to hear. A lot of my lyrics deal with low self-esteem, loneliness, faith and doubt, some political ones and the odd one about a girl.” For that reason, Phil prefers working on his own for lyrics, but enjoys collaborating on the instrumental & structural side of his writing.

“Remember, there’s no rush.”

Although he would like to do a lot more of it, Phil doesn’t get the chance to gig very often. “I used to gig with a trad group when I was in uni and did classes in performance. I recently performed my current material at an open mic night in Carrickfergus and performed at the ‘Climate Craic’ festival at Stormont 2 years ago. Gigging is something I’d like to do more” … so if you’re reading this, book this young man asap!!

So, what’s next for Phil?

“I would like to record more songs and put them out! I have a good pile written and a couple in the mixing stage so hopefully can put them out soon!”

Make sure you follow them and keep up to date with all their songs, events and gigs: 

Spotify: Phil_Hoy

YouTube: Phil_hoy

TikTok: phil_hoy

Instagram: phil_hoy