Gord Phillips

Ah, I love the smell of crude in the morning. From Chemical Valley, to the Carmanah Valley.

Now I live on the West coast of Canada, on Vancouver Island. In a small costal community called Sooke, BC. 

Where you find what you were looking for.

Mystic Beach - ShadowGord

Music has always been a large part of my life. Variety shows when I was a little kid like, The Smothers Brothers, Carol Burnette and friends, Laugh-in, and the Tonight show. (if i could stay awake.) It was an inspiration seeing all the current musicans of the time appearing on these shows. A show that paved the way for me was the Muppet Show. ANIMAL!!! 

Guitar Gord - The early years

Gord aka Guido aka Elton-Gord

It all started I guess with the first guitar. a Framous reverse sunburst, six string acoustic guitar. Got it from my dad. I loved that guiatar. Took it everywhere I went. As I got older I would play at every party or campfire there was. 

I would play the guitar constantly in my room when I lived at home. The common line speiled in a howl was "go out to the barn and play that _____ thing." 

The harmonica would be the next instrument. Blues. Man the blues is a strong part in the passion I try to give my every performance.  Listening to old Junior Walker cassette tapes. Howlin Wolf, John Mayall, Sonny and Brownie. I know theres many more. So when I would hitch hike, I carried the harp. Had no idea what to do with it. Just walked and played. late into the night. Walking down the river road in Courtright with the moon shinning off the St Clair river at 3 am. Beautiful. Enough light to see my footsteps and the sound of a blues harp carrys across the river wide. Good times. I always enjoyed the time to experience the silence. Even when I was a drunken teen from out of town. 

I started performing at jam nights in Brampton, Ont. (A short stint at college gave me the tools to play ping pong very well. Also honed my tolerance for alcohol consumption. Other than that its just a blink, a space so to say.) Really enjoyed getting up on stage singing and playin harp. Didn't have the knards to get the guitar out on stage yet. Songs like Flip Flop Fly, Roadhouse blues. At that time Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan were the songwriters that I listened and read up on constantly. 

-Actually not some much reading. That was never my strong suit. I've come to enjoy much more these days with some amazing reads - Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela. That book inspires me daily. I read quite a bit on Eastern Philosphy. Its a slow go but I'am making it through Gandi as well. When you wrtie about truth and combine it with an autoboigraphy the first part is kind of boring, but what do I expect for truth. Ah yes I expect an explosion or two. Maybe some love interest. 

Acoustic unplugged ASSIMILATION

Now back to music. So by this time I was living in an attic of an Armanian family, while barely attending college. Performing was starting to become more frequent. It was filling the time quite nicely, taking a break from the fast paced life of running from every problem I had . i decided to quit drinking at the age of 20. It was a good time. You know when you have to stop hanging out with a good friend cause you just have too much fun together. When fun becomes staring up from a ditch at 6am. Thats the way it was with alcohol. 

I was writting songs by this time. I have always been a writer. Poetry. Even back in public school. Now I was writting like crazy. Copying Dylan phrasing. Wanting to write my own current day protest song that would stand the test of time, and be relevant to any era. Learned quick not to try to hard to be like someone else. Learn from what they have done. Then create your own you. There were a few sappy I love you tunes in there too. I was hopeless when it came to relationships. Way to dramatic but it helped with the writting though. 

More about my musical influence. Living in southwestern Ontario in the 80's was great. The Canadian music scene was doing great (in Canada that is. The USA didn't figure it out untill later, which made these band work extra hard to build the canuck fanbase) The Tragically Hip, Barenaked Ladies, Blue Rodeo, Cowboy Junkies, The Pursuit of Happiness, Moxy Fruvous (Jian Gomeshy from CBC show Q), The Headstones, Crash Vegas and more that I cant think of right now. This was Canadiana for me. These bands made music that had one label. "Canada". Unique  when it came to placing them in genre catagories. I think thats why it took so long for the bands to take in the States. They gave me the hope that if I persisted and worked hard, originality wins. It's not easy in a business of fades. Definitley do-able though. 

I took on an adventure last year that was a life-long dream. To Form a Blues Brothers Band. With some of Victoria, BC's finest. We did it. It was for a New Years show. An 11 piece band, with freinds and amazing musicianship made for a great night. The crowd was awesome. We had professional dancers come out. People dance all night long. I look forward to" getting the band back together." 

The Blues Brothers - "Were on a mission from God" 

Gord"Jake Blues"Phillips with Almost the Blues Brothers New Years 2009

Gord"Jake Blues"Phillips with Almost the Blues Brothers New Years 2009

 

Thats why music is my religion. 

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Assimilation can be fun!

The main project with some great friends is called Gord Phillips & the Assimilators. The Assimilators were formed by not forming a band. I simply asked people to play shows. The more shows we did the more refined the band got. Soon enough 5 of us started to meld well together. Now we have gotten very tight with our performances. Having fun and trying to make the music we play sound the best it can for every show. You can find us playing anywhere. Some nights its in a coffee shop playin acoustic for the coffee-crowd, Or rippin it up somewhere. Either way we plan on world ASSIMILATION. It's an on going mission. To seek out new ear's and new civiliztions. To boldly go where everyone has gone before, and play. We need to play. Assimilation gave us creation