Hello, my name is Phil Garland and I’m sharing with you my points of view on life as it has come to me and how I see it. These views are quite normal, but then how boring a blog would be if we all shared the same outlooks on life. Nope, my outlook is more surreal in that I make comments like grapefruits are just really lazy, and that horses always look like they’ve almost been caught doing something they shouldn’t be doing and pretending nothing is going on. I dunno, I made this blog just to blurt out whatever was in my head.

So, where shall I begin? Who I am and where I can from? Well, the picture above is a good representation of who I am. Born in the United Kingdom I moved to New Zealand to get away from badly represented street signs, especially those of the elder couple that seem to follow me wherever I go and don’t get me started on the tall guy walking around holding hands with the midget.

So, what do I do as a profession? Well, I write music, the main key area of interest for me is folk music. Folk music is for me a chance to actually put some normality into my everyday life. I started learning music at the age of 20, I figured to be the next best thing, you had to be different, so I started learning the trumpet and composed folk melodies this way. It didn’t go so well and was advised to try a more suited instrument for the folk scene, someone mentioned the guitar. After 2 weeks of blowing into it, I mastered the sound perfectly.

My favourite folk singers change through the decades, I believe when one dies that they become lazy to the art and that’s something I cannot relate to. Currently, I’m of the opinion that the new wave of folk is, in fact, hip-hop music or what the younger generation call rap!

Now, you may think this is a stupid notion and that the two forms of music are entirely different, but what defines real folk music?

Traditional lyric writing how is this done, pen and paper most likely. Traditional subject matters; hurt, joy, religion, politics and the ‘playing with them hoes’ because gardening transcends through any form of music.

You can now begin to see my logic and when you attend a folk show out here in New Zealand and play NWA’s ‘Fornicate Da Police’ whilst blowing into a guitar, the reaction is, as I was once told by one person: “muted by concern”. Now, that’s one hell of a compliment!

When I’m not producing my folk songs, I have hobbies in preservation. I like to put things into jars and preserve them. Usually, this consists of me talking into empty jars and sealing them tight. This is done to remind me of certain things that need doing. Upon opening the jars, I can hear myself talking back reminding me about tasks for the week ahead. These could be simple things like a grocery list or to shout at the neighbour’s mailbox. The art of preservation has been mastered to perfection I’m pleased to say because when my wife tries it, she can’t seem to make it work when leaving me reminders.