A Quick Chat with Phil & The Blanks

'GOOD LIFE' has a really infectious, carefree 90s/2000s pop-rock feel. What was the starting point for the song?

The song began, as most Phil and The Blanks songs do, with some inspired messing about in the studio by guitarist and producer Oskar and then just a whole lot of laughter about a broke ass mate of ours. We reckon we live in a pretty awesome place with shit tons to do even if you have no money. We tried not to get too preachy and err… maybe failed??

Bella Amor joins you on the track with a big, anthemic vocal. How did she become part of 'GOOD LIFE'?

Oskar has been doing a bit of writing with Bella on her own project and he told us all how cool she is so when we worked up 'GOOD LIFE' into a thing, we reckoned it would punch even harder with such a kick ass female voice on it shouting the odds with Phil. Bella has so many great ideas and we can’t wait to perform this with her live.

There's a definite nostalgic quality to the song. Were there particular records or artists from the 90s and early 2000s that influenced the sound?

Definitely. We’re all pretty obsessed with those So Fresh Compilation albums - full of so many big noughties tunes that used to rock our school parties and Blue Light Discos.

From Taio Cruz to LMFAO to The Black Eyed Peas (plus all of those emo rock acts we love), we always aim to put a couple of these tunes in every live set - and have even built a party show around them, called SO PHRESH!

The song feels like it's built for summer drives, parties and hanging out with mates. What kind of atmosphere did you want to create?

'GOOD LIFE' has a positive song title which we heard somewhere works well for searches on Spotify… (even bands like us have to try to play the game from time to time!).

We know its got an up vibe but what we really want to recreate with this song is that house party vibe when you feel like your people have got your back and you can bounce and dance like an idiot without anyone ragging on you - that feeling of youthful invincibility like nothing is ever gonna matter!

You've gone from the chaos of 'THE KETAMINES' and 'GOOD BOY' to something slightly more carefree here. Was it deliberate to show another side of Phil and The Blanks?

Sonically, this song is as ‘PHIL’ as ever before. More than that, we reckon the big leap forward for us with ‘GOOD LIFE’ was working with Bella.

We have wanted to find a way to get some intentional female energy into the Phil project for ages now, so it was a dream moment when Bella said she loved the song and we’d get to work with one of the best emerging female pop talents in Australia. It was a double blessing that Bella is as wild and loose as Phil, so the pair of them had a ton of fun together in the studio, as well as shooting content for the song out in the wild.

If ‘GOOD LIFE’ was the soundtrack to one perfect day, what would that day look like?

It would look like…

‘GOOD LIFE’ has already been the soundtrack to a perfect day when we recorded the session with Bella. That was one big laugh-a-thon love fest.

But, if we did magically get granted another perfect day then it would have to be a parmi and a pint with Uncle Steven followed by an afternoon watching him put all of our band money in the Keno, then all over to Josiah’s for a Nicolas Cage DVD marathon and a family size bag of Doritos.