Meet Phantom Phunk

We had the good fortune of connecting with Phantom Phunk and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Phantom Phunk, do you have some perspective or insight you can share with us on the question of when someone should give up versus when they should keep going?
Well, it’s really about knowing how to separate your passion from your profession. It’s great when the two are the same, but if something’s not working out in a professional way, and your brand isn’t making the money it needs to survive, it might be time to switch to something different, but that doesn’t mean you ever have to give it up. When you do something you love it becomes a lifestyle, and making it work as a profession is the best way to maintain that.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
So we are a music project. We write, produce and play all of our own music, and recently have been producing our own music videos as well. That has been one of the biggest features of our project is that we are our own producers, which means that we are involved in the song making process every step of the way. It also means we can make, revise and recreate our own content at our own pace and on our own terms. Having the means to our own production has really helped us become more efficient and more honest with our art, but it took quite a bit of work to get there. We had to research and invest in the right tools and spend the time learning how to use them to the best of our abilities. Plus we had to do that on top of honing our own instruments and life responsibilities, so it requires a passion and commitment to get to that place. It also requires a lot of help, guidance and support, which fortunately we were able to get from our families and friends. We started off as an indie rock group but over the years, as our team has progressed, we’ve evolved into a more modern and artistic set of songwriters. Our music is now something that straddles alternative, rap, pop and experimental, coalescing into music that is interesting and unique, but not too far off the beaten path for the average listener. One of the more recent developments with our process has been making our own music videos. That was again, a learning curve, but it was so worth it, and it opens up this whole new creative platform for us to explore and express ourselves. Each song and each movie is its own challenge, because we never have a set plan or template for it. We just start with the main element and then keep feeding it our creativity a little at a time until it has grown into something that is honestly pretty well done given that it’s all stuff we are doing ourselves.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Yeah, if we had a friend coming from out of town and wanted to show them a good time in the traditional sense, we would probably do some of the typical Florida stuff like go to the beach or Disney. Tampa has recently developed some good spots to visit with great food, namely Armature Works and the downtown area. If it was up to me though, I would personally try to get my friend to collab with us on some of our work. It’s fun bringing in people who are a bit unfamiliar with music or video and giving them an opportunity to try something new and put something out. Even if it’s raw, or unprofessional it still has a bit of their personality which can be used for something artistic no doubt. For me that is more fun than spending the afternoon somewhere out getting food or what not. I’d rather hunker down in our lab and cook up something creative. In fact, I actually did have a friend visit recently from out of town and we invited them to one of our video shoots. They seemed to have a good time! I know it’s not for everyone but it can be a nice change of pace to invite people to partake in something different.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Would like to give thanks to my parents, and especially Dad. He’s been our manager and team leader since day one. He’s been our biggest fan since day one, and he’s our biggest fan. We call him Doc. I’d also like to thank all the artists we have worked with in the past, some of them featured guests and some of them former bandmates who have gone on to do their own but nonetheless have helped us become who we are today.

Website: www.phantomphunk.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phantomphunkofficial/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/phantomphunk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PH2Music/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/phantomphunk

Image Credits
Photos taken by Harmonic Factory LLC.