Patrick Phillips is a big fan of Joan Didion. While this may seem like an odd plot point in the life of someone with a guitar-driven career, it was the famous memoirist who helped the Namesake frontman realize the power of going through hard times—and then actually talking about them.
“I've been at this place where I'm able talk about my own story,” Phillips says. “I don't want to shy away from it, and I'm not really afraid of talking about like specific stuff because I feel like it's something that I really like have to do for myself.”
A combination of Bob Dylan and basketball brought Phillips to New York—but it was the scene at Bushwick’s indie venue Shea Stadium that pushed him to solidify the lineup alongside bandmates Josh Wehle and Paul Lizaragga. While they experienced some early success with their free-spirited 2015 debut Rituals, including opening for Interpol (thanks to an introduction from Tony Hawk), a wrench was thrown into their beachy punk in early 2018, when Phillips was arrested at work.
As Phillips recalls it, the night cops swarmed the venue where he was bartending was his worst nightmare. However, now he looks at the ordeal, and the night he spent in jail, as a dark stroke of serendipity, forcing him to reevaluate the coping mechanisms in his life that—to put it mildly—were simply not working. It was time to embrace his bisexuality, confront the abuse he had experienced in the past, and address his anger.
“Without hitting that rock bottom, I feel like I could have kind of kept like simmering on low and just kept going about my life,” he says. “I needed therapy, and I needed something to happen to get me there. It was a pretty scary experience, and it could have gotten a lot worse, but I really was able to make the most out of really crappy situation.”
Redeeming Features is ultimately a sprint through the healing process. But perhaps more importantly, it’s a fun listen, evoking both the dark rooms of independent music venues, and nights spent driving around hometowns, volume up and windows down. Phillips is proud of how far he’s come and what his band has created. And with a little luck, he’ll be able to infuse other people’s journeys with a sense of joy.
“There’s just something beautiful about attacking really heavy lyrical matter, but at the same time, you can tap your foot along to it,” says Phillips. “You’re able to acknowledge things about yourself and to be truthful. But you have to tell your story with a smirk, because we all have our own stuff to go through. It can't be too self-serious! You definitely have to be truthful with yourself.”
