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THE WORLD IS MINE

Hi there. My name is Phil. I am the guitarist, singer and songwriter of the Hamburg-based Indie band Thank You George. I created the recording project "The World Is Mine" to accompany me on my year-long travels through the Middle- and Far East.

On 13 June 2017 the songwriting and recording project 'The World Is Mine' let to the release of an EP in progress:

A collection of 8 preliminary tracks created over 12 months in 18 countries, bridging a maximum of 10.000 kilometers and 8 time zones.

The world is mine - An EP in progress

Released on 13 June 2017

It feels wonderfully weird to finally share this: Almost exactly one year after starting this songwriting and recording project, after countless hours of improvised recording sessions and an intense exchange of ideas in our band chat, we have managed to bring its six tracks to a level that we feel is good enough to publish them as Thank You George's second official release. You can find them on the project's SoundCloud profile, together with an Intro and an Outro, and we are finally inviting all of you to listen, like and share 'The World Is Mine'.

Listen here

ABOUT

Being a passionate traveler and backpacker, I have always found the inspiration for my music somewhere in between hostels and trains, hammocks and busses, exciting cities and gorgeous beaches. It starts with an idea, a few chords, a theme, a lick, a fragment. They are scattered pieces at first. But then there is a moment when different parts can be joined through a new idea. They become one, they become a song. In the beginning there's only my guitar and my voice. Then my band Thank You George comes into play and we add the sound, the arrangement, the depth, the dynamics, the epic endings.

This is the process which we have been using for almost two years when writing and arranging our material. This is how we created our first studio album "Bleed Towards The Light". And this is the backbone of my new recording project "The World Is Mine".

On 11 May 2016 I embarked upon on a year-long trip through the Middle- and Far East with my girlfriend and travel companion Lea (please follow us via our photo blog on VSCO). Next to enjoying the hell out of my travels I have made it my mission to create songs and themes, samples and fragments, ideas and licks from my experiences. I will record them along the way, publish them on Thank You George's social media profiles and send them home for my band to work on. In Hamburg, our bass player Ali and our drummer Jan will eventually sit down with our producer, Kiezkojote's Toby Lelushko, to add their voices and finalize the songs. The project's objective: to write and arrange enough material for a second release with Thank You George.

As you can imagine I am very excited to see what happens. Please join me in having the highest of expectations!


LATEST UPDATES

Please find the newest posts in both, the 'Stories'- and the 'Songs'-category of this blog, in the section below. Latest update: 13 June 2017.

Japan

Posted on 25 May 2017 in Colombo, Sri Lanka

Welcome to Japan, welcome to Asia's Germany! It was almost spooky how much the two countries seemed alike. The people were quiet and polite, they kept their distance and they didn't seem to go out of their shells too much. And they were obsessed with working out even the smallest details to perfection. Because of this everything was nice and clean and organized and things simply worked out. After almost seven months of being surrounded by the chaotic mess, the noise and the struggle and the dust that is most of South East Asia, coming to Japan felt like coming home.

Read more

Breathe

First recorded in November 2016 in Bangkok, Thailand

"Breathe" is about another observation I made while traveling. It's about the way people meet and about the very specific selection process they all take part in and through which they choose some of their fellow travelers as their (temporary) friends, partners in crime, lovers or disciples, while ignoring, or even openly rejecting others. Due to the fact that everybody meets for a very short period of time, the whole putting-people-into-boxes-thing happens a lot faster than in the real world. And escaping these boxes is a lot harder, too.

Read more / Discover all the songs

ROUTE

Follow the route that Lea and I are taking through the middle and far east on the map below. Latest update: 13 June 2017.
World map showing the route of singer and songwriter Phil's travels through the middle and far east
Days on the road
Countries visited
Kilometers traveled
Cities and sights visited

GEAR

Working on "The World Is Mine" requires me to carry some equipment while traveling. Read all about my backpacker guitar and my mobile recording setup below.

Preparing the equipment

Posted on 06 May 2016 in Paderborn, Germany

My recording gear

Posted on 04 May 2016 in Hamburg, Germany

Finding the right travel guitar

Posted on 28 April 2016 in Hamburg, Germany