Indiescoveries Interview with The Primary Phase Principle!
- GhostofRucker
- Apr 1
- 6 min read
Ghost: Can you tell us about your journey into music? How did you get started and what
inspired you to become an indie artist?
TPPP: It’s a bit of a long story! It all started with guitar lessons when I was eight. I started writing my own “songs”, if you could call them that, a couple of years later. I don’t know that anything in particular inspired me to start writing... I think it seemed to me that’s just what you do when you play an instrument. I played in some bands through my teens and early 20’s. I was maybe 14 when I really started to produce my own music with Audacity and some really terrible drum program that I don’t remember the name of. This would have been in 2001, I guess. At the time, I pretty much only listened to Metallica and Megadeth, so that was the kind of music I was making.
At some point I discovered GarageBand and started combining heavy guitar riffs with electronic sounds. I thought I was really clever; I thought maybe I had invented a new genre. How embarrassing! But it wasn’t too much longer that I discovered industrial music was already a thing, and then I discovered other kinds of electronic music. After high school, I got a diploma in audio engineering, with the idea of working in a studio. It got me a job producing radio commercials, which wasn’t exactly what I wanted but it was at least somewhat related. But I found that it took the fun out of making my own music, because even though producing commercials is quite different than music, it’s still working with audio, and the last thing I wanted to do after work was go home and work on more audio. Plus, the job was barely paying my rent, and I could see that it wouldn’t lead anywhere, so after 5 years I had enough, took out a student loan and got a degree in computer engineering. But then university was taking up all of my time and energy, so I again wasn’t making music.
After university, I got a job as an engineer working with electronics, and the thought of making music was barely at the back of my mind after so long of not doing it. I just carried on with life for a few years, thinking maybe I might pick up music again at some point, “when the time is right” or “when I’ve got the right space”. In Nov 2023, it suddenly occurred to me that my laptop could probably run a DAW. I think it took me a while to realize this because I was stuck in the old mentality that you needed some pretty beefy hardware to run a larger DAW session. But with where technology is at now, I realized there was no reason why I couldn’t start again with what I already had. And here I am now!
Ghost: Interesting! Quite a journey you have been on! What is the story behind your artist's name? Does it hold a special meaning for you?
TPPP: It doesn’t have any real meaning... basically I wanted something scientific sounding, and in science there are a lot of various “principles”, so I quickly decided that I liked the thought of something in the form of “The something Principle”. But I also wanted something fictional, specifically, to avoid having any kind of real-life association or meaning to it. I brainstormed a while and “The Primary Phase Principle” was the one that stood out. It is a bit of a mouthful, but I liked the alliteration of it anyway. I liked that it could be abbreviated as “P cubed” if I wanted. The word “phase” loosely implies electricity and soundwaves, as in electronic music. And I Googled it and found that there is no such thing in real life. So that was the winner.
Ghost: It has a nice ring to it, for sure. How would you describe your music style? What genres or artists have influenced
your sound?
TPPP: Trent Reznor is definitely my biggest influence. Most of the tracks on my last album (Collapse of the Sightless Age) was basically me trying to directly replicate the sound of Hesitation Marks or How To Destroy Angels. I’m more interested in doing something that I think is cool than trying to be as original as possible. But generally, I describe my music as instrumental, slightly experimental post-industrial. Sometimes I’ll just call it downtempo but that is such a broad term. It’s usually slow, dark, and moody.
Ghost: Nice, love me some Trent Reznor. Can you share the creative process behind your latest album/single? How do you usually go about writing and producing your songs?
TPPP: Collapse of the Sightless Age (COTSA) was really interesting for me, because it is a concept album where I had the story fully planned out in advance before having any of the music. In the past, I would make the music first for its own sake, and sometimes a story might come out of it after the fact. Echoes of the Mechatronic Age (EOTMA) was partly like that, where I had 3 existing tracks that started to suggest a world and story in my mind, but then I later did 2 new tracks to fill in the gaps. And even then, it’s a bit of a loose story, more like glimpses into different snapshots in time from the “subterranean world” in which it takes place. But with COTSA, I wanted to expand on EOTMA, making a sequel that would have a more concrete, cohesive, and chronological story to it.
So, I focused on the story first thinking that it would help to guide the music towards a cohesive whole. The actual process of making the music varied. Sometimes just thinking about the story would conjure up a certain rhythm or melody in my head, or even just a type of sound, and I just tried to replicate what was in my head. Sometimes I didn’t have anything specific in mind, and I would experiment until I got something that fits.
In general, for any piece, I often start with ambient pads or bass tones, and then add
percussion, melodies, or accents, depending on what it needs. Structurally, it varies wildly... sometimes it’s just a single motif that repeats and gradually evolves but never really moves on, other times there are distinct sections. Usually, it feels like I’m letting the piece decide for itself what it thinks it needs. Although if I’m trying to fit a particular story, sometimes I do have to force it in a certain direction a little bit.
Ghost: What a fun process. What challenges have you faced as an indie artist? How have you overcome them?
TPPP: The main challenge, as I see it, is just finding an audience. But to be honest, I feel like it’s never been easier to do that, in a way. I released my very first solo album in 2005, and it went out into an absolute void. There was Myspace, but I don’t remember it being very good for discoverability. With social media now, the potential to connect with listeners is huge. As small as my current audience may be, it is still leaps and bounds beyond what I think was possible in 2005.
Ghost: Can you tell us who inspired your passion for music growing up?
TPPP: Mainly my parents, although somewhat passively. Neither of them really played an instrument themselves, but we always had music playing in the house pretty much constantly, and they were very supportive as soon as I decided I wanted to play guitar. Oh, and my grandfather played the fiddle, and I always thought that was cool.
Ghost: Nice. What message do you want to convey through your music? Is there a particular theme or emotion you aim to evoke in your listeners?
TPPP: I don’t have a message. There definitely is some message or social commentary to be found in the story of my two albums so far, but that is really not my intention. If anything, I might be trying to offer escapism, a chance to imagine something other than our current reality.
Common themes for me seem to be death, tension, discomfort, the unknown... I’m not really sure where all that darkness comes from, I’m generally a happy, easy-going person!
Ghost: What are your future plans? Are there any upcoming projects or collaborations that your fans should look forward to?
TPPP: I am working on a couple of smaller collaborative projects, although nothing that I’m prepared to be specific about quite yet... but I do have a new album coming out in May for my side project, Protonoid! It is sort of a return to my old style of guitar-centric loudness that I was doing when I first started out.
Ghost: I am immensely grateful to have had the opportunity to interview Eric from The Primary Phase Principle! It was an incredible experience to hear his insights, stories, and passion firsthand. Connecting with someone so talented and inspiring is truly a privilege, and I deeply appreciate the chance to share and learn through this conversation. I look forward to what you will do in the future!
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