My Song Stories: Phil Birch of Raw Power Management

Music shapes our identities and changes our lives. It brings back our memories and stirs up our emotions. My Song Stories asks music professionals and indie artists questions about the songs in their libraries. Today, Phil Birch, a Digital Manager at Raw Power Management, shares the artists and songs that have impacted his life and career.

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By Kyle Bylin, author of Song Stories Who are you and what do you do?I’m Phil Birch, a Digital Manager at Raw Power Management. I’m a verbose nerd with a penchant for heavy music and a mild-to-serious caffeine addiction.What is your most recent favorite song?“Curtains” by Arcane RootsWhat is your favorite ballad or slow jam?“We Found Each Other In The Dark” by City And ColourWhat song makes you happy and smile?“Drive” by GladesWhat song makes you sad or want to cry?“Strange Fruit” by Billie HolidayDid you inherit any music taste from your parents?When I was a kid, we used to take holidays as a family, driving hundreds of miles backed in with my siblings and parents. These are the days before even CD changers in the car, which made for a homogenous selection of five or six albums my parents kept in the car. This homogeny made me learn to detest Andreas Bocelli and Annie Lennox — purely through only having a few options and too many miles. It would be later that I’d rediscover their influences after I’d found my own.What five artists best represent their favorite music?

Eurythmics – “Here Comes The Rain Again”
Andrea Bocelli – “Time To Say Goodbye”
Fleetwood Mac – “The Chain”
Jean Michel Jarre – “Oxygene pt. 4”
Cat Stevens – “The First Cut Is The Deepest”

What five artists best represent your favorite music?

Extreme – “Pornograffiti”
Arcane Roots – “Slow Dance”
While She Sleeps – “Our Courage, Our Cancer”
City And Colour – “Silver And Gold”
Black Foxxes – “Whatever Lets You Cope”

What song evokes memories from your childhood? “No More I Love You’s” by Annie Lennox.I distinctly remember sitting in the backseat of my father’s beat-up VOLVO, driving through the French Alps on another family driving holiday. I’m squeezed in between my two older siblings and it’s probably the tenth time we’ve heard the song (since we’re talking the days before even CD changers). I’ve tuned it out while I stare outside, craning over my sister to get a view of snow – the first time I’d seen it. I’m seven years old.What is one song from the soundtrack of your life?“Sexy M.F.” by Prince. This song is for those days when it’s sunny outside and you feel great.

Kyle Bylin is the author of Song Stories: Music That Shaped Our Identities and Changed Our Lives, a collection of essays about songs that impacted people's lives. Read an excerpt here.