In this week's 10 Questions we get to know Phosphoros - a rock artist from Italy.

Their track Unbound Reflection is currently featured on the NAS Spotify playlists.

You can follow Phosphoros on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube

1. Tell us a little about where you are from.

I am from Barletta, Puglia, a city located in the south of Italy. I am currently working part time to support my music, and to help it becoming my main job: it's not the teenager's "rockstar dream", there's much more than making money, making music and blend all together.

Right now, I'm working to both music and improving my social media presence: I'm writing new music, probably a single, but, possibly, I'd like to aim for an EP.

2. What inspired Phosphoros to start playing and making music?

I started playing guitar after a basketball injury, I couldn't walk, and started it all as a normal hobby, I have always been listening to rock music (mainly Guns 'n Roses) since I was a child, and my main influence, at the time, was Slash. I got my first electric for my 18th birthday and started practising more and more, until, in 2019, I started my first band, the one I released my first songs with. I still think those years were the ones I improved more, as a guitarist, writer and musician, I used to study a lot and play even more, and so I began writing more "complex" music with improved skills. In 2022 that band blew up, and I started another project, which wasn't working as well, and in 2023 Phosphoros was born.

I really decided that my way was with instrumental music after listening to Marty Friedman's solo work, which blew my mind: I wanted to "sing" with my guitar, and, for the first time, I found a musician who did so. That's how it all started.

3. Who are Phosphoros' biggest musical influences?

Well, at the moment my biggest musical influences can be found in Polyphia, Sleep Token, Animals as Leaders, Marty Friedman himself, and in most of the "prog metal" community: I really think that sharing ideas and projects is such an incredible way to develop a unique personality and style. I found inspiration in Clayton King, Connor Kaminski, Hellana Pandora, Thomas Di Viesti, Alessio Giacomi, Francesco Banti, and a lot of other great musicians.

I don't personally know how to describe my style, I think I started as j-metal, going through djent and prog metal. My direction, actually, is bringing me to something like "djent-hop" (which I don't even know if it exists as a genre)

4. What are your goals in the music industry or as an artist?

My main aim, with my music, as an artist, is to convey emotions by letting the guitar "speak" in my songs: I have the feeling that many songs, especially on the instrumental side, are just "exercises" or etudes, which is great, don't get me wrong, but I want something different, I want listeners to comprehend the language of feelings. The great advantage of instrumental music is that there's no language barrier, you just need your heart.

Speaking about the industry, the goal Is to achieve enough streams to make it become my main income: it's the hardest thing in the world, but promoting, branding, social media, it's all part of the game. Making good music and working to play live, creating good quality content and merchandising, and CONSISTENCY, are some key factors to make the business work, for me.

5. Tell us about your creative process

I personally think that making music is like sculpting a statue: you start with a cube, then remove some pieces, and then start forming a rough shape, which will become the statue (and sometimes break).

For me, usually, it all starts with a riff, written when inspired, that's the starting point. Then it comes the structure, I try to keep it as dynamic as possible, to give the song a good flow and ease of listening.

Here, the key decision is how the song should sound like, tonal differences, key, progressions, tempo changes, and planting the "roots" with a simple bass line to write other sections on.

Successively, it's time for drums, which I usually program with softwares, rarely using pre-made grooves.

I record a demo to put all together and write the "voice", adding orchestral or electronic components, to give more detail and support the lead.

When it's all done, it's time to record, mix and master, and all of the programming, promotion, etc.

6. What is your all-time favorite song by another artist and why?

I think that my all-time favourite is "A Call Beyond" by Connor Kaminski. It has been that one song that made me think "that's how I want to sound", and feel the complexity, without being hard to listen.

The lead guitar left me breathless.

7. What is the best advice you have either given or received in terms of music?

"Make music which is valuable for you, not for others, otherwise you won't be able to convey what you want to.

It doesn't matter how commercial you want to be, if your music is empty, it won't fill people's hearts."

8. What is your proudest accomplishment?

I'm not a guy who usually talks about accomplishments, I don't feel like I could be in the position of being proud of something I accomplished with music, the journey has just started.

My real accomplishment is my project, and how solid it's becoming.

9. What's been your most embarrassing moment so far?

I was playing live for a contest in my city, and, after the soundcheck, everything seemed alright. When it was time for me to go on stage (and it was quite a big stage), the FOH engineer didn’t turn on my microphone's channel on the mixer, and so I was left on stage with the lights on, talking, but nobody could hear me, and nobody did anything, so I kept talking, and nobody ever knew who I was.

10. Tell us about your lowest and highest points in music so far.

My lowest point was a bit after I started releasing music as Phosphoros. I didn't know anything about promoting, and had no clue how to make content, I was completely lost, in a world I thought I knew.

My highest point? Still yet to come.