Best known for his work with Steve Garden as Low Profile and particularly for Elephunk in My Soup, Phil continues explore what he calls hybrid music, a potent brew which is highly percussive, combines electronica with other instruments, and draws on elements from diverse genres including funk and jazz. As well as working in the music industry and related fields, Phil has also worked in desk top publishing, in the education sector and in the environmental field.

Phil was born in the United Kingdom and grew up in New Plymouth. After learning tenor horn with Lionel Hall he played in brass and concert bands and in chamber music groups. He then started playing bass guitar in bands around the Taranaki region, in local Repertory music/drama productions and in his first pub residency aged 17. On leaving school Phil moved to Wellington, and after completing a BA at Victoria University spent the next two years studying Jazz Improvisation with Colin Hemmingsen at the Creative Music School. During this period Phil also worked as a session musician on film soundtracks, composed music for an animated film by Euan Frizzell, Goodnight Old Man, and then formed the jazz rock fusion band Outlines.

In 1980 Outlines recorded at Studio II, Radio New Zealand, Wellington for the Concert Programme. Phil attended the National Jazz Clinic, recorded songs for the Pacific Song Contest with others under the name Mixed Company and formed the Protons with guitarist Tony Richards and drummer Lawrence Sampson. After some gigs and recording as a trio, May Lloyd joined the band as vocalist, and in 1981 the band released a single Lights On/Modern Homes, making a video clip at TVNZ's Avalon Studios before disbanding.

In 1982 Phil released the instrumental album Hiatus and a single under his own name consisting of a 1980 Protons recording of his anti nuclear song Wolves of Power and a track from Hiatus, Mutants (as a result of nuclear fallout) on the B side. Later that year, while still living in Wellington, Phil began recording in Auckland with Steve Garden, Mike Farrell, Matthew Brown and others as Low Profile. He then moved to Auckland where he developed Flamewave Productions and the Flamewave International record label, which was distibuted by Jayrem Records. Between 1982 and 1987 Low Profile recorded and released two albums, two EPs and a 12" single. Phil also co-produced three Low Profile music videos with independent film makers: Glass Cage (1983), Elephunk (1984) and Simon Says (1987).

During the 1980s Phil performed and recorded with a number of other ensembles including Cultural Affairs, The Buccaneers, Atmospherics, The Storm Sisters All Time Good Time Band, The Street Band, The Groove, Jazz City and Moving Lines. Moving Lines recorded original compositions at Studio II, Radio New Zealand, Wellington, for the Concert Programme series Crosscurrents and this material was subsequently released as Moving Lines 1 in 1987 by Ode Records. Over this period Phil also ran a studio/gallery, recorded other bands, did live sound mixing, did workshops in schools as the musician member of The Arts Resource Collective, researched the Rites of Passage of migrant groups and worked for the Department of Education, who commissioned him to compose and record the music for Te Whakawhiti I Te Rori (Crossing the Road) in 1987.

In 1988 Phil returned to Victoria University to complete an MA in Communications. His thesis was a study of the relationship between synergy in the group dynamics of contemporary music making and the use of MIDI/personal computer based music systems in an OSI/ISDN environment. In 1990 Phil moved to London where he worked mainly in the fields of desk top publishing and graphic design. As a musician he performed with the Shining and Crazy 4 Animals, at Glastonbury Festival in 1992 and at the inauguration of Delta, an ecologically-based creative project, in 1993, as well as recording with other "Antipodeans in London," including Gregg McKenzie, Paul Gilbert, Pip Harker and Jed Town.

Since returning to New Zealand Phil has lived in Auckland and Taranaki, performed in the dance productions Marraminde and Sumptuousity, performed with Drum Magic, Ditto, the Skinnydippers, the Ritz Big Band, Uncle John's Band, the Anita Anker Trio, the Flys and the Delta Jazz Trio, tutored on a TOPS programme and at MAINZ, run workshops with at-risk youth, been a private music teacher and taught in a number of schools.

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