Simon Phillips, multifaceted drummer and composer, producer and engineer, is renowned for his historic stints with Jeff Beck, The Who, Toto, Jack Bruce, Mike Oldfield, Joe Satriani, Judas Priest and countless others. His life of top-tier session work has fostered an extraordinary versatility and boundless artistic curiosity, something he’s long carried into his work as a leader, mainly under the banner of Protocol.

An entirely self-taught composer, Phillips debuted the solo Protocol project eponymously in 1989, then revived it in quartet form on Protocol II (2013), Protocol III (2015) and Protocol IV (2017). Throughout, Phillips has grown his vision for an instrumental music with pop sensibility and lyrical, almost singable melody, all over a complex and elusive harmonic foundation. Of the original members (guitarist Andy Timmons, keyboardist Steve Weingart, bassist Ernest Tibbs), Tibbs remains in the fold; he joined keyboardist Dennis Hamm (Thundercat) and guitar virtuoso Greg Howe for Protocol IV. He is gamely on board again for Protocol V, partnering with the group’s newest members: veteran keyboard magician Otmaro Ruiz and two prodigiously gifted young players that Tibbs himself recommended, guitarist Alex Sill and saxophonist Jacob Scesney.

In this episode, Simon talks about: