Grounded in a firm belief that pop music and intellectual lyrics are not mutually exclusive, Briar Rabbit coined the phrase "Thought-Pop" to describe his sound. "A lot of times [pop music] feels like an idea that someone didn't believe you were capable of chewing and mushed it to baby food. For me, the chewing is essential."
Having demonstrated his songwriting and singing talents around the Midwest, Rabbit spent the better part of his two years in Chicago collecting accolades such as Taste of Chicago, ABC 7's Windy City Live, being featured on a full-length film, WBEZ, The Huffington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Red Eye, and several regional blogs; while steadily haunting the city's staple venues. In 2011, Rabbit's debut release (The Company You Keep) dealt with the usual suspects of songwriting (love, loss, and self), and for 2012's Black History Month, he wrote an EP called "The Great Routine," about a fictional black actor performing as a minstrel in the 1900's.
Commanding the stage, Briar Rabbit achieves musical complexity without pretension, combines multi-layered lyrics with infectious melody, and presents self-awareness with a strong sense of honesty. It's smart, catchy, and something we didn't even know we needed.
"Singer-songwriters such as Briar Rabbit (Philip-Michael Scales) create sensitive, soul-searching tunes that don't activate the cheese filters. Between the intelligent lyrics and busy arrangements is delight. Yes, he's singing and strumming. Yes, you will see the words "intelligent" and "busy" and think it's some dude just showing how smart he is. Wrong."
-Kevin Williams, The Chicago Tribune
"Briar Rabbit & The Company You Keep," one of the best local albums of the year"
-The Deli Chicago"Charming pop you want to put in your pocket."
-Matt Pais, The Chicago Red Eye
Both the lead vocals and the instrumentation on Briar Rabbit and the Company You Keep have the ability to be gentle without sounding weak, and that gives the album its most powerful moments. The songs are vagabonded and yet have a solid base in the tight, live-sounding performance and production, and in Phillip-Michael's songwriting expertise.
"A record played with impressive instrumental proficiency and written with a noticeable sense of earnestness, Briar Rabbit and the Company You Keep is a debut from a newly budding project that is going to surprise you with how well developed it is." - -Reviewsic
"Above all, The Company You Keep makes me set the album to repeat, engrossed in the instrumentation, intrigued by the lyrics, and excited about how else Briar Rabbit evolves."
