Music Monday #10: "Tell Me a Story" by Phillip Phillips (@phillips)

When I first started The Mortal Institute, I was in the middle of the season of my favorite reality show: American Idol. As those who have followed me for a while may know, I'm obsessed with music. When the 2012 season started, I had my winner picked from the first moment. Phillip Phillips was that guy.

For those of you who haven't heard the 21-year-old singer/guitarist from Georgia, Phillip's debut song "Home" was a sensation this summer, playing almost every moment the U.S. Olympics gymnastics team aired. The song, which was released when Phillip won Idol back in May, marked the highest debut on the Billboard Digital songs chart with 278,000 downloads sold. It on the radio all the time, and it seems like Phillip's musical career has hit the big time.

His freshman release, titled The World From The Side Of The Moon, has all the best mix of my favorite current artists. Phillip, who goes by @Phillips on Twitter, has the vocals like Dave Matthews, the soulfulness of Mumford &Sons and the passion of classic artists like Creedance Clearwater Revival. I started to go ahead and pick "Home" for this week's song, but I found this amazing track on his CD called "Tell Me a Story", which I feel is a perfect track for The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and is my choice for Music Monday:

Here's the lyrics, if you want to follow along:

Tell you a story and it starts with time
moves to how you live and learn how to die
another phase in this world that brings death to life

So don't believe in everything you see
because what you want might not be what you need
Hold your breath
jump with me
and we'll survive
cause you are the sun that leads me to the light

Hope is just a ray of what everyone should see
alone is the street where you found me
scared of what's behind you and scared of what's in front
live with what you have now
and make the best of what's to come

Tell me a story long and true
we are what we saywe are what we do
just pieces of a puzzle to find where we stand
just confused
so you are the moon that pulls me through the night

Hope is just a ray of what everyone should see
alone is the street where you found me
scared of what's behind you
and scared of what's in front
live with what you have now
and make the best of what's to come
live with what you have now
and make the best of what's to come

Hope is just a ray of what everyone should see
alone is the street where you found me
scared of what's behind you
and scared of what's in front
live with what you have now
and make the best of what's to come

So you are the sun that leads me
you are the moon that pulls me
you are the light that leads me
you are the moon that pulls me

Here's some more details about Phillip from his site:

Now, with a Billboard Hot 100 top-ten debut under his belt, the Leesburg, Georgia-bred songwriter is gearing up to record his first album for 19 entertainment/Interscope Records. “It’s going to have more of a rock sound it,” says Phillips, who counts Eric Clapton as one of his key influences. “The most important thing to me is making music that comes from my heart and really connects with people on a gut level.”

Phillips first began making music when he was 14, thanks largely to his older sister’s boyfriend (and now husband), Benjamin Neil. “Ben’s an amazing guitarist—he taught me a few chords one day and I just fell in love with it immediately,” says Phillips. Since the two lived in separate towns, Phillips kept on studying guitar on his own (“mostly by playing along to the karaoke machine”) and soon found himself mastering riffs from classic-rock tracks like Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” and Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train.” Several years later, Phillips formed an acoustic band with his sister and brother-in-law and added singing to his repertoire. “I used to always keep my singing to myself and never let anyone hear me, but then my sister and brother-in-law caught me one night and told me I had to start singing in the band,” he says. “We played at a church that Sunday and the room was packed and I thought I was going to pass out, but I did it.”

After graduating high school, Phillips began studying industrial systems technology at Albany Technical College in Georgia and continued playing music with his brother-in-law. “We got a name for ourselves, playing in college towns and at festivals, sometimes just playing for free or for food,” says Phillips. With encouragement from his family and friends, Phillips took a break from working in his family’s pawn shop and auditioned for American Idol in summer 2011—and soon found himself tearing through powerful, full-throated performances of songs by artists like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Otis Redding, and Wilson Pickett on the Idol stage. As he readies himself to record his debut release, Phillips aims to channel that soulful spirit into acoustic-driven rock with an earthy, authentic sound. “I’m still so amazed at how this has worked out,” says Phillips, who plans to bring his brother-in-law onto the album as a guitarist. “I knew I’d always have music no matter what happens, but I never imagined that it would get to this level. I’m so excited to just get going and have a great time doing it.”

Send me a tweet to @TMI_institute if you have a suggestion for Music Monday, and I may just pick your selection!