Richard Phoenix is an artist who paints, writes and makes music, helps make people be together and has been working with disabled people for more than 15 years.
Richard started working by playing in bands (Punk: Rock.) in 1997. Punk: Rock. He mainly played the drums. Most of them have been bands or projects embracing DIY ethics and involved with DIY scenes.
DIY: do it yourself. In music, it promotes the idea that anyone can become a musician and share their music. It empowers individuals and communities.
In 2006 he went to a band called Beat Express to play in Brighton, which most of the members had disabilities. It was his first time, and he mentions it as one of the most beautiful gigs he ever went to. Richard supported these musicians with his knowledge of DIY and began discovering more bands like this one. PKN, a Finnish punk band he fell in love with, was brought to the UK because “I wanted them to be inserted in a place where others could love their music”. Constant Flux was founded so he could find finance to bring this band to tour in the UK.
In 2018, he designed a manifesto for the DIY community to follow along. Anti-racist, anti-homophobic. DIY as Privilege – 13 point Manifesto for musicians.
Disability – I use the social model of disability. The idea is that the environment, society, and culture surrounds someone that create barriers and obstacles that disable and exclude them.
This term turned into a full pamphlet going into more depth about the people and ideas that underpin the manifesto. Published by Rought Trace Books and called DIY as a privilege: A manifesto.
There is an audience for everything, and ideas of what is good music will always be political.
“Every art form is intimately related to a type of life experience. The difference between chamber music and jazz is not one of quality, finesse, or virtuosity but of two ways of life, which the people involved did not choose but were born into”
__John Berger
Also, in 2018, I had surgery on one of my ears, marking a step away from bands and music. I had to cancel everything I had planned for six months in terms of tours and gigs. I refocused on painting again and started to rebuild my social life.