Music Is My Livelihood
Philip’s Story
When the doctor told me, “You may never sing again,” and “This is the point where people normally weep here in my office,” I sat and stared at the stethoscope on the wall.
Everything I had been doing for the past 10 years and all my dreams came crashing down 
around the tiny scars on my vocal chords. I misused my voice on the road, and it was coming back to haunt me. I had known the power of a melody, the power of a song, and I knew the impact that it could have on people’s lives. I knew that it was worth chasing. I knew that it was connecting us with something we can’t really describe but are inspired by; we are moved in our deepest parts by sound.
After two months of not speaking in an effort to heal the vocal chords and a surgery to cut the scars off, I fell headlong into the studio in the dark hours of the night. I made music because it simply needed to be made. I searched for sounds that made me feel something powerful: grief, loss, sorrow, joy, triumph, pain, heartache, love. As the sounds took shape and inspired melodies, I felt as if I uncovered full songs underneath those sounds. after a year of wondering if I could sing on top of these soundscapes, I finally got into the vocal booth and gave it a shot. It was feeble and weak, but eventually my voice was strong enough to sing these songs. If anyone else had experienced loss or grief like I had combined with the insecurity of the future and the loss of a dream, I wanted them to feel what I felt; to write some small hope into my own life and hopefully spark a small bit of life into someone’s else’s world.
In the moment I thought my dreams had died, music has helped me heal, and I hope that my journey can move someone a little bit closer to hope and maybe inspire them to do the same for someone else.
About Philip
Arrows and Sound was born in the studio. The band started in 2011 when producers Philip Zach and Riley Friesen teamed up to record music on their free time. Without the constraints of demographic, marketability, or any other type of construct, the two decided to make the music they would love to listen to and ended up crafting the emotional soundscapes that became Arrows and Sound.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the ability of sound to generate emotion and reveal what our hearts are longing to say. Arrows and Sound starts with a noise. A chord on the piano, the palm of a hand against the pavement of a garage floor in rhythmic motion, the strike of a mallet against a bell. And from that sound, a melody is born, and soon a specific emotion emerges. Like arrows targeted at the heart, the music I love and the music I want to make is centered around the ability of melodies and soundscapes to make us feel, to be inspired, to articulate the subtle groans of our hearts without saying a word. For the past year, I’ve been so blessed to chase these concepts in the controlled and specific environment of the studio, and now I want to finish this record with vocals that will articulate what the music is already starting to say. Arrows and Sound is my attempt to make music that moves me and hopefully others, to connect with hearts on a level that only sound can.“
– Philip Zach