Biography
Electronic music composer Philip Perkins spent years working in film while forming creative partnerships with multiple West Coast experimental figures such as the Residents and the Hub. Born in Pennsylvania, he first experimented with tape recorders during his high school years as a member of several pop and rock ensembles. Throughout the 1970s he directed a series of experimental films that included Crownfire in 1973, Patchwork in 1977, and Gila in 1979, and he helped establish the Eugene Filmmaker's Cinemateque in Oregon alongside Scott Fraser and additional partners. After earning a liberal arts degree from the University of the Pacific in 1973, Perkins spent the next two years studying filmmaking under David Foster before relocating to San Francisco, where he joined the board of the Canyon Cinema Cooperative and remained active from 1978 through 1981. During those same years his interests shifted decisively toward electronic composition. In 1979 he joined Fraser, “Blue” Gene Tyranny, and others to operate the Fun Music label, and that same year his ongoing association with the Residents began. Over the following five years Perkins produced videos for artists on the Ralph Records roster while also recording and touring alongside the Residents themselves. Additional projects brought him together with conductor and vocalist Frederick Goff as well as the computer ensemble known as the Hub (Computer Network Music). Commissions for radio pieces led to the creation of “South Florida Remote” in 1988, “Berkeley Remote” in 1989, and “San Francisco Remote,” each incorporating live performers responding to specially designed electronic systems. In 2013 Body Double reissued a group of Perkins compositions originally produced for a mid-1980s AM radio program aimed at morning commuters; the set, titled Drive Time, had first appeared in a limited edition in 1985 bearing the identical name as the broadcast for which the works were created.
Albums
