Born into a Cantonese speaking family, Le Fil learned English by singing along to a pop music diet of Bros and Kylie Minogue. Originally from Huddersfield, Yorkshire, but now based in Peckham, South London, the singer songwriter and artist has established himself on the underground culture circuit, with his blend of dark pop, provocative performance art, and striking sculptures, which focus on identity and gender politics.
[space height=”10″]
Le Fil moved to London to study sculpture at art college, and began to look at artworks like the “singing sculptures” of Gilbert & George, and Laurie Anderson.
[space height=”10″]
“I love music and I consider myself an artist, so I approached the songwriting like how I make sculpture – which is to put components together to present a philosophy, and something personal for me to live by. For my pop sculptures, the components are vocals, instruments and lyrics rather than clay or paper. Conceptually, its like instead of using my hands to sculpt something physical, I use my body in other ways to sculpt sounds or movement instead. And as each song is inspired by my personal experiences, the sounds and visuals will grow as I do.”
He’s collaborated on performances with London art and music collectives, LuckyPDF, and The Irrepressibles. He also starred in digital sculptures for the artist Adham Faramawy. Most recently he’s been working with US choreographer, Ryan Heffington, after being cast in Selfridge’s “Agender” campaign music video, ‘He She Me’, performed by Neneh Cherry and Dev Hynes.
[space height=”10″]
“Le Fil” is an abbreviation of his birth name, Philip Li, and when translated into French is a play on his androgyny, “the girl” (la fille), while at the same time meaning “the thread” – used by Fil to symbolise a continuing thread, a single train of thought connecting his ideas and tastes.
[space height=”10″]
Le Fil is a renaissance man, an all encompassing package of singing, dancing, and sculpture.
“I’m definitely an all-round artist and want to create a whole world for the music to flourish, somewhere fun and free of boundaries. We can make a place where all our fantasies can exist and anything we dream can be made into reality. We can all be pop sculptors!”
Le Fil’s EP, ‘Nightlife’, featuring the new single, ‘Genesis’, has been produced by artist and producer, Frankmusik, known for his work with Ellie Goulding and Sky Ferreira. ‘Nightlife’ is a retro album yet at the same time futuristic: like the artist himself it’s a glorious combination of styles which *works”.
[space height=”10″]
Le Fil comments,
“When I was writing this EP, I was inspired by lots of movies – Drive, Fifth Element, Akira, they all formed a visual backdrop for this epic world I was creating with the music. So I was extremely lucky to collaborate with Frankmusik on it as he was perfect at giving a really big cinematic finish to the sound.“
To find out more about Le Fil, check out his official website, Soundcloud, Instagram, and Facebook. You can download ‘Nightlife’ from iTunes and Amazon, stream it on Spotify, and order it as a limited edition CD from Bandcamp.
[space height=”10″]
