It has been almost two seasons since Phillip Phillips was on American Idol and experienced his first massive Billboard hit “Home.”
Hosted by MSC OPAS as part of a national tour, Phillips will perform on Wednesday in Rudder Auditorium to promote the May release of his second studio album, “Behind the Light.”
Rachel Fisher, chair of OPAS student committee, said she anticipated a sold out show — tickets sold out a week before Phillips’ performance.
“We definitely knew this was going to be a big show and hoped to sell out quickly, and that’s what happened,” Fisher said.
Phillips said packing emotion into the songs was especially important during the making of “Behind the Light.”
“It’s like you’re writing down something in your private journal and whatever and you just gave it away to a whole bunch of people to read or listen to,” Phillips said. “It’s scary because people are just going to — people automatically judge you — good or bad. It’s always scary, but the best thing is it’s no one else’s thoughts, it’s no one else’s emotions.”
Phillips said he wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on his new album and that every song is one he can be proud of. In particular, he said the song “Trigger” evolved naturally into a meaningful piece during the recording process.
“It’s just a heavier song,” Phillips said. “It’s different than anything else on either one of my albums.”
Phillips said he and his bandmates pushed each other while recording the album.
“To me it was like I already wrote the songs,” Phillip said. “Musically, I just wanted it to have a lot more personality instead of just having a straight song. I wanted there to be some cool string parts or cool guitar riffs other than the riff that I’m playing.”
Listeners have the potential to tailor the meaning of the music to their own personal experiences, Phillips said.
“Once you share [music] with everybody else it’s no longer yours, because they can take it in any kind of way they want to,” Phillips said. “That’s the beautiful thing about music.”
Being able to pull in bigger acts like Phillips this year is exciting for OPAS, Fisher said.
“We as a student programming committee, it’s part of our mission to bring world-class entertainment to Texas A&M and the Bryan-College Station area,” Fisher said. “We’re very grateful for the funding abilities and our incredible staff resources and just kind of a perseverance of a student committee to bring in these huge names and different performances. We’re really excited to see where we go in the future and just really pumped for Phillip Phillips.”
Fisher said because programs like Phillips’ are student-oriented, ticket prices are subsidized and therefore lower than a regular ticket price.
“The Memorial Student Center has money in reserve specifically designated for student programs,” Fisher said. “By pulling from that source of revenue we’re able to make tickets affordable for students for these big names that everyone is interested in versus kind of our bigger Broadway shows like ‘Anything Goes,’ or even Willie Nelson which has a broader demographic. That’s what we’re aiming for.”
On his national tour, Phillip Phillips will stop in College Station on Wednesday to promote his album “Behind the Light.”