Dave Phillips (born January 18, 1969) also known as dp, is a British-French-Swiss experimental noise musician, composer, performer and multimedia artist. He is best known for his solo work, but also as part of Schimpfluch-Gruppe, as founder of the group OHNE, as one half of Perverts In White Shirts, and as founding member of Swiss grindcore pioneers Fear Of God. He has been active since the mid 1980s in independent metal, hardcore punk and noise music scenes. Phillips refers to his oeuvre as Ritual Protest Music.
Life Phillips was born on 18 January 1969 in Zug, Switzerland to a British father and French mother. At age five he buys his first 7", Waterloo by ABBA, then discovers heavy metal age eight and hardcore punk age twelve. He grows up in Oberägeri from 1974 to 1985, then lives in Unterägeri.
Phillips moved to Zürich in 1988 to join RecRec Music, a record label and distributor of independent music, and a cooperative, with whom he stayed until 1994. He began organising concerts, amongst others the first live appearances of Extreme Noise Terror, Carcass and Godflesh in Switzerland. From 1995 until 1997 he worked for Jecklin, Switzerland's then-biggest classical music record shop. In 1997 he experiences a heavy injury that damages his back for life. He returns to the stage in 2001.
From 2020 onwards Phillips lives with his parents as carer for 15 months, and with his siblings accompanied their father right up to his death. One and a half years later they again provide end-of-life care, this time for their mother. These experiences have a profound impact on him.
Career Phillips performed live for the first time in 1981 (age 12) with Unterägeri punk band Neo Pogos playing cardboard drums.
In 1984 Phillips and Reto Kühne form Messiah, but his involvement is short. Phillips begins his solo career in 1987, though his first album only appears in 1994. From 1988 to 1999 he plays with Stephen Thomas under different names (Tower of Beef, D&S, Doug&Chuck) from noise rock, dance/ballet music, to sound collage and Plunderphonics. They perform live once and release one posthumous collection in 2023. Phillips has been DJing since 1995 under the monicker eva d., playing "all styles my style".
From 1999 until 2002 Phillips and Reto Mäder participated in Zeitgenossen, a monthly radio-show for new music with on Radio Kanal K in Aarau.
In 2000 Phillips and Tom Smith (of TLASILA) found OHNE and include Daniel Löwenbrück (Tochnit Aleph, Raionbashi) and Reto Mäder (rm74) in the line-up. OHNE were active until 2004. That same year, Phillips started dead peni (stylised as all lower case), a one-man doom metal/sludge project.
In 2005 Phillips and Tochnit Aleph curate one evening for the LUFF/Lausanne Underground Film and Music Festival titled ‘Nuits Bruit des Corps’ including Masonna, Zbigniew Karkowski, Daniel Menche and dp's only performance of hole/holy. That same year Phillips is part of Camp Victory, a noise-opera by Gilles Aubry and Stéphane Montavon.
In 2008/2009 Phillips plays bass and vocals for ‘Ketsu No Ana’, a grindcore/blackened crust outfit with Zürich squatters. After the squat they rehearsed in got raided and their drummer disappeared they split up.
Phillips curated a series of experimental/sound art/new music live events, first called entart, then atonal_zürich, then atra, from 2013 to 2017 nearly-monthly at Klubi (later Umbo) in Zürich, and from 2018 to 2019 at Ausland, Berlin.
As of 2025, Phillips has played around 800 concerts in 55 countries and has appeared on over 300 releases.
Selected Discography Solo
with Perverts In White Shirts 2017: Power To The Sheople LP (Cruel Bones Zürich) 2022: Meaning What Exactly? LP (Misanthropic Agenda Houston) 2025: CULTurally Appropriated Songs 2CD (Misanthropic Agenda Houston)
with Schimpfluch-Gruppe 1997: Shitpflug CDR (Ignominious USA) 1997: Do-Ku VHS (Gmbh Paris) 1997: Arschloch-Onna with Masonna CD (Japan Overseas Osaka) 2007: Schimpfluch Commune Int 2MC+CDR (Nihilist Chicago) 2007: For The Tasmanian Devils 9*lathe (Cipher Productions Tasmania) 2009: Paris Aktionen LP (Bennifer Editions Toronto & Tochnit Aleph Berlin) 2013: Nigredo MC (Fragment Factory Hamburg)
with OHNE 2002: 1 CD (ohnemego Austria) 2003: 020510 CDR (Spirals Of Involution Yaroslavl) 2003: 020503 CD (The Egg And We Minsk) 2004: 02004 CDR (Tochnit Aleph Berlin)
with Fear Of God 1988: Fear Of God 7" (Temple of Love Germany) 1988: As Statues Fell 12" (Off The Disk Zürich) 1992: Konserven 7" (Two Sheds St.Gallen) 1992: Pneumatic Slaughter 7" (Atrocious USA) 2003: Zeitgeist 2LP (Absurd São Paulo)
Collaborations 2000: For Rudolf Eb.er with Genetic Transmission, CDR (DSBMW Poland) 2001: Half Human/Chair Missing with Kid Commando, picture 7" (Lady Godiva Gothenburg) 2003: Easy Vegan Cooking with Eric Boros 7" (Manufacture Lausanne & Pale Mother Denmark) 2005: Illusion Is A Common Condition with Randy H.Y. Yau CD (Auscultare San Francisco) 2006: At A Loss For Words 7" with John Wiese (Blossoming Noise Lilburn) 2007: Das Zerstören Zum Gebären CD with The New Blockaders (Blossoming Noise Lilburn) 2010: We Are None Of Us with Francisco Meirino CD (Domizil Zürich) 2010: Mutations with Cornelia Hesse-Honegger LP (Ini Itu Brussels) 2012: боринософил with Alexei Borisov & Olga Nosova CD (Monotype Warsaw) 2014 Medusa with Aspec(t) CD (Noise Below/Excrete Greece) 2015: The Invisible Cage Of Comfort with Chris Galarreta MC (Fragment Factory Hamburg) 2015: Insect Apocalypse with Hiroshi Hasegawa CD (Monotype Poland) 2016: The Ghost Of Freaks with Michael Esposito Flexi-7" (Phantom Plastics Indiana) 2017: untitled with Mei Zhiyong LP (Urbsounds Bratislava) 2020: Colonial War And Mental Disorders MC with Meira Asher & Eran Sachs (Raash Jerusalem) 2022: The Best Of Chuck & Doug with Stephen Thomas MC (Attenuation Circuit, Augsburg)
Film scores 2008: dp L’Îlot by Mario del Curto 2010: dp La Chienne by Klaudia Reynicke 2019: dp The Call of Cthulhu by Andrew Leman for IoIC 2022: dp Un Chien Andalou by Luis Buñuel & Salvador Dalí for IoIC
Filmography 2010: Skills/Faces by Jan van Hasselt 2013: A Noisy Delivery by GX Jupitter-Larsen 2015: Sonic Rituals 声响仪式 by Mei ZhiYong 2017: Proceed With Inquiry by Dave Phillips, GX Jupitter-Larsen, Jan van Hasselt, Moju, Remote Control Rectum 2019: Tinnitus by Daniil Zinchenko<
Awards 2001: Auszeichnung des Aargauer Kuratoriums Beitrag zum künstlerischen Schaffen 2005: Six months grant for use of a recording studio in Zürich from the city's culture department (Kulturförderung der Stadt Zürich)
Exhibitions 2003: participation at EMA – Electronic Music Archive, curated by Norbert Möslang for Kunsthalle St.Gallen
Further reading Texts from Dave's website Article about Dave by Mandy-Suzanne Wong, a columnist with Manque Magazine Metason artist info
References
External links Dave Phillips official website