360 Phoenix Flip – Musician Spotlight

There are over 200 different tricks you can do with a skateboard, from the familiar ollies and pop shuvits to the lesser-known gazelle flips and grape flips. One trick that sounds really exciting is the 360 phoenix flip, but there is only one problem with completing it: it doesn’t exist…

Still, despite the term not being a true skateboarding trick, the Hangzhou, China-based musician 360 Phoenix Flip is making some of the most authentic skate punk out there today.

Released on March 19th, 2021, “Day in the Life” is the 6th release by artist Mark Lovett under his new artist name of 360 Phoenix Flip. The track is a retrospective that compares Lovett’s life today to what it was ten years ago, with lyrics detailing how, as a teenager, “empty wallet rarely meant unhappiness” for Lovett.

Today, Lovett sings that “even though I’ve got a kid of my own I’m still the childish one,” referencing how his love for skating and teenage antics is still just as strong as ever even as he is nine years into a mortgage on a home and has since become a father.

Even the album art reflects this dichotomy, picturing a grey-bearded and grandpa-sandal-clad Lovett still skating through the park, wearing a cap on backwards and crouching as if he is preparing to perform the newest trick flip. Maybe he’ll attempt the yet-unseen 360 Phoenix Flip?

Breaking away from his usual use of synthesizers, “Day in the Life” sounds like it belongs on the skate punk and ska soundtrack to the original 1999 Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater for the Playstation. Lovett leans into the mix of nasally vocals and shouting that people often think of when they conjure up thoughts of late ‘90s and early ‘00s skate punk, but you can still hear how capable his voice is underneath the nostalgic mask he is using.

The song is a total love letter to groups like NOFX and Pennywise, with rhythmic power chords distorted throughout and Lovett providing his own call-and-response backing vocals on the choruses. If you spent your teenage years on a board, you definitely need to check out “Day in the Life.”

360 Phoenix Flip isn’t just releasing your standard skate punk fare, though; the artist is committed to releasing both traditional skate punk and newer synth-laden pop punk tracks every 6 weeks. Following up on the release of “Day in the Life,” 360 Phoenix Flip released “Demons” in April 2021 and is planning another release for June 11 of this year.

“Demons” is the latest 360 Phoenix Flip track and makes a return to a more general pop punk sound akin to All Time Low and Taking Back Sunday, complete with gang vocals on the choruses and palm-muted power chords. What starts as a slowed-down guitar solo halfway through the track quickly evolves into a fast-paced string of hammer-ons that once again sounds like it could have been on a Warped Tour compilation in 2008. Lyrically, the track tackles the thought of breaking free from the demons that hold you back, with Lovett singing: “A key turn in the locked cage of self-imprisonment / And a ray of UV-laced freedom / Smiling down on me.”

Overall, 360 Phoenix Flip is just having fun while releasing tracks that sound incredibly familiar despite their novelty. While Lovett has stated that his artist rebranding was simply due to the difficulty of finding his music when searching his legal name online, one can’t help but think that his choice of name references more than just a fictional skateboard trick: just like a phoenix rises from the ashes each time it dies, perhaps 360 Phoenix Flip is helping the skate punk sounds of the 90’s and 00’s to again rise to prominence after falling from the spotlight. After all, if they remade Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 in 2020, maybe there is a skate punk revival coming after all!

Austin’s arbitrary rating: 1 full circle, made of 360 degrees. Also a phoenix. ⭕ 🐦

360 Phoenix Flip is a skate punk and pop-punk solo project from UK-born and Hangzhou, China-based musician Mark Lovett. You can follow 360 Phoenix Flip on Bandcamp, Spotify, Soundcloud, and Instagram.

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