12-26-2024
My name is Phillip Jarrell. I’m an American multimedia artist most widely known as the co writer of the classic hit song, “Torn Between Two Lovers”. I was a staff writer for the Muscle Shoals Sound Music publishing company, in Alabama, in the 1970s’. It was there that I met Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul, and Mary, and together we wrote “Torn Between Two Lovers”. In 1977 I signed as an artist to Motown Records, and then in 1979 with Twentieth Century Fox Records. By 1983 I put my guitars in storage, and took my camera, which was my second artistic love, and embarked on another great journey. Photography took me around the world many times.
In 2001 I landed in Shanghai, which became my second home. I lived there until 2022. I co-founded a photography studio in Shanghai, where clients kept me working for major fashion magazines and commercial brands. Eventually I shot 72 magazine covers, with an average of 450 full fashion pages yearly, for about 5 years. Also I shot major live performances like the Rolling Stones for Getty Images and commercial campaigns for the likes of Disney, including the “Lion King”, in Shanghai, which was the first ever Disney production in mandarin, for the Chinese market. 2 years later I shot the campaign for “Beauty and the Beast”.
I wrote and recorded songs in my apartment while in lock down. It was the only expression I had, due to the circumstances. I was working on a song called “Learning to Talk” when the “Our Father” song just flowed out of me, and I recorded it immediately. So the actual sounds you hear were recorded in my apartment during the Shanghai lock down.
During the last 2 years, since the COVID lock downs I have taken a lot of time to search and research the meaning of life, creating a book and art show, yet to be released and I have been in the studio recording songs. Some new, and some old, but all not yet released to the public. My songs were always focused on personal relationships with social commentary.