The Mourning: the muffled cry of progressive rock that Phil Headway recorded in 2007
Before diving into the folk rock scene, Phil Headway was already building, inside a home studio, a work that would come to define his relationship with time, loss, and prog music. Recorded entirely in 2007, The Mourning is the first album of his career and remains, to this day, unreleased on streaming platforms. The album is a deep dive into classic progressive rock, the genre that shaped his listening since childhood alongside Pink Floyd, Yes, Focus and Jethro Tull, as well as heavier bands like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. It’s these references that show up reimagined in his own compositions, where technique and emotion move forward together.
The backbone of the album is “Medley The Life’s Scream”, the first act of the project. In it, five songs connect without interruption: “The Little Flute”, “My Heart’s Not Beating Anymore”, “Guitar Class”, “You Fight Against the Loneliness” and “Funking You”. The sequence works as a single movement, a hallmark of prog rock, and exposes the young Phil’s obsession with long structures and musical narratives that unfold like chapters. These tracks were a signature of his former band FBB and revisited childhood memories: from the school recorder to his first guitar lessons, from the fear of loneliness to the energy of funk that also ran through him.
The second act brings more nostalgic songs, like “Don’t Blink”, “Little Guy”, “This Flower” and the title track “The Mourning”.
Here the album abandons the urgency of the medley to deal directly with mourning his father’s death. The lyrics and arrangements expose flashbacks of childhood and reflections on time and life.
It’s at this point that the album title takes on literal meaning: a lament, a process of working through grief that Phil transformed into music inside his own studio.
The genesis of the project is almost cinematic. The idea of recording a full album came up during a singing lesson with Ariel Coelho, when the teacher suggested Phil should document his compositions.
The following week, to Ariel’s surprise, Phil showed up with the demo of the entire album already recorded, playing all the instruments himself.
The episode reveals the creative urgency that drove the 17-year-old artist and explains why The Mourning carries such a raw, authorial energy.
Before diving into the folk rock scene, Phil Headway was already building, inside a home studio, a work that would come to define his relationship with time, loss, and prog music.
Recorded entirely in 2007, The Mourning is the first album of his career and remains, to this day, unreleased on streaming platforms. The album is a deep dive into classic progressive rock, the genre that shaped his listening since childhood alongside Pink Floyd, Yes, Focus and Jethro Tull, as well as heavier bands like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. It’s these references that show up reimagined in his own compositions, where technique and emotion move forward together.
The backbone of the album is “Medley The Life’s Scream”, the first act of the project. In it, five songs connect without interruption: “The Little Flute”, “My Heart’s Not Beating Anymore”, “Guitar Class”, “You Fight Against the Loneliness” and “Funking You”. The sequence works as a single movement, a hallmark of prog rock, and exposes the young Phil’s obsession with long structures and musical narratives that unfold like chapters. These tracks were a signature of his former band FBB and revisited childhood memories: from the school recorder to his first guitar lessons, from the fear of loneliness to the energy of funk that also ran through him.
In 2011, part of this material reached the world through YouTube with the release of the 16-minute videosong “The Life’s Scream”. The video let the audience see Phil performing all the instrumental layers, also featuring guitarist Ozeias Rodrigues on “Guitar Class” and saxophonist Braion Johnny on “Funking You”. Around the same time the videos for “Little Guy” and the stop motion for “This Flower” were released — the first song Phil ever wrote, composed when he was just three years old.
Even without official distribution on digital platforms, The Mourning circulates among fans and collectors as a rare document. It’s the portrait of an artist who started his journey collecting CDs of progressive rock and classic rock and decided to answer them with work of his own. In a recent interview, Phil Headway said he intends to release this album remixed and remastered in the not-too-distant future, but nothing has been confirmed yet. By turning grief into composition, he proved that progressive rock, even when muffled, still screams — and demands its place.