An independent artist from Philadelphia, VNIX always felt different from most kids around him. As a child, he was deeply intuitive, creative, sensitive, hyper-vigilant, introverted, but strong-willed, intellectual, and determined. The need to contribute to the world in ways that unified humanity and strengthened their hearts was always at the core of his focus. Feeling out of place and bullied at school, he retreated to his room or various empty churches that had pianos, where he taught himself to write, sing, and perform at a young age. Sitting in the dark, hardly able to see the keys, allowed him to let nothing but the music speak through his fingers, finding the right chords that reflected the best soundscape to his feelings or thoughts. In addition, he drew video game monsters, a way of taking the dark parts of his own life and creating beauty out of them through art, wrote horror stories, books, poetry, designed clothes, came up with invention ideas, and even created horror movie scripts and concepts regularly as an escape from his feelings of isolation, emotional burn out, and trauma. During this time, he branched out to local musical theaters as a means of expression and outlet for his creative inclinations and to seek community with like-minds.
As he got older, his parents surprised him with a keyboard for Christmas and so his poetry turned into songwriting and his inner thoughts into vocalized melody. He began carrying his keyboard to various open mics to test his original music on any ear that would listen. In 2006, he received a full scholarship for acting at Point Park University. A memorable experience from that was having the theater director leave the audition room to find his parents and shake their hand saying "That was the best audition I've ever seen." Originally wanting to act in films or direct horror movies, his love for music was too powerful to ignore and he later dropped out to pursue his passion. Shortly after, he auditioned and received scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music, but dropped out after 2 years due to massive student loan debt and financial inability.
Losing hope, he returned back home to the place he tried to escape so often. He learned to instill in himself the importance of persistence and hard work and dedicated his life to chasing this dream and finding a way to make the impossible possible. He began writing music prolifically, composing hundreds of songs, some of which can be found on his YouTube channel in his "Song A Day" series. With little money and resources and virtually no networks, VNIX learned to become a self-sufficient creative force, understanding very early on, that if he wanted his dream to come to fruition, he’d have to fund every aspect of his art himself and build any bridge that was needed to be crossed. From here, he began working 2-3 jobs to save up to record; however, his first studio album was abandoned, feeling that the music was not aligned with the aesthetic he imagined for himself. Leaving that music behind, he adopted the alias V The Phoenix and performed locally, but these performances always left him with a sense of emptiness, as he felt constrained to a piano and unable to showcase all the other aspects to his creativity that he longed to share.
With an intense desire to turn VNIX into something larger than himself, he began to design his own costumes and stage props, conceiving a live show that was more than just music but a whole experience. Heavily influenced by his father's love for comic-books and superheroes, as well as, his own admiration for the phoenix mythology and spiritual connection to the rebirth energy of the cosmos, he began transforming VNIX into a multi-platform icon; painting and selling art, writing poetry, writing philosophy, designing outlandish wardrobes, wearing red phoenix face paint, building giant stage constructions, and over the top props like his keyboard with large phoenix wings. In 2017, he even shaved his head and had his entire scalp tattooed with beautiful red roses that extend down his neck, chest, shoulder, and arm; a symbol of beauty blossoming from something dark, the power of rebirth and transformation he spiritually inherited as the human incarnation of the Phoenix.
VNIX has put on spectacularly theatrical and high energy concerts in Philadelphia's Love Park to large crowds, including venues like Kung Fu Necktie, World Cafe Live, NYC's Underground Lounge, Goodbye Blue Monday, and showcases such as ETC Performance Art Series. He was also selected as an emerging artist to perform at the Beta Hi-Fi Emerging Music Festival in Philadelphia.
Since then, he has released a 4 song pop EP titled "500" worldwide which was produced by Benny Reiner of Hamilton and mixed by Mike Roberts of Betty Who. Later, he premiered a music video for the single "Creep". During this release, VNIX spent his time performing around NYC and Philly, recording and releasing live albums of original songs and covers, which can be found on his youtube and Soundcloud channels. In addition, he filmed a “Making The Album” series on Youtube for a 3 album concept anthology titled "The Murders of Love Anthology" with the first album being titled "Horror Romance". In these videos he detailed the process behind being an independent artist with enormous creative ideas and the obstacles one encounters as a result; such as his 2017 diagnosis of vocal fold paralysis, the struggle to afford the costs of recording and music videos, etc. He has since decided to shelve that project for a future date when he has a larger budget and team to bring the project to life exactly as he envisioned.
In 2018-2019, VNIX released two singles. The first, "Sexual Telepathy", was his debut solo release produced and recorded by himself (with the exception of co-mixing/mastering) and meant to showcase the dark pop aesthetic he had been working on. Following this, he released a live studio recording "Fear Over Love" which he performed acoustically on piano at the famous Milkboy Studio in Philadelphia, PA. The song was set to be another produced release, but unfortunately, the file for the production was corrupted, so he compromised with himself by releasing an acoustic version instead. From 2020 on, VNIX has released multiple singles such as "Bad For You" and "Love Through The Pain" which in August 2023 were featured on a new album comprising of all his professional recorded works, thus far, titled "SEXISTENTIAL".
Currently, VNIX is recording his debut album "Chrysalis" which will dive into the exploration of generational trauma, narcissistic family systems, and being a scapegoated child.
UPCOMING
Album "Chrysalis"
Album "Apotheosis"
Album "Zenith Chasm"
Christmas Album
Self-help book "The Powerful You"
Painting series "Damaged Gods"