Sayce quickly gained attention as a teenage guitarist through his regular gigs at Toronto clubs, and he gradually developed a solid fan base. Sayce moved to
Los Angeles with his wife to expand his music career. He soon landed a gig with
Uncle Kracker and toured with him for eighteen months. During this time the powerful cover of Dobie Gray's
Drift Away set a Billboard record for most weeks at #1 on any chart, for a staggering 28 weeks in the United States. With Uncle Kracker, Philip appeared on the album "No Stranger To Shame", and on TV shows such as ''New Year's Rockin’ Eve
, Regis and Kelly, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and The CBS Early Show''. Sayce also wrote the music for the 2002 short film,
Cockroach Blue, which he also starred in. It was produced and directed by award-winning Robert Crossman. The film was shown at the 2003
Woodstock Film Festival. In the autumn of 2003, Sayce met
John Shanks in the amp department at
Westwood Music in Los Angeles while trying out some amplifiers. Just a week before,
Melissa Etheridge had mentioned to Shanks that she was looking for a guitar player and was thinking of trying somebody different. Shanks referred Sayce to her and in January 2004, Sayce joined Etheridge and her band for her
Lucky Tour. Sayce appeared on Etheridge's
Lucky CD and the
Lucky Live CD & DVD, released in September 2004,
Melissa Etheridge Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled released in 2005,
The Awakening" released in 2007, and
A New Thought For Christmas released in September 2008. He also performed on Etheridge's "
I Need To Wake Up" from the
Al Gore 2006 documentary film
An Inconvenient Truth. Sayce appeared with Etheridge at the
2007 Academy Awards,
Live Earth in 2007, The
2005 Grammy Awards as part of a tribute to
Janis Joplin (along with
Joss Stone), and at the
2008 Democratic National Convention in
Denver,
Colorado. Sayce released his album
Peace Machine, on
Provogue Records in 2009. He released a second album
Innerevolution in Europe, in May 2010. In July 2010, Sayce supported
ZZ Top in Europe and in December 2010, he supported
Deep Purple on their French dates. Sayce released the albums
Ruby Electric (2011) and
Steamroller (2012), produced by Dave Cobb, in Europe, and promoted these releases with multiple tours across Europe and the United Kingdom. He performed at
Eric Clapton's
Crossroads Guitar Festival 2013 in
New York City at
Madison Square Garden, and was highlighted among the top performances of the festival by Premier Guitar. Sayce signed with
Warner Music Canada in 2015 after Warner VP Steve Waxman discovered Sayce's music while streaming tunes on
Spotify. Sayce made his major label album debut on April 7, 2015, with the release of
Influence, and scored a top 20 hit at rock radio in Canada with his rendition of
Ten Years After's, "I'd Love To Change the World". Sayce toured in support of
Influence in 2015, with performances at the
Fuji Rock Festival,
Montreal International Jazz Festival, and
Ottawa Bluesfest.
Scorched Earth, a live EP recorded at The Silver Dollar Room in Toronto, Canada was released via Warner Music Canada in 2016. Sayce released his album
Spirit Rising in 2020 with Warner Music Canada during the
COVID-19 pandemic, and it quickly became his most popular release to date receiving millions of streams of songs such as
Burning Out,
Spirit, and
Black Roller Coming. The entire album is dedicated to Sayce's father, who is instrumental in Philip's love of music. In August 2021, Sayce shared social media posts from the studio in Los Angeles where he is recording his follow-up to
Spirit Rising. ==Discography==