Episode 184: Interview With Ruby Dee Philippa

Ruby Dee Philippa doesn’t just defy categorization—she rewrites it. Raised between the wild foothills of Northern California and the dust-streaked plains of the Texas panhandle, her early life unfolded like a country-western ballad with punk rock chords. She rode horses near Folsom Prison, entered San Diego State University at 15, and found herself immersed in the San Francisco punk scene by the early '80s. Her journey from outsider teen to internationally touring musician and published author is as layered and unpredictable as her music.

“I’ve kind of lived the nine lives of Ruby Dee,” she says. That’s no exaggeration. From the choir lofts of her grandmother’s church to the squats of Haight Street, from co-founding Earth First!’s North Coast branch to working fishing boats in Alaska, Philippa’s path has twisted through rebellion, reinvention, and raw experience. Punk wasn’t a phase. It was a survival mechanism, a worldview, and ultimately, a muse.

At 15, she entered college, years ahead of her peers academically but light-years behind socially. “I was thrown into the deep end without knowing how to swim,” she says. While other students were drinking, voting, and partying, Philippa couldn’t legally drive. Her intellect set her apart, but it was her outsider status that pushed her toward the edges of society—where punk, and its ragtag family of misfits, awaited.

“Punk meant finding people like me—people who didn’t belong anywhere else,” she explains. “I met others who dressed differently, thought differently, and it felt like home. It was grim, it was wild, and yes, it was dangerous. But it was real.”

That authenticity came with consequences. Her descent into the drug-laced underbelly of punk was as fast as it was profound. For years, she pretended to be French—literally—convincing entire groups of friends that she was a Parisian transplant. “When I spoke French, I was more interesting. I was more likable. It was easier to be someone else,” she admits. “By the time I moved to San Francisco, everyone I knew thought I was French. That was the only version of me they knew.”

Philippa’s candor about her past isn’t performative. It’s the foundation of the multi-dimensional artist and writer she is today. Those early years eventually gave way to transformation. After leaving the scene and fighting to get clean, she pivoted from punk to activism, helping halt the destruction of California’s coastal redwoods through direct action. Later, she fished commercially in Alaska. Then came another radical shift—this time into the culinary world.

“I opened several restaurants in Seattle,” she says. “That’s when I finally reconnected with music.”

From that reconnection came Ruby Dee and the Snakehandlers, the roots-rockabilly band she founded in 2002. With her now-husband Jorge Harada on guitar, the group fused her Americana upbringing with his energetic style, shaping a sound that blends rockabilly, punk, jazz, and country. “I didn’t even know what rockabilly was at first,” she laughs. “But once we found that edge, it just clicked.”

Philippa’s musical résumé is impressive. Multiple Grammy considerations. International tours. Critical acclaim. But even more striking is her refusal to be pigeonholed. “There’s no box for my music because there’s no box for me. It’s country, punk, jazz, blues, and everything in between.”

Her creative evolution didn’t stop with music. During the 2023 WGA and SAG strikes, she turned downtime into literary firepower, completing a book series she had shelved years before. Reconnecting with old punk friends reignited the stories they used to swap—nights of debauchery, narrow escapes, and lives lived fast and loud. “Everyone said the same thing: Someone needs to write this down. So I did.”

The result is The Bag of Tricks Trilogy—a semi-fictional, semi-autobiographical series that pulls from her past while bending reality just enough to keep readers guessing. “They’re based on real events, real people,” she says. “But I twisted them, made them surreal, bigger than life. That’s how memory works anyway.”

The first two installments—Tricky Business and Old Tricks, New Treats—are already out, with a third on the way. Though characters are composites and stories dramatized, many of her real-life punk friends recognized themselves in the pages. “One of them called me and said, ‘Wait a minute… is this me?’ And I said, ‘It started with you, but I made it someone else.’ It’s all part of the process.”

Her dual identity as a musician and author is less a career pivot than a natural extension of her need to tell stories. Whether belting lyrics on stage or exploring punk’s emotional residue on the page, Ruby Dee Philippa is always digging deep, channeling chaos into craft. “We looked wild back then, sure. But we were just trying to figure ourselves out, like everyone else,” she says. “That’s really what these stories are about—finding your way, however messy it gets.”

Now on a book tour while still performing music, Philippa shows no signs of slowing down. Her music can be found at RubyDeeMusic.com

and her literary work lives at RubyDeePhilippa.com, where readers can explore her trilogy and stay updated on upcoming readings.

For those drawn to true stories told with grit and soul, Philippa offers something rare—unflinching honesty, genre-defying creativity, and the kind of life experience you simply can’t fake. “At the end of the day,” she says, “this is all part of American music and culture. And I’m just one voice carrying it forward.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaRx6udCxSY

🎧 To hear the full conversation with Ruby Dee Philippa, tune in to his episode on The Savoir Faire Audio Experience, streaming now.