Phil Shöenfelt & Southern Cross

Biography

Phil Shoenfelt is a veteran of the London, Manchester and New York punk and post-punk scenes. After getting caught up in the London punk explosion of 1976-1977, he moved to New York where he played with several Downtown bands such as The Nothing and Disturbed Furniture. In 1981 he formed Khmer Rouge with ex-Clash DJ Barry "Scratchy" Myers, Marcia Schofield (who later went on to play keyboards with The Fall), and Claus Castenskiold. The first performance of the band was at the 1981 White Columns...

Phil Shoenfelt is a veteran of the London, Manchester and New York punk and post-punk scenes. After getting caught up in the London punk explosion of 1976-1977, he moved to New York where he played with several Downtown bands such as The Nothing and Disturbed Furniture. In 1981 he formed Khmer Rouge with ex-Clash DJ Barry "Scratchy" Myers, Marcia Schofield (who later went on to play keyboards with The Fall), and Claus Castenskiold. The first performance of the band was at the 1981 White Columns Noise Festival, organised by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. Khmer Rouge played innumerable shows at CBGBs, The Peppermint Lounge, Danceteria and The Ritz in the early 1980's, as well as supporting artists and bands such as Alan Vega, Tom Verlaine, Nico and The Clash at concerts across the USA. Khmer Rouge relocated to London in 1984 and went on to support The Fall on two British tours as well as recording with producer John Leckie. The band finally split in 1986, and a retrospective double compilation CD was released on the English label Voiceprint in September 2004.

After the split, Phil went solo. Moving away from the stripped down rhythms and politicised lyrics of Khmer Rouge into more song-based territory, he had his first solo single released in 1989 on Mark E. Smith's Cog Sinister label. Two solo CDs - Backwoods Crucifixion and God Is The Other Face Of The Devil - followed on different independent labels, and are notable for the dark atmospherics and rich textures of the music as well as the bleak content of the lyrics. Phil was invited by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds to be special guest at several of their shows in the early 1990's, and in 1994 he did a tour of the Czech Republic backed by Czech band Ticha Dohoda. In the course of this tour Phil met his future wife Jolana and decided to move from London to Prague in 1995.

In 1996 he formed Southern Cross with Czech musicians Pavel Cingl, Pavel Krtous and Jarda Kvasnicka, and gradually the music took on a harder, rockier, more psychedelic edge, while still maintaining its roots in classic song structures. Since 1996 Phil Shoenfelt & Southern Cross have played concerts and festivals in several European countries including Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Greece, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Denmark, Ukraine, Hungary, Italy and Spain. Several more CDs have been released on Czech, German, American and Greek labels, and the band continues to play regularly across Europe. In 1997 and 1998 Phil did two European tours as lead guitarist in Nikki Sudden's band. Afterwards the group went into a Berlin studio and recorded an album of songs co-written by Nikki and Phil. The album, Golden Vanity, is yet to be released.

Phil is also a member of the Berlin-based band Fatal Shore with Bruno Adams (Once Upon A Time), Chris Hughes (Once Upon A Time; Hugo Race & The True Spirit) and YoYo Rohm (Ben Becker band). Fatal Shore play Melbourne blues with electronic-industrial elements, and are notable for their charismatic and unpredictable live shows.

As well as being a songwriter/vocalist/guitarist, Phil is also a published novelist and poet. His autobiographical novel Junkie Love first came out in Czech translation in 1997 and was followed by a bi-lingual book of poetry and song lyrics (Zeleny Hotel/The Green Hotel) in 1998. Junkie Love was published in English by Twisted Spoon Press in 2001, and in 2002 the book won the Firecracker Alternative Book Award (Drugs Books Category) in New York. Since then it has been translated into Italian and Greek. "Junkie Love - a nice, nasty read. I enjoyed it a lot." (Nick Cave); "Ever-descending scenes of brute squalor, self-inflicted wounds and abjection." (Michael Gira); "A fine, gutsy, spare rendering of the drug underworld." (Will Self); "The best book about drugs since "Junky". An essential read!" (Nikki Sudden).

For more information (plus photos, MP3, reviews, writings etc.) go to:
www.philshoenfelt.de (English and German)
www.shoenfelt.euweb.cz (English and Czech)
www.fatal-shore.de
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