Phil Shoenfelt (born 18 December 1952 in
Bradford, England) is an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
musician and awarded
author
An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states:
"''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
who lived for many years in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
and who now lives in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
,
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
.
[Alexiou, Evi (16 May 2020)]
"Το Τραγούδι της Εβδομάδας: Phil Shoenfelt & Southern Cross – “Lonely Street” (Μοναχικός δρόμος)"
''yellowradio.gr''. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
As a musician
In New York, in the early 1980s, he played with punk band
The Nothing, as well as with East Village new wave band
Disturbed Furniture, and founded the post-punk band Khmer Rouge
[23 October 2018]
"Phil Shoenfelt & Baron Anastis στο Tiki bar Athens!
''musicity.gr''. Retrieved 6 February 2021. together with Barry "Scratchy" Myers (tour DJ of
The Clash
The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they also contributed to the and new wave movements that emerged in the w ...
) and Marcia Schofield (future keyboard player of
The Fall).From 1983 to 1984, Khmer Rouge was managed by noted photographer and
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...
collaborator
Nat Finkelstein.
They were frequently performing in the
CBGB
CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in Manhattan's East Village. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for '' Country'', '' BlueGrass'', and '' Blues'', Kr ...
and have opened events for
Alan Vega,
The Gun Club
The Gun Club were an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, United States, which existed from 1979 to 1996. It was formed and led by singer-songwriter and guitarist Jeffrey Lee Pierce.
History Early days (1979–1980)
The Gun Club w ...
,
Tom Verlaine
Tom Verlaine (born Thomas Miller, December 13, 1949) is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter, best known as the frontman of the New York City rock band Television.
Biography
Verlaine was born Thomas Miller in Denville, New Jersey and ...
,
Nico
Naftiran Intertrade Company limited (NICO) is a Swiss-based subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). NICO is a general contractor for the oil and gas industry. NIOC buys the vast majority of Iran's gasoline imports. NICO is a key pl ...
,
The Clash
The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they also contributed to the and new wave movements that emerged in the w ...
.
In 1989 his first solo EP, ''Charlotte's Room'', was released by
Mark E. Smith
Mark Edward Smith (5 March 1957 – 24 January 2018) was an English singer, who was the lead singer, lyricist and only constant member of the post-punk group the Fall. Smith formed the band after attending the June 1976 Sex Pistols gig at the ...
's label Cog Sinister. The title track and the b-side "The Long Goodbye" were mixed by
Tony Cohen
Anthony Lawrence Cohen (4 June 19572 August 2017) was an Australian music record producer and sound engineer. He worked with Nick Cave's groups the Birthday Party, and then the Bad Seeds from 1979 to 2001. In mid-1986 he had followed Cave t ...
and Mark E. Smith.
He also opened events for
The Fall.
One year later Paperhouse Records put out his first solo album ''Backwoods Crucifixion'', and in 1993 Shoenfelt's second album ''God is The Other Face of The Devil'' was released by Humbug Records.
He also opened events for
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in UK.
Since 1995 Shoenfelt has lived in Prague, where he put together his current band, Phil Shoenfelt & Southern Cross.
With Southern Cross he has recorded five albums to date (''Blue Highway'', ''Dead Flowers For Alice'', ''Ecstatic'', ''Paranoia.com'' and ''The Bell Ringer'') as well as one EP, ''Electric Garden''.
In 1997 Shoenfelt founded a new band
Fatal Shore, together with
Bruno Adams and Chris Hughes
(both ex-members of
Once Upon A Time
"Once upon a time" is a stock phrase used to introduce a narrative of past events, typically in fairy tales and folk tales. It has been used in some form since at least 1380 (according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'') in storytelling in t ...
).
[Armand, Louis (30 September 2017)]
"Reactionary Sentimentalism Part 3: Prague"
'' 3:AM Magazine''. Retrieved 6 February 2021. They made three CDs – ''Fatal Shore'', ''Free Fall'' and ''Real World'' – and toured widely in Europe and the USA until Adams succumbed to colon cancer in 2009.
Phil Shoenfelt also collaborated with
Nikki Sudden
Adrian Nicholas Godfrey (19 July 195626 March 2006), known professionally as Nikki Sudden, was a prolific English singer-songwriter and guitarist. He co-founded the post-punk band Swell Maps with his brother, Epic Soundtracks, while attending So ...
. On Sudden's 1997/1998 European tour, Shoenfelt was the lead guitarist. After the tour ended Sudden and Shoenfelt went into a Berlin studio and recorded ''Golden Vanity'',
which was finally released in 2009 by UK label Easy Action Records.
Phil Shoenfelt & Southern Cross released their fourth studio album ''Paranoia.com'' on 1 November 2010. This album contains nine original songs and a cover version of
Iggy Pop & The Stooges' "Open Up And Bleed".
Together with the Australian ex-pat musicians Chris Hughes and Dave Allen, Shoenfelt formed a new band called
Dim Locator in 2011
– named after a Rowland S. Howard song on
The Birthday Party's
Junkyard LP.
Based in Berlin, Dim Locator play a heavy, repetitive, riff-based rock music, inspired by 1970s
kraut rock
Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in West Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electronic music, ...
bands such as Can, Neu and La Düsseldorf.
Shoenfelt's most recent release is a vinyl album called ''Under The Radar'' on German label Last Year's Youth. ''Under The Radar'' is a partial career retrospective spanning the years 1981 to 1997. It includes previously unreleased rarities, such as Khmer Rouge's appearance at the 1981 White Columns Noise Fest, a nine-day festival of New York noise bands curated by
Thurston Moore
Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958) is an American musician best known as a member of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label. Mo ...
of
Sonic Youth.
On 10 January 2020 Shoenfelt's new solo studio album ''Cassandra Lied'' was released by the German label Sireena Records. The album was recorded between August 2018 and November 2019 in Prague. Shoenfelt was contributed by several musicians such as Kristof Hahn (
Swans
Swans are birds of the family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Someti ...
),
Marcia Schofield (ex-
The Fall), Chris Hughes (
Hugo Race
Hugo Justin Race (born 23 May 1963) is an Australian rock musician and record producer who had been based in Europe from 1989 to 2011. He was a member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (1983–85), and The Wreckery (1984–89) with Nick Barker ...
& The True Spirit) and
Eva Turnová.
As an author
As well as being a singer/songwriter, Shoenfelt is a published and awarded author with books translated in several languages. His autobiographical novel ''Junkie Love''
won the "Firecracker Alternative Books Award" (2002) in New York. The novel is available in the original English, as well as in Czech and Italian translation. An extract has appeared in ''Erotika – Drogen und Sexualitat'' by German philosopher Wolfgang Sterneck, along texts by
Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski ( ; born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, ; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his adopted ...
,
W. S. Burroughs,
Nick Cave,
Irvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh (born 27 September 1958) is a Scottish novelist, playwright and short story writer. His 1993 novel '' Trainspotting'' was made into a film of the same name. He has also written plays and screenplays, and directed several short fil ...
,
Marilyn Manson and others.
He has also written the afterword for the
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus'
Places
* Czech, ...
edition of
Nick Cave's book ''
And the Ass Saw the Angel'' ("A uzřela oslice anděla", 1995).
Discography
*1988 Charlotte's Room / The Long Goodbye (EP)
*1990 Backwoods Crucifixion (LP/CD)
*1993 God Is The Other Face of the Devil (CD)
*1995 Live in Prague! With
Ticha dohoda (MC/CD)
*1997 Blue Highway (CD)
*1997 Fatal Shore (with Fatal Shore) (CD)
*1999 Dead Flowers For Alice (CD)
*2002 Electric Garden (CD-single)
*2002 Ecstatic (CD)
*2003 Free Fall (with Fatal Shore) (CD)
*2004 Deep Horizon – Selected Songs of Phil Shoenfelt (2-CD)
*2004 New York – London 1981–86 (with Khmer Rouge) (2-CD)
*2007 Real World (with Fatal Shore (CD)
*2008 Live at the House of Sin (Phil Shoenfelt & Pavel Cingl) (2008)
*2009 Golden Vanity (
Nikki Sudden
Adrian Nicholas Godfrey (19 July 195626 March 2006), known professionally as Nikki Sudden, was a prolific English singer-songwriter and guitarist. He co-founded the post-punk band Swell Maps with his brother, Epic Soundtracks, while attending So ...
& Phil Shoenfelt) (CD)
*2010 Open Up & Bleed (Download-Single)
*2010 Paranoia.com (CD)
*2011 Immortalised (with
Dim Locator, Download-EP)
*2011 Setting the Sails for El Dorado (with Fatal Shore CD)
*2012 Performing Songs By
Rowland S. Howard (with
Dim Locator 7"-Single)
*2013 Wormhole (with
Dim Locator EP-CD and 10"-Vinyl)
*2015 The Bell Ringer – Live at the Shot-Out Eye (Phil Shoenfelt & Southern Cross, CD)
*2018 Out of the Sky – Real World Demos (Phil Shoenfelt & Bruno Adams, CD)
*2019 Under The Radar (12" Vinyl)
*2020 Cassandra Lied (CD)
References
External links
Phil ShoenfeltPhil Shoenfelt & Southern CrossFatal ShoreDim LocatorThe Bruce Wellie Band
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shoenfelt, Phil
1952 births
Living people
English rock guitarists
English male singer-songwriters
Musicians from Bradford