Phil Shoenfelt (vocals/guitar);
Pavel Cingl (violin/guitar/mandolin/backing vocals);
Pavel Krtous (bass/backing vocals);
Jarda Kvasnicka (drums/percussion).
Influences
Delta Blues, Rock & Roll, Psychedelic Rock, Psychedelic Soul, Garage Bands, Noise Bands, Kraut Rock, Post-Punk Bands, Dark Wave Bands, Classic Songwriters: Robert Johnson, Son House, Charlie Patton, John Lee Hooker, The Doors, Screaming Jay Hawkins, Arthur Lee & Love, Syd Barrett, 13th Floor Elevators, The Seeds, The Black Monks, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, The Velvet Underground, The Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Stooges, MC5, Tim Buckley, Leonard Cohen, Lee Hazelwood, Scott Walker, Jaques Brel, Serge Gainsbourg, Tim Rose, Kraftwerk, Amon Duul 11, Can, Faust, Lou Reed, Mejla Hlavsa, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Johnny Cash, Elvis, Hank Williams, James Brown, Isaac Hayes, Curtis Mayfield, Sly & The Family Stone, Televion, Patti Smith, Richard Hell, The Modern Lovers, Pere Ubu, Joy Division, New Order, Mark E. Smith, The Birthday Party, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Crime & The City Solution, The Saints, Nikki Sudden, Swans, Lydia Lunch, Glen Branca, Michael Gira, Lenny Bruce, Wim Wenders, William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Tom Stoppard, Joe Orton, Tony Hancock, Alex Trocchi, Pirandello, David Cronenberg, Tarantino, Passolini, Tarkovsky, Pauline Reage, Friedrich Nietzsche, Otto Dix, Picasso, Yves Bonnefoy, Mayakovsky, Pierre Reverdy, Lautreamont, Henry Miller, Marquis de Sade, Celine, Rimbaud, Dostoevsky, and many many more...
Sounds Like
Dark and heavy but still melodic with psychedelic and noise elements.
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 many countries, including Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Greece, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Denmark, Ukraine, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Norway, Belgium and the USA. 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, will finally be released in early 2009 on the UK label Easy Action.
Phil is also a member of the Berlin-based band Fatal Shore with Bruno Adams (Once Upon A Time) and Chris Hughes (Once Upon A Time; Hugo Race & The True Spirit). 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).
LATEST NEWS:
Twenty seven songs from Phil Shoenfelt's retrospective double CD Deep Horizon are now available for on-line purchase from i-Tunes, Napster, and many other outlets. And for anyone interested in Khmer Rouge, the 1983 video for New Assassins shot by NYC photographer Nat Finkelstein (The Factory Years; Girlfriends; etc) can now be seen at: www.natfinkelstein.com/video/ Phil's song Darkest Hour (from the Dead Flowers For Alice CD) has just been covered by the German Dark Wave band Cinderella Effect. The CD has seventeen cover versions from various artists, and is getting rave reviews in the German music press.
Junkie Love was recently licensed to Ebury Press/Random House for distribution in the UK and Commonwealth. This version of the book was published July 7th 2007.
The original English edition by Twisted Spoon Press is still available in the USA and Canada at independent bookshops and on amazon.com.
For more information abouth both editions go to:
Phil Shoenfelt's albums/songs are available for download at:
Phil Shoenfelt & Southern Cross's Friend Space (Top 28)
INSTANT FLIGHT will play this Saturday 7th November @ "What's Cooking"Upstairs at The Sheep Walk Pub, 692 High Road, Leytonstone London E11, starting @ 9pm.(see www.whatscookin.co.uk )
Also there performing will be Plastic Pals & Ben Folke Thomas.
Croatia was great (and not so cold too) dear Phil! I have see a picture with you and the prime minister of saxony! Great! One question, you bring your girlfriend at SkullCrusher? I must know this for sleeping places at hostel! I have a nice new hostel near Rainer..s home (600 meter) for Southern Cross.
