Live in Vienna & Ebensee

Phil Shoenfelt: “Rock’n’roll is breath and blood”

Bradford - New York - Prague: Phil Shoenfelt doesn't see alternative rock and post-punk as geographically rooted.

(Bild: Tereza Jirásková)

As a young man, the Brit Phil Shoenfelt left to inhale the essence of punk and new wave in New York. After wild years in the Big Apple, he settled down in beautiful Prague and has been delighting Austrian audiences with his songs ever since. These days he is coming back to Vienna and Ebensee. A brief review.

Not so long ago, standing concerts were a coveted rarity. A little more than four years ago, the fresh coronavirus pandemic was just taking its first summer break and cultural events were attended in masks and seated - something that is no longer imaginable today. When Phil Shoenfeldt and his band Dim Locator took to the stage at the Praterstern venue Flucc Wanne, no one was able to remain seated and the post-punk rock show became a fiery reminder of resistance on a small scale. Nick Cave companion Kristof Hahn, who once failed to make the complicated journey, should also have been there. Adapting to different rules and laws in different countries was difficult - but Shoenfelt didn't care. "This is rock'n'roll", he told the "Krone" in an interview at the time, "our breath and our blood. We had a door deal with the promoter. If nobody had come, we wouldn't have earned anything. But that's punk rock. You have to go through it."

In wild New York
Shoenfelt is no stranger to the Viennese alternative music scene and can certainly be described as a legend. Born in the semi-attractive British industrial city of Bradford, he moved to New York at an early age because he was carried away by the dewy-eyed punk and new wave. After his first projects there, he founded the post-punk band Khmer Rouge in 1981 with Scratchy Myers (The Clash's tour DJ) and Marcia Schofield, who would later make a career for herself playing keyboards for The Fall. Khmer Rouge were in the right place at the right time, became regulars at the cult club CBGB's and opened concert evenings for the likes of Nico, Alan Vega, The Gun Club, Tom Verlaine and The Clash. Inspired by the rise of indie and goth rock, Shoenfelt also released solo works, and in his old homeland of Great Britain his lifelong dream came true and he opened for Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds. Shoenfelt wrote the foreword for the Czech version of Cave's book "And The Ass Saw The Angel".

"There are only two essential things in life," Shoenfelt told us into the dictaphone, "love - whether for your wife, friends or family - and rock'n'roll. It's important to maintain the energy for a punk rock show for as long as possible." The fact that Shoenfelt has since become a regular in the local underground clubs is due to a fundamental geographical change. He played in Prague in 1994, fell in love with the city and put down roots there. He has now lived almost 30 years, almost half his life, four and a half hours' drive north of Vienna and has launched several projects from there. While Dim Locator (named after a song by The Birthday Party), which performed at Flucc in 2020, is now on ice, he is in top form with his regular combo Southern Cross, which was formed three decades ago - as the album "The Bell Ringer" proves, for example, and the upcoming live concerts in Vienna and Ebensee will prove.

Artistic jack-of-all-trades
Something like the corona pandemic definitely no longer instilled fear in Shoenfelt a few years ago. "I lived in New York for years when the AIDS problem was at its peak. I was having unprotected sex and taking loads of drugs. I was more worried about my life then than I am now." In addition to music, Shoenfelt has repeatedly distinguished himself as an author from the Czech Republic; one famous work is the semi-autobiography "Junkie Love", published in 2001, in which he deals very openly with his wild past. Shoenfelt may never have achieved widespread fame, but he is a constant in the alternative post-punk and rock sector and can count on a loyal regular audience. Writing never lets him go. "I was in New York between the late 70s and the mid 80s - during the city's creative heyday. I'm currently writing down these experiences too."

At the beginning of 2020, Shoenfelt released the solo album "Cassandra Lied", on which he dealt with his inner demons. "I don't want to get lost in the details, but I had a pretty tough time between 2016 and 2018. A relationship broke up and a lot of other things happened that challenged me. The lyrics on the album are very special and I only realized later what I had dealt with in them. It was a bit like Nietzsche. It's all very delusional and confused, sometimes even prophetic." Before "Cassandra Lied", Shoenfelt spent five years writing songs that he thought were shit and repeatedly threw in the garbage can. "But this album got me back on track. I learned that I can't push myself to write new songs, I have to wait for the creativity to kick in." Just before Christmas, Phil Shoenfelt celebrated his 72nd birthday - so there's no end in sight. Rock'n'roll knows no retirement.

Live in Vienna and Ebensee
On January 17, Phil Shoenfelt & Southern Cross can be seen live in Vienna's Chelsea with their old friends, Tyrolean punk legends Intimspray. On January 18, Shoenfelt and his band will also be performing at Kino Ebensee. Tickets are still available for both gigs.