The following is taken directly from the Phoenyx Press Kit, and does not necessarily reflect what the artists are currently doing. It is presented for historical purposes only, and was applicable in 1990.
Biographical Information
A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Heather has been surrounded by music from birth. Her formal education began at the age of six when she started learning guitar from her father, a prominent jazz guitarist/vocalist of the forties. As she grew up, she taught herself to play the violin and began composing songs, honing her skills with several years of private study in music, voice and drama. Alexander began to perform in a broad spectrum of contexts, including singing in the Scholar Opera's Elixir of Love, and as a featured vocalist in Billy Vogue's Country Music of Your Life, and Morningstar.
In 1985, Alexander started performing with the Medicine Show String Band, as a vocalist and lead fiddler; at the same time performing as an Irish fiddler at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire, where she met Cat Taylor. Alexander, Taylor, and two other faire musicians founded Matrix in 1987 to perform traditional English and Irish fare, along with original music, in a semi-electric context. In 1989, Alexander and Taylor disbanded Matrix and, shortly thereafter, founded Phoenyx.
In addition to her many vocal accomplishments, Heather also plays bodhran, bones, harp and bass, and has frequently recorded folk music with Oregon-based Firebird Arts & Music.
Cat Taylor's musical background combines the strict training of the classical violinist with the fire and spirit of the Irish fiddler. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Taylor began training as a classical violinist at age 9, and received her BA in music from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1978.
After performing in various ensembles in the Santa Barbara and Los Angeles areas during her stay there, Taylor returned to the Bay Area in 1985 and became very active with The Living History Centre, producers of the original Renaissance Pleasure Faire, and the Dickens Christmas Fair. She worked in several capacities there, including two years as Music and Dance Director, at which time she adapted and musical directed a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance. During this same period she served as Concertmistress of the College of Marin Symphony Orchestra, as well as performing in Matrix and Matrix's acoustic alter-ego Whiskey, before co-founding Phoenyx with Alexander in 1989.
Mark's first public performance was for a Chicago elementary school classroom at the age of 12, where he and a friend played the J.R.R. Tolkien song, "Troll Sat Alone on His Seat of Stone" to the tune of "Fox Went Out on a Starlit Night." In high school, he played in the band, Underground Construction Co., which has since gone on to to become a successful sewer installation firm based in San Jose, California.
During his eight-year tenure in the Moonies (1975-1983), Mark, in addition to his normal duties as a brainwashed zombie, performed on acoustic guitar and voice several times each day and crisscrossed the country with the fusion band Prime Force and new wave group Izattaband. From 1986-1989 he performed with modern rockers, Random Men, playing in various high-class East Bay bars which could best be described as "used girl lots."
In addition to guitar and mandola, Mark also plays bass, drums and fiddle. His current ambition is to find a guitar stand made of a better grade of cheese.
The O started his career in Maryland, where he began pounding the skins at age 13 and teaching himself the guitar shortly thereafter. As he performed in the requisite series of rock and jazz bands, he engaged in a desperate struggle to avoid receiving a degree, jumping from school to school. From the State University of New York at Albany to Berklee College of Music to Boston School of Electronic Music he ran, studying percussion performance, electronic music, and audio recording, before finally losing his battle by being awarded an Associate's Degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Lowell Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The O moved to San Francisco in 1983 and worked in virtually every aspect of the music industry, establishing a reputation as a sound engineer and editor on projects as diverse as "The Thin Blue Line" and the "Gumby" TV show, as well as a technical writer (he has been a contributing editor to MIX magazine since 1984). He succumbed to performing once again in 1987 with the world-infamous Haight-Ashbury Free Band before being recruited for Phoenyx. The O produced and mixed Phoenyx's 1990 debut album, Keepers of the Flame.
Born in Pennsylvania and raised in Menlo Park, Ca., "Little John" Land has known that he wanted to be a musician ever since he picked up a flute in the fourth grade. He played in a succession of bands and ensembles throughout his school years, eventually setting his sights on the well respected Menlo-Atherton Jazz Band. On discovering that they were not in need of a flautist, but rather a bass player, he started working that same day, eventually winning an award as "Best Instrumentalist" with that band.
John attended Whitman College in Walla2 Washington where he received his Bachelor's degree in 1989. He also played in a band called 4 Tomorrow, which played sessions for and appeared in the 1988 movie "Some Girls". John is the newest member of Phoenyx, having joined the band in February of 1990.
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