The Band Bible

The Story.

Thee Phoniques aren't a band you'll bump into at a bar — they're a world. Four souls written to play the soundtrack to 1970s dive bars and wet neon streets, conjured by a songwriter who wanted to build the perfect group to carry his songs.

Vintage soul · Desert heat · Indie-pop edge
"The perfect band to play the soundtrack to 70s dive bars and wet neon streets."

Behind the four faces is one mind: Eric B. Thornton — songwriter, composer, and the Phil-Spector-meets-Mark-Ronson mastermind who writes every lyric, melody, and chord on acoustic guitar, then casts an imagined ensemble to bring them to life.

It's an old trick told a new way: a producer assembling the dream group in his head — and letting them live on record.

Debut album "Afterglow & Heartbreak" · 12 tracks · Bule Jawa Records · released April 3, 2026 · 100% one-stop, human-written & ASCAP-registered.
— The World

One record, one day.

Every song, every photograph, every frame lives somewhere inside a single 1970s day — and the album travels through all of it, from the first amber light to the last spin of the disco ball.

Morning — desert highway
Morning · Breezy AM Gold
The open road.
Sun-drenched dusty highways and vintage convertibles through the Mojave. Fringed suede, warm sun flares, the radio low. The hopeful half of the heart.
Dusk — late-night diner
Dusk / Midnight · Tragic Soul
Wet neon streets.
Rain-slicked sidewalks under amber light. Empty diner booths and dim late-night bars. The slow-burn ballads, the trip-hop heartbreak, the afterglow that always follows.
After hours — the discotheque
After-Hours · The Discotheque
Crying on the dancefloor.
Glittering smoky clubs, flickering neon, velvet seating, a disco ball spinning overhead. Dancing the heartbreak away until the lights come up.
— The Character Bible

The four who live in it.

A living ensemble, each with a history, a sound, and a reason they play the way they do.

Maya Valentine
Maya Valentine · Lead Vocals
01 / The Voice

Maya Valentine

Lead Vocals · Songwriter

Born in a faded motel off Route 66 to an Indonesian lounge-singer mother and an American father, Maya — half Indonesian, half white — was raised writing lyrics on cardboard coffee cups in roadside diners. Guarded and sharp-tongued, she's drawn — helplessly — to the bittersweet afterglow of loving the wrong people, and she turns every wound into a song.

Voice
A smoky, raw alto that soars into a fragile, exposed falsetto.
Look & Gear
Oversized 70s amber aviators, silk scarves, dark eyeliner — and a vintage Shure "Elvis" mic wrapped in velvet ribbons.
Heart
Songwriting is her therapy. Deeply romantic, even when she swears she isn't.
Chico Lopez
Chico Lopez · Guitar
02 / The Soul

Chico Lopez

Guitar

A quiet traveling philosopher from East L.A., Chico hitchhiked across the Southwest with a 1968 Sunburst Strat slung over his shoulder, meeting Jamal at a Tucson blues jam. He doesn't say much — he lets the crying, expressive solos speak for him.

Sound
Warm, weeping leads soaked in vintage analog pedals and tape delay.
Look & Gear
Faded denim and fringed suede, a dusty Stetson, paisley western shirts, a weathered 1968 Sunburst Stratocaster.
With Maya
An intense, guarded romance that lives mostly in the music.
Jamal Lou-Deen
Jamal Lou-Deen · Bass
03 / The Anchor

Jamal Lou-Deen

Bass

Raised on Stax and Motown in Detroit before heading West, Jamal is a self-taught bass virtuoso and the cool older brother of Selah. Smooth, laid-back, and unflappable, he's the mediator — the steady pocket everyone leans on when the room gets loud.

Sound
A deep, rolling pocket — Detroit soul in his right hand.
Look & Gear
Mustard turtlenecks, corduroy flares, a 1972 Sunburst Fender Precision Bass.
Role
The peacemaker who keeps the family — and the band — together.
Selah Lou-Deen
Selah Lou-Deen · Drums
04 / The Heartbeat

Selah Lou-Deen

Drums

Jamal's younger sister learned to play on paint buckets in Detroit, and she's been the loudest person in every room since. High-energy and fiercely protective, she bonded with Maya over a shared distrust of "bullshit lovers" — and she drives the whole band from soul into nu-disco without breaking a smile.

Sound
The heartbeat — pushing tempo from slow soul to glittering disco.
Look & Gear
Tied-front yellow satin blouses, velvet flares, a vintage Ludwig wooden kit.
Energy
Loud, protective, always laughing. The engine room.
— The Ties That Bind
Maya & Chico — an intense, guarded romance that never quite resolves. It's the friction in every ballad: two people who only seem to say the true thing through a microphone and a six-string.
Jamal & Selah — brother and sister, Detroit-raised, the unbreakable rhythm section. He keeps the peace; she keeps the fire. Together they're the foundation the other two can fall apart on.
It's all make-believe until you press play. Then it's real.