Thomas TruaxThomas Truax biography of a hornicator player

New York City's Thomas Truax (pronounced troo-aks) is a left field troubadour and inventor/player of strange self-made instruments like his now legendary 'Hornicator' and a motorized mechanical drum machine called 'Sister Spinster'. He employs these and other contraptions as well as traditional instruments in exceptionally crafted, witty and often touching songs. Splendid magazine recently called him one of the five or ten best singer/songwriters in the world that you've never heard of...an exceptional talent, unique and resistant to comparison, yet fairly accessible even to casual listeners.

Thomas has toured nearly constantly for the past seven years, mostly as a headliner but also doing large scale support tours with the Dresden Dolls and Duke Special amongst others. He's played Glastonbury, the Edinburgh Fringe festival, at Lincoln Center in New York and appeared on MTV.

Thomas's 'Hornicator' is constructed on the shell of an old gramophone horn. It resembles something that might have been dreamt up by Dr. Seuss. He taps out rhythm loops recording them live into his looping machine,then adds layers of plucked strings, springs and noisemakers, building a backdrop of hypnotic sounds on top of which he delivers striking stories about clones and prostitutes.

Born an illigitimate son of Screamin' Jay Hawkins, as a young man Thomas attempted to build a synthesizer out of an old radio. He put on magic shows and made stop-motion animated films with a Super 8 camera. He has done mandatory day-job time as an animator on MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch and Cartoon Network's Robot Chicken. Time travelling with the Toby Tyler Circus inspired him towards a career in show business. His acclaimed rock noir trio Like Wow toured and released several CDs, but Thomas grew frustrated with a seemingly endless line of drummers with expensive appetites often resulting in stomach aches before gigs, forcing their cancellations. He finally decided to build his own motorized mechanical drummer and 'go solo'.

'Sister Spinster' is a variable speed, proudly pre-digital 'Flintstones-era drum machine' that features spoked wheels and percussive parts which can be readjusted between songs to create different rhythms. Newer instruments include 'The Stringaling' and the 'Backbeater', a rhythm wheel made to be worn on the back, which Thomas promises will eventually also double as a mechanism for flight. He has no engineering background and while constructing these inventions has repeatedly subjected himself to inadvertent electrical shocks which he claims have stimulated his creativity and expanded his vocal range.

A stubborn DIY enthusiast, Truax self-released his debut full-length solo CD 'Full Moon Over Wowtown' on his own label in late 2003. It was quickly snatched up by London-based Breakin' Beats for release in the UK and Europe, who also released his second album 'Audio Addiction' (2005). Truax's third album is 'Why Dogs Howl at the Moon' (SL Records, 2007) and his fourth, 'Songs From The Films Of David Lynch'(SL/Psycho Teddy records 2009), is his first all-covers album. A three-song 'Singles Club' cd has also been released internationally on the Italian label Homesleep, and a 7" vinyl single, 'Have We Been Left Behind'(2006), was released by Akoustik Anarkhy records of Manchester.

Truax has been featured in two feature-length films: 'Instrumental', from director Gabe Shalom (US, 2005) documenting the lives of for artists who make their own instruments, and Adam Clitheroe 'One Man In The Band' (UK, 2008).

Wowtown is a surreal place from which some of the characters and events in Thomas's songs originate. He's been writing The Wowtown News, an email newsletter that he sends to a long list of faithful subscribers, for over five years. His own radio serial version of The Wowtown News, broadcasts on Resonance FM in London, where Thomas is currently residing.

Inventive and Romantic Time Out

Beguilingly Bizarre Uncut

Genius NME

• 

  Thomas Truax

  Sonic Dreamer

  Album

  Buy CD Download Now More Info

  Amid the gleeful sonic invention it's easy to miss how good his songwriting can be.....Truax is shaping up nicely as one of the great rock eccentrics. Morning Star

  Tracklisting:

  1. 1 - Beehive Heart
  2. 2 - It's All Happening Now
  3. 3 - It Always Rains on Sundays
  4. 4 - What's The Matter With My Grey Matter
  5. 5 - The Cannibals Have Been Captured Our Nicole Kidman
  6. 6 - Around The World With The Sexy Sigh
  7. 7 - Balancing On A Bouncing Wire
  8. 8 - Ode To the Olde Elderberry
  9. 9 - Post Post Post Modern
  10. 10 - Sonic Dreamer
  11. 11 - Lonely Taxi
• 

  Thomas Truax

  Songs From The Films of David Lynch

  Album

  Buy CD Listen

  Truly unsettling and perplexingly brilliant....these covers wouldn’t sound out of place soundtracking a mental breakdown. The Skinny

  Tracklisting:

  1. 1 - Wicked Game
  2. 2 - Twin Peaks (Falling)
  3. 3 - Baby Please Don't Go
  4. 4 - Blue Velvet
  5. 5 - I'm Deranged
  6. 6 - Audrey's Dance
  7. 7 - Black Tambourine
  8. 8 - I Put A Spell On You
  9. 9 - In Heaven (Lady In The Radiator Song)
  10. 10 - In Dreams
• 

  Thomas Truax

  Joe Meek Warns Buddy Holly

  Single

  Download Now Listen

  There are a few, very few, artists so original and inspired that their creativity slops right over the edges of their music and floods the whole damned room. Splendid

  Tracklisting:

  1. 1 - Joe Meek Warns Buddy Holly
  2. 2 - We're So Heavy
• 

  Thomas Truax

  Why Dogs Howl At The Moon

  Album

  Download Now Buy CD

  Tracklisting:

  1. 1 - Stranger On A Train
  2. 2 - Sea Creatures
  3. 3 - Escape From New York
  4. 4 - If We're Gonna Go Crazy
  5. 5 - Why Dogs Howl At The Moon Part 1
  6. 6 - The Raindrop Says Goddbye To The Clouds
  7. 7 - Alien In America
  8. 8 - You Whistle While You Sleep
  9. 9 - Why Dogs Howl At The Moon Part 2
  10. 10 - Like A Fallen Tree
  11. 11 - The BAsset Hound's Lament
  12. 12 - A Notice Of Eviction To A Closet Full Of Skeletons
• 

  Thomas Truax

  Like A Fallen Tree

  Single

  Download Now

  Tracklisting:

  1. 1 - Like A Fallen Tree
  2. 2 - There's A LightThat Never Goes Out
• 

  Thomas Truax

  Stranger On A Train

  Single

  Download Now

  Tracklisting:

  1. 1 - Stranger On A Train (Loco Motion Remix)
  2. 2 - One Piece At A Time

• Friday 18th June

  Taylor John's House

  Coal Vaults, Canal Basin, Coventry CV1 4LY

• Saturday 19th June

  Leamington Peace Festival

  Pump Room Gardens

  Leamington Spa, CV32 4AA

  The Marguee Stage, 3pm

• Sunday 27th June

  Full Moon Sunday

  "Monthly Residency"

  Spice Of Life

  6 Moor St, Cambridge Circus (just off Charing Cross Road) London, W1D 5NA

• Saturday 24th July

  Truckfest

  Hill Farm Steventon

  Oxford, OX13 6SW

  Main Stage 2:30pm

• Sunday 25th July

  Full Moon Sunday

  "Monthly Residency"

  Spice Of Life

  6 Moor St, Cambridge Circus (just off Charing Cross Road) London, W1D 5NA

• Sunday 15th August

  Moor Music Festival

  Heslaker Farm

  Skipton, North Yorkshire, BD23

• Wednesday 18th August

  The Grape

  80 Trippet Lane Sheffield S1 4EL

• Thursday 19th August

  HED at The Mad Ferret

  55 Fylde Road, Lancashire, PR1 2XQ

• Friday 20th August

  The Prom

  2 The Promenade, Gloucester Rd, Bishopston, Bristol BS7 8AL

• Sunday 22nd August

  Full Moon Sunday

  "Monthly Residency"

  Spice Of Life

  6 Moor St, Cambridge Circus (just off Charing Cross Road) London, W1D 5NA

• Saturday 28th August

  Greenbelt Festival

  Cheltenham Racecourse

Last updated 16th June 2010