Geoff Rickly

From Vero - Wikipedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox musical artist

Geoffrey William Rickly (born March 8, 1979) is an American musician, best known as the lead singer and songwriter of rock band Thursday. He is also a member of hardcore punk band United Nations and the alternative rock group No Devotion with former members of Lostprophets, and is the founder of the label Collect Records. In 2023, his debut novel, Someone Who Isn't Me, was published by Rose Books.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:TOC limit

Personal life

Rickly was born in Providence, Rhode Island and raised in Dumont, New Jersey, into a Catholic family, and attended Dumont High School, where he was a member of the band and played the tenor sax.<ref>Jordan, Chris. "Thank God it's Thursday Kings of emo took a much-needed break instead of breaking up", Asbury Park Press, December 23, 2005. Accessed February 28, 2011. "'When we did that cover, it was sort of riding the line of we don't want it to be too much of a Buzzcocks song but rather our interpretation of it,' said Rickly, originally from Dumont."</ref><ref>Holahan, Catherine. "Generating emo out of real-life tragedy -- Thursday singer recalls Dumont", The Record (Bergen County), December 23, 2005. Accessed March 9, 2008.</ref> He attended Rutgers University until 2000 before dropping out to pursue music.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Rickly is a diagnosed epileptic, which has affected his ability to tour.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In early 2013, Rickly was mugged in New York City, where his cell phone, iPad, wallet, credit card, rent money, and medication were stolen.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2015, Rickly was poisoned and robbed in Hamburg, Germany, while touring with No Devotion to play at the Reeperbahn Festival. Rickly was hospitalized, causing them to cancel their concert, but recovered for a scheduled show in Paris the following day.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In a 2017 interview with Spin, Rickly spoke of battling a heroin addiction that began shortly after Thursday's breakup in 2011.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Following Thursday's reunion in 2016, Rickly was inspired to quit using the drug.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2023, Rickly released his first novel, Someone Who Isn't Me, via Rose Books. The novel is an autofictional account of his struggles with heroin addiction and experimental psychedelic treatment with Ibogaine.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Rickly lives with his partner, Liza de Guia.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Career

Rickly has contributed guest vocals to many songs, including My American Heart's "We Are the Fabrication", Murder by Death's "Killbot 2000", This Day Forward's "Sunfalls and Watershine", Circa Survive's "The Lottery", and My Chemical Romance's "This Is the Best Day Ever". He also occasionally performs solo, most recently in Anaheim, California, at Kill Iconic Festival on March 23, 2024, performing his band, Thursday songs "Understanding in a Car Crash" and "This Side of Brightness" acoustically.

File:Thursday band.jpg
Rickly performing with Thursday in 2004

Lyrically, Rickly has been known to draw from a wide variety of influences, many of them being authors and poets. In a March 2009 interview,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> he cited the works of Denis Johnson, Martin Amis, Roberto Bolaño and David Foster Wallace as being among his influences for the lyrics of Thursday's Common Existence album, which was released in February 2009. A tattoo on his forearm reads "love is love", a lyric from the band Frail; Rickly adopted these lyrics into Thursday's "A Hole in the World". The band's song "Autobiography of a Nation" is clearly influenced by poet Michael Palmer's "Sun".Template:Citation needed Rickly has also written, recorded and played for United Nations, an experimental powerviolence collaboration.

In 2014, after Lostprophets disbanded following the conviction of frontman Ian Watkins for multiple sexual offences, the remaining members (Stuart Richardson, Lee Gaze, Luke Johnson, Mike Lewis and Jamie Oliver) formed a new band with Rickly, No Devotion.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The band have released two albums, Permanence (2015) and No Oblivion (2022).

Collect Records

In 2009, Rickly formed Collect Records, a record label which in its early years only co-released various albums, including releases by Touché Amoré, United Nations and Midnight Masses, but in 2014, the label announced plans to be the primary label behind albums by Black Clouds, Vanishing Life, Sick Feeling and No Devotion.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Martin Shkreli controversy

During the 2015 public scandal of hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli and his controversial monetary inflation of toxoplasmosis-related pharmaceuticals, it was revealed that Shkreli was a silent investor in Collect Records, while still allowing Rickly to retain creative control.<ref name="pitckfork-cr" /> Rickly and Shkreli met when the guitar that Rickly used to make Thursday's album Full Collapse was purchased by Shkreli for $10,000.<ref name="nyt-cr" /> Rickly said he was completely shocked by the scandal, stating: "I've seen the guy give away money to schools, charities, and frankly, our bands, who if anyone really knows the industry, is a hard sell. I am struggling to find how this is OK."<ref name="pitckfork-cr" /> Due to the controversy, Shkreli's relationship with Collect Records angered several artists signed to the label. One of the artists, Sick Feeling, said in a public statement: "One thing is clear; as long as he has a part in the label, we, Sick Feeling, cannot. Our experience with Geoff, Norm, and Shaun has been nothing but positive, however, we cannot continue to work with Collect as long as Martin Shkreli has any part in it."<ref name="fader-cr" /> Dominic "Nicky" Palermo of Nothing, who had just recently signed a two-record deal with Collect Records, expressed interest in ending the contract and said: "I'm hoping that we can just get out of this with someone else and not have to go down whatever ugly road that could lead to."<ref name="fader-cr" /> Within two days of the controversy, Rickly put out a press release stating that the label had severed its relationship with Shkreli, and that the amount of money he currently had in the bank could not cover Collect Records' outstanding invoices, leaving its future uncertain,<ref name="nyt-cr" /><ref name="pitckfork-cr" /> without Shkreli's significant financial contributions to Collect (estimated to be "somewhere around a million dollars"<ref name="nyt-cr" />).

Discography

As band member

Thursday

Template:Main list

United Nations

Solo

Strangelight

No Devotion

As guest member

Year Artist Album Song Ref
2002 My Chemical Romance I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love "This Is the Best Day Ever" <ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
2002 This Day Forward Kairos "Sunfalls and Watershine" <ref name="allmusic-credits" />
2003 Murder by Death Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them? "Killbot 2000" <ref name="allmusic-credits" />
2003 Stretch Arm Strong Engage <ref name="allmusic-credits" />
2005 The Blackout Pact Hello Sailor <ref name="allmusic-credits" />
2005 My American Heart The Meaning in Makeup "We Are the Fabrication"
2008 Players Club "Coextinction" <ref name="allmusic-credits" />
2009 Touché Amoré ...To the Beat of a Dead Horse "History Reshits Itself" <ref name="allmusic-credits" />
2012 Circa Survive Violent Waves "The Lottery" <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2013 Man Overboard Heart Attack "Open Season" <ref name="allmusic-credits" />
2020 Cremation Lily "Light Gathers in the Corners of the Room, Pt. II" "More Songs About Drowning"
2022 Vein.fm This World Is Going to Ruin You "Fear In Non Fiction" <ref name="allmusic-credits" />
2022 Gatherers "( mutilator. )" "Gift Horse" <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2023 The HIRS Collective "We're Still Here" "So, Anyway" <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2023 triton. "Sundown in Oaktown" "alcatraz_" <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2023 Sharkswimmer "Serenity" "Demolition of a Childhood Home" <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2024 Common Sage Nostos | Algos "Edin"

As producer/engineer

Year Artist Album Ref
2002 My Chemical Romance Like Phantoms, Forever <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2002 My Chemical Romance I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love <ref name="allmusic-credits" />
2005 The Blackout Pact Hello Sailor <ref name="allmusic-credits" />

References

Template:Reflist

Template:Cc

Template:Thursday (band) Template:No Devotion Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?title=Geoff_Rickly&oldid=540395"