Rick Thomas
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Rick Thomas is an American sampler known for his time spent as "Stitch" in the Cleveland, Ohio heavy metal band Mushroomhead. It has been stated that Thomas was originally called "Stick", due to the fact that he is skinny, but someone mistakenly called him Stitch and the name stuck.
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[edit] Downfall of Society/Sixty Victims
Rick met this rap-core band at the Mushroomhead Halloween show in 1997. He hooked up with them to make shirts for them since he had experience doing it for Mushroomhead. He started to become friends with the guitar player, Rick Sans, and Sans eventually hinted that they'd like to get a DJ for the band. Thomas wanted to be in the band, but he didn't play any instruments, nor did he really have the money to buy any. So they ended up finding a kid selling 2 cheap Gemini turntables and a mixer for about $100. The two of them split the cost of the gear so they could get a DJ going in the band. Thomas started practicing with the band and was slowly learning how to scratch and add effects to their music. He became a full time member of Downfall of Society around the Spring of 1998.
The band was playing a lot of shows, and entered quite a few 'Battle of The Bands' competitions ...winning a few of them. They also opened up for Mushroomhead a few times due to Rick's association with the band. The bassist, Paul, was eventually kicked out of the band around the Spring of 1999 so Thomas got his friend at the time, Dave Harris, to take over. The band was evolving and writing better music, but their drummer was holding them back. They set out to get a new drummer, but since good drummers were hard to find, the band took some time off. During that time, Thomas met the band Canister and really hit it off with them. In mid-1999, Rick was spending a lot of time with Canister and working on music with them. This apparently offended the guys in Downfall of Society, because they ended up replacing him without even letting him know. They changed their name to Sixty Victims, and Rick moved on with Canister.
[edit] Canister/A Colder Year
As mentioned in the Downfall of Society bio, Rick met these guys in 1999. They had seen Rick do work in Downfall and they asked him if he'd do a song with them. Since Downfall was on a break, Rick agreed to spend some time to work with Canister. Rick started working with them and really liked their style of music: somewhat of emo hardcore, like a Deftones sound. He became a full-time member in mid-1999 after Downfall replaced him without his knowledge.
Rick really enjoyed this band and they were playing out a lot and having fun. It turns out, at the time, that Canister's practice space was next door to Chimaira's practice space. Chimaira had only been together less than a year at this point. They mentioned to Rick that they wanted someone in their band doing samples and turntables like he was doing. Rick showed interest at first...until they said something along the lines of, "yeah we want those odd, weird effects cause we wanna do more of like the Slipknot thing." After hearing that, Rick just told them that he was too busy with Canister and that they should look elsewhere for someone to work with them. A few months later, Chimaira found Chris Spicuzza to fill the spot.
A few months later, around the beginning of 2000, Canister opened up for Chimaira at a show in Lakewood, Ohio. Rick felt that Chimaira gave Canister a bad time slot for the show, and the guys in Chimaira got wind of that and weren't too happy. Canister didn't take his remarks too lightly either, and Rick was removed from the band for this. Rick was upset because he loved the band, and it doesn't seem like he was kicked out for a very good reason! Canister later changed their name to A Colder Year.
[edit] Moko
Around the Fall of '99, Rick met this band Moko from Sandusky, Ohio. They were big fans of Downfall of Society and asked Rick if he would join their band. At the time, Rick was busy with Canister and said he didn't have time to join another band.
The next year, after Rick left Canister, he decided to give Moko a try. He went by the name 'DJ Outcast' while with Moko. Their sound was similar to Downfall's, but they had more of a heavier, hardcore edge. Rick performed with the band for awhile, but they ended up falling apart. A few months later, Rick was without a band and just minding his own business printing shirts for Mushroomhead. It was then that he was approached by Skinny... who asked him to join Mushroomhead.
[edit] Mushroomhead
At the time of joining Mushroomhead he was the band's merchandise salesman, but became the band's programmer after skinny found it hard to drum and activate the samples at the same time.
In live shows, he is also known to play the water drums.
Rick is one of the more charismatic members of the band and can be seen with a camcorder filming the audience at time to time.
[edit] Misc Info
Thomas is/was apart of:
- Moko
- Crossfader
- Canister/ A Colder Year
- Downfall of Society/Sixty Victims
- Ventana (band)
Thomas also added his touch of samples and keyboards to Dead Even's second demo 'Your Nightmare Is Reality'. Rick's schedule does not permit him to work with Dead Even anymore.
He also has a side project band called Ventana. In Spanish, Ventana means "Window."
Every April Fools day he pranks all the fans by attempting to convince them that he has left Mushroomhead, though a running gag there are still many who fall for it.
[edit] External Links/Site Sourced
| Mushroomhead |
| Waylon Reavis | Jeffery Nothing | Pig Benis | Gravy | ST1TCH | Skinny | Shmotz |
| Former Members: J. Mann | Bronson | J.J. Righteous | Mr. Murdernickel | Chamberlain | Dinner | DJ Virus | Roxy |
| Discography |
| Studio albums: Mushroomhead | Superbuick | M3 | XX | XIII | Savior Sorrow | |
| Remix Albums: Remix | Remix 2000 |
