Geoff Rickly

Geoff Rickly

Rickly performing with Thursday
Background information
Birth name Geoffrey William Rickly
Born (1979-03-08) March 8, 1979
Origin Dumont, New Jersey, USA
Genres Post-hardcore, emo, indie rock, screamo, post-punk, hardcore punk
Occupation(s) Singer, songwriter, producer
Instruments Vocals, guitar, saxophone
Years active 1997–present
Labels Astro Magnetics, Eyeball, Victory, Island, Epitaph
Associated acts Ink & Dagger, Thursday, My Chemical Romance, United Nations, Useless, Strangelight, No Devotion

Geoffrey William Rickly (born March 8, 1979)[1] is an American musician. He is best known for being the former lead singer and songwriter of Thursday, an American rock band from New Brunswick, New Jersey and is currently fronting United Nations and No Devotion. He released six studio albums with Thursday and has released two with United Nations, and a debut album from No Devotion which was released on September 25, 2015.

Personal life

Rickly grew up in Dumont, New Jersey.[2][3] He was raised Catholic,[4] and attended Dumont High School, where he was a member of the band and played the tenor sax.

He is good friends with former My Chemical Romance lead singer Gerard Way.

He is diagnosed with epilepsy [5] and at one point became severely ill while on tour because of the medication he was taking.

In early 2013 Rickly was mugged at gunpoint; his phone, iPad, wallet, credit card, rent money, and medication were stolen.[6][7] While on tour with No Devotion in 2015, Rickly was poisoned and robbed in Germany.[8]

Musical 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 Hoboken, New Jersey at the Eyeball Records holiday party, performing the Thursday songs "Autumn Leaves Revisited" and "This Side of Brightness" acoustically.

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,[9] 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." Thursday's "Autobiography Of A Nation" is clearly influenced by poet Michael Palmer's "Sun."

Rickly is currently writing, recording, and playing for United Nations, an experimental powerviolence collaboration, and No Devotion, the new band formed by the ex members of Lostprophets, both of which are also signed on by Collect Records.

Collect Records

In 2009, Rickly formed a label titled Collect Records. In its early years, the label 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.[10]

During the 2015 public scandal of hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli and his controversial monetary inflation of AIDS-related pharmaceuticals, it was revealed that Shkreli was also a silent investor of Collect Records while still allowing Rickly to retain creative control.[11] The two met when Shkreli bought Rickly's guitar that he used to make Thursday's 2001 album Full Collapse for $10,000.[12] Rickly said he was completely shocked by the revelation, and elaborated: "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."[11] Due to the controversy the discovery of this relationship angered several bands signed to the label. In a public statement, Collect band Sick Feeling said: "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."[13] Domenic Palermo of Nothing, who had just recently signed a two-record deal with Collect, expressed interest in breaking 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."[13] Within two days of the controversy's leak, Rickly put out a press release expressing that the label severed its relationship with Shkreli.[11] Without Shkreli's significant financial contributions to Collect (estimated to be "somewhere around a million dollars"[12]), Rickly said the amount of money he currently had in the bank couldn't cover the label's outstanding invoices, leaving its future uncertain.[12]

Discography

As band member

Thursday

For a more comprehensive list, see Thursday discography.

United Nations

Solo

Strangelight

No Devotion

As guest member

Year Artist Album Song Ref
2002 This Day Forward Kairos "Sunfalls and Watershine" [17]
2003 Murder by Death Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them? "Killbot 2000" [17]
2003 Stretch Arm Strong Engage [17]
2005 The Blackout Pact Hello Sailor [17]
2005 My American Heart The Meaning in Makeup "We Are the Fabrication"
2008 Players Club Coextinction [17]
2009 Touché Amoré ...To the Beat of a Dead Horse "History Reshits Itself" [17]
2012 Circa Survive Violent Waves "The Lottery" [18]
2013 Man Overboard Heart Attack "Open Season" [17]

As producer/engineer

Year Artist Album Ref
2002 My Chemical Romance Like Phantoms, Forever [19]
2002 My Chemical Romance I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love [17]
2005 The Blackout Pact Hello Sailor [17]

References

  1. ↑ "Geoffthurs". AbsolutePunk.
  2. ↑ 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."
  3. ↑ Holahan, Catherine. "Generating emo out of real-life tragedy -- Thursday singer recalls Dumont", The Record (Bergen County), December 23, 2005. Accessed March 9, 2008.
  4. ↑ Thursday - Into The Blinding Light (Podcast). YouTube. 22 December 2006.
  5. ↑ "Thursday Frontman Says He Doesn't Want To Exploit My Chemical Romance, But ...". MTV. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  6. ↑ Graham Hartmann (5 June 2013). "Thursday Frontman Geoff Rickly Robbed of Valuable Possessions at Gunpoint". Loudwire. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  7. ↑ Tom Breihan (14 August 2014). "Serious Business: Geoff Rickly On The Rise Of United Nations, The Fall Of Thursday, And Working With The Former Members Of Lostprophets". Stereogum. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  8. ↑ Pettigrew, Jason (September 27, 2015). "Geoff Rickly poisoned, robbed outside show in Germany". Alternative Press. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Thursday's Geoff Rickly". SuicideGirls.com. 6 March 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
  10. ↑ Costello, Carly (July 14, 2014). "Former Thursday Singer Geoff Rickly Launches Collect Records on Its Own". Artist Direct. Rogue Digital. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  11. 1 2 3 Minsker, Evan (September 22, 2015). "Geoff Rickly Explains Collect Records' Relationship With Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli". Pitchfork. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
  12. 1 2 3 Coscarelli, Joe (September 23, 2015). "Record Label Severs Ties With Embattled Pharmaceutical C.E.O. Martin Shkreli". The New York Times. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
  13. 1 2 McDermott, Patrick D.; Ihaza, Jeff (September 22, 2015). "Geoff Rickly Says Collect Records Is Severing All Ties With Martin Shkreli". The Fader. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
  14. ↑ Kraus, Brian (November 18, 2012). "Geoff Rickly (Thursday) releases 'Mixtape 1' for free download". Alternative Press. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  15. ↑ Kraus, Brian (June 23, 2013). "Geoff Rickly (Thursday) releases second mixtape, 'Darker Matter'". Alternative Press. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  16. ↑ Ozzi, Dan (October 7, 2013). "Listen to the debut EP from Strangelight (Featuring Geoff Rickly and members of Made Out of Babies)". Noisy. Vice. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Geoff Rickly – Credits". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  18. ↑ Tate, Jason (July 26, 2012). "Geoff Rickly Does Guest Vocals On Circa Survive Album". AbsolutePunk. Spin Media. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  19. ↑ "Drinking Souls » Like Phantoms, Forever". Drinking Souls.

External links

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