Geoff Rickly

Geoffrey William Rickly (born March 8, 1979) is an American musician and author, best known as the lead singer and songwriter of rock band Thursday. Rickly 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 record label Collect Records.

Geoff Rickly
Rickly performing with Thursday in 2012.
Rickly performing with Thursday in 2012.
Background information
Birth nameGeoffrey William Rickly
Born (1979-03-08) March 8, 1979[1]
Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.
OriginDumont, New Jersey, U.S.
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Singer
  • songwriter
  • producer
  • author
Instrument(s)
  • Vocals
  • guitar
Years active1997–present
Labels
Member of

In 2023 his novel Someone Who Isn’t Me was published by Rose Books.[2]

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.[3][4] Rickly is a diagnosed epileptic, which has affected his ability to tour.[5]

In early 2013, Rickly was mugged in New York City, where his cell phone, iPad, wallet, credit card, rent money, and medication were stolen.[6][7] 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.[8]

In a 2017 interview with Spin, Rickly admitted to battling a heroin addiction that began shortly after Thursday's breakup in 2011.[9] Following Thursday's reunion in 2016, Rickly was inspired to quit using the drug.[10]

Rickly lives with his partner Liza de Guia.[11][12]

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 his band, 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,[13] 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." Rickly has also written, recorded and played for United Nations, an experimental powerviolence collaboration.

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, the new band formed by the ex members of Lostprophets, featuring Rickly on lead vocals.[14]

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.[15] Rickly and Shkreli met when the guitar that Rickly used to make Thursday's album Full Collapse was purchased by Shkreli for $10,000.[16] 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."[15] 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."[17] 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."[17] 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,[16][15] without Shkreli's significant financial contributions to Collect (estimated to be "somewhere around a million dollars"[16]).

Discography

Thursday
For a more comprehensive list, see Thursday discography.

United Nations

Solo
  • Mixtape 1 (2012, self released)[18]
  • Darker Matter/// Mixtape 2 (2013, self-released)[19]

Strangelight
  • 9 Days (2013, Sacrament)[20]

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" [21]
2002 This Day Forward Kairos "Sunfalls and Watershine" [22]
2003 Murder by Death Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them? "Killbot 2000" [22]
2003 Stretch Arm Strong Engage [22]
2005 The Blackout Pact Hello Sailor [22]
2005 My American Heart The Meaning in Makeup "We Are the Fabrication"
2008 Players Club Coextinction [22]
2009 Touché Amoré ...To the Beat of a Dead Horse "History Reshits Itself" [22]
2012 Circa Survive Violent Waves "The Lottery" [23]
2013 Man Overboard Heart Attack "Open Season" [22]
2022 Vein.fm This World Is Going to Ruin You "Fear In Non Fiction" [22]
2022 Gatherers ( mutilator. ) "Gift Horse" [24]

As producer/engineer
Year Artist Album Ref
2002 My Chemical Romance Like Phantoms, Forever [25]
2002 My Chemical Romance I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love [22]
2005 The Blackout Pact Hello Sailor [22]

References
  1. "Geoffthurs". AbsolutePunk. 14 June 2023.
  2. Hussey, Allison (2023-01-30). "Thursday's Geoff Rickly Announces New Book Someone Who Isn't Me". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2023-07-14.
  3. 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."
  4. Holahan, Catherine. "Generating emo out of real-life tragedy -- Thursday singer recalls Dumont", The Record (Bergen County), December 23, 2005. Accessed March 9, 2008.
  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 Talks Reunion, Martin Shkreli, More". Spin. 2017-06-09. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  10. "Thursday's Geoff Rickly Opens Up About Heroin Addiction". exclaim.ca. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  11. Sacher, Andrew (2023-07-28). "5 takeaways from Geoff Rickly's live Q&A in CT celebrating new book 'Someone Who Isn't Me'". BrooklynVegan. Retrieved 2023-10-18.
  12. DiNicola, Juliann (2017-04-14). "Exploring Williamsburg with Liza de Guia". Brooklyn Magazine. Retrieved 2023-10-18.
  13. "Thursday's Geoff Rickly". SuicideGirls.com. 6 March 2009. Archived from the original on 9 March 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
  14. Costello, Carly (July 14, 2014). "Former Thursday Singer Geoff Rickly Launches Collect Records on Its Own". Artist Direct. Rogue Digital. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  15. Minsker, Evan (September 22, 2015). "Geoff Rickly Explains Collect Records' Relationship With Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli". Pitchfork. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. Kraus, Brian (November 18, 2012). "Geoff Rickly (Thursday) releases 'Mixtape 1' for free download". Alternative Press. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  19. Kraus, Brian (June 23, 2013). "Geoff Rickly (Thursday) releases second mixtape, 'Darker Matter'". Alternative Press. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  20. 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.
  21. Blistein, Jon (4 September 2014). "Watch My Chemical Romance Record Their Debut Album". Rolling Stone.
  22. "Geoff Rickly – Credits". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  23. Tate, Jason (July 26, 2012). "Geoff Rickly Does Guest Vocals On Circa Survive Album". AbsolutePunk. Spin Media. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  24. Sacher, Andrew (2022-11-18). "Gatherers break down every track on new LP '( mutilator. )". brooklynvegan.com. Retrieved 2023-09-08.
  25. "Drinking Souls » Like Phantoms, Forever". Drinking Souls.
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