Thee Conductor

As Thee Conductor, Austin-based musician, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Jason Butler crafts tracks that shift abruptly from restrained Americana into buoyant electronic textures and elaborate chamber-pop ornamentation. He favors extensive collaboration under the Thee Conductor banner, routinely drawing on numerous associates from the local music scene to contribute vocals and instrumentation across his recordings. Bonnie "Prince" Billy emerged as a recurring presence in this sound, appearing on lead vocals for several individual songs before taking over every vocal performance on the 2024 release Ennoia.

Butler had already spent years working in music prior to focusing on Thee Conductor. During the 2000s he performed with the Austin indie-rock outfit Quien Es, BOOM! and participated in additional projects. The project's first full-length, 2017's Cotton Tornado, included a guest vocal from Bonnie "Prince" Billy on a single track along with contributions from Jana Horn and Kevin Shea. That album merged folk-oriented songwriting with sudden bursts of electronic rhythm alongside meticulously scored horn and string passages. Its follow-up, 2021's Spirit of a Ghost, again assembled numerous friends to supply additional parts. The 2024 album Ennoia pared the arrangements back further, favoring more introspective material while assigning all lead vocals to Bonnie "Prince" Billy. The record also featured Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche and string work from the Tosca String Quartet.