Biography
In the wake of fronting the Cramps-infected trio Like Wow and journeying alongside the Toby Tyler Circus throughout the 1990s, New York singer-songwriter Thomas Truax—pronounced “troo-aks”—stepped out on his own in 2001, seizing the spotlight during one of the Sidewalk Café’s notorious “Antihoot” open-mic nights.
Drawing from his musical background, circus travels, and earlier stint as a stop-motion animator on MTV’s “Celebrity Deathmatch,” he projects the persona of a junk-collecting mad scientist lost in a cabaret-noir haze. Although he sometimes calls on fellow New York musicians such as violinist Meredith Yayanos and Botanica keyboardist Paul Wallfisch, Truax most often performs alone, accompanied solely by the Rube Goldbergesque time-keeping contraptions he fashions from Manhattan’s industrial castoffs—instruments bearing names like the Hornicator, the Cadillac Beatspinner Wheel, and the Sister Spinster.
Crowned by his thick baritone, the resulting sound blends the brooding atmospheres of The Doors, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Tom Waits, and The Cramps with darker passages from The Kinks, David Bowie, and The Beatles. His lyrics trace tales of romantic solitude in New York alongside the peculiar goings-on of his invented Wowtown, an Edward Gorey-tinged realm populated by eccentric animal figures. The overall atmosphere evokes a gloom-fixated yet affably eccentric misfit—Leonard Cohen crossed with Uncle Fester.
While solidifying his reputation as a regular presence in Lower East Side and Brooklyn venues, Truax has built a substantial audience in the U.K. After several well-received British tours, he issued his solo debut, Full Moon Over Wowtown, in early 2003 on his own Psycho Teddy imprint. The album received a European release through the U.K.-based Breakin’ Beats label in March 2004, and Italy’s Homesleep label put out a self-titled three-song CD the preceding February. He tracked a second album, “Audio Addiction,” slated for Breakin’ Beats in early 2005.
Drawing from his musical background, circus travels, and earlier stint as a stop-motion animator on MTV’s “Celebrity Deathmatch,” he projects the persona of a junk-collecting mad scientist lost in a cabaret-noir haze. Although he sometimes calls on fellow New York musicians such as violinist Meredith Yayanos and Botanica keyboardist Paul Wallfisch, Truax most often performs alone, accompanied solely by the Rube Goldbergesque time-keeping contraptions he fashions from Manhattan’s industrial castoffs—instruments bearing names like the Hornicator, the Cadillac Beatspinner Wheel, and the Sister Spinster.
Crowned by his thick baritone, the resulting sound blends the brooding atmospheres of The Doors, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Tom Waits, and The Cramps with darker passages from The Kinks, David Bowie, and The Beatles. His lyrics trace tales of romantic solitude in New York alongside the peculiar goings-on of his invented Wowtown, an Edward Gorey-tinged realm populated by eccentric animal figures. The overall atmosphere evokes a gloom-fixated yet affably eccentric misfit—Leonard Cohen crossed with Uncle Fester.
While solidifying his reputation as a regular presence in Lower East Side and Brooklyn venues, Truax has built a substantial audience in the U.K. After several well-received British tours, he issued his solo debut, Full Moon Over Wowtown, in early 2003 on his own Psycho Teddy imprint. The album received a European release through the U.K.-based Breakin’ Beats label in March 2004, and Italy’s Homesleep label put out a self-titled three-song CD the preceding February. He tracked a second album, “Audio Addiction,” slated for Breakin’ Beats in early 2005.
Albums
Singles
