Australian native Rai Thistlethwayte‘s website reports that “his mother was a classical piano teacher, and his father was a language teacher who played bass and guitar in local rock bands. Influenced by his parents, Rai developed an appreciation for a wide variety of music, including classical, rock, pop and jazz.” He served as a keyboards and vocals sideman for multiple acts early in his career. One of his more prominent projects as sideman has been with the band Knower. In an interview with Abstractlogix, Thistlethwaite explains:
“With Knower, I’m playing much more in the ‘synthesizer’ world, lots of rhythmic stabs, a few keyboard solos with lead sounds. I’m using a laptop based setup, so that garners a very different sound in terms of tone color … If it’s not grooving, it’s not happening. I don’t overthink an ‘approach’ to playing, I just try and do what seems musically sound for the task at hand!”
From our regular contributor Carlo Migliaccio comes a tune by Thistlethwayte’s own project, Sun Rai: 2013’s “Chase the Clouds.” Sun Rai’s spare funk-tinged duo sound features Rai on vocals, keys, and keyboard bass, with only the support of kit drums, recorded live in the studio. Starting in Bb minor, there’s a jump to Bb major at the chorus (1:05.) The Bb major/minor line is straddled some more until 4:22, where there’s a key change to B major.
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