Jeff Thacher
| Jeff Thacher | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Jeffrey Thomas Thacher |
| Born |
December 23, 1967 Noank, Connecticut, U.S. He is the grandson of John Worley, a composer, performer, & teacher of classical and contemporary music for the saxophone. |
| Origin | Potsdam, New York |
| Genres | A cappella |
| Occupation(s) | Performer, singer-songwriter, Producer, video director |
| Instruments | Mouth drumming, vocals |
| Years active | 1991–present |
| Labels | Shakariki Records / PAID, Inc., Amerigo Records, J-Bird Records, Rentrak Records, ForLife Records |
| Associated acts |
Rockapella Five O'Clock Shadow The Nylons The GrooveBarbers |
| Website | www |
Jeffrey Thomas Thacher (born December 23, 1967) is an American musician, best known as a member of the vocal group Rockapella. A professional vocal percussionist (a practice also referred to as "mouth drumming" and related to the hiphop-derived beatboxing) and singer who emerged on the early contemporary a cappella scene in 1991, Jeff Thacher co-founded the Boston-based a cappella group Five O'Clock Shadow (aka FOCS) that year and went on to join Rockapella in 1993 as their full-time mouth-drummer. Thacher was a 1990 graduate of Berklee College Of Music's Music Production & Engineering program, and afterward spent several years in television & radio production when not performing
Vocal percussion, as a full-time occupation amidst a band or ensemble, was a fairly new idea in 1991, and Thacher performed as a tenor in Five O'Clock Shadow when not mouth-drumming. At that time, Rockapella was halfway through their stint on the children's television geography gameshow Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? on PBS(1991–1996) and had created several albums for the Japan-only record label For Life Records, as well as a soundtrack album for the Carmen Sandiego show. These albums had utilized individual computer-sequenced samples of mouth noises for their drum tracks. Rockapella sought to translate this approach organically to their live shows via a human performer, and after a search, Thacher got the job.
Thacher's first concert with the group was on May 15, 1993 at the Berklee Performance Center, after which he began touring internationally with Rockapella, making his first CD appearance with them on the song "Big Wet Rag" from the Carmen Sandiego soundtrack sequel Carmen Sandiego: Out Of This World (1993). The first album to feature Jeff's distinctive sound throughout was Rockapella's first all-originals album, Vocobeat (1994), for the Japanese market.
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