Kevin Tihista | |
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Born | March 1968 |
Genres | Chamber pop, indie rock, acoustic rock, lo-fi, indie pop |
Occupation(s) |
Bassist Singer-songwriter |
Years active | 1996–present |
Labels | Easy Tiger, Rough Trade Records, Division One, Parasol Records, Broken Horse Records |
Associated acts | Triple Fast Action, Veruca Salt, Kevin Tihista's Red Terror |
Kevin Tihista is a singer-songwriter and musician. He is a former bassist for the Chicago group Triple Fast Action and contributed songs to the Veruca Salt album Resolver. Tihista's solo music is a mixture of pop and rock combining orchestration, electronica, vamping, and multi-tracking. Much of his solo work has been released under the eponym, "Kevin Tihista's Red Terror," a musical collaboration between Tihista and brothers Tom and Ellis Clark of the band "Epicycle."
Kevin Tihista was born in Walnut Creek, CA in the San Francisco Bay area. He began playing guitar in the seventh grade. As a teenager in the 80's, Tihista was a self-described loner and fan of heavy metal bands like KISS and Mötley Crüe until his junior year in high school when his brother gave him a tape of Meat Is Murder by the Smiths. Tihista promptly tore down the heavy metal posters adorning his room and began listening to similar alternative rock and punk/gothic rock bands like The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees. His parents’ divorce and frequent moves during his high school years led an increasingly alienated Tihista to drop out of high school.
Tihista worked a series of odd jobs until, at 21, he moved to Chicago and eventually joined Wes Kidd as bassist for the band Triple Fast Action. According to Kidd, Tihista came up with the name “Triple Fast Action,” inspired by a Gold Bond medicated powder commercial. Triple Fast Action enjoyed moderate success during the mid-1990s releasing two albums: Broadcaster (1996) and Cattleman Don’t (1997). After Triple Fast Action disbanded in 1998, Tihista was recruited by Veruca Salt’s Louise Post in the wake of Nina Gordon’s departure from the group. Veruca Salt's fifth album, Resolver, was released in 2000. Tihista wrote or co-wrote three songs for the album with Post including "Imperfectly," "Officially Dead," and "Hellraiser" but was reportedly unhappy with the results and left the band before the album’s release.