Geoffrey William Rickly (born March 8, 1979) is an American musician, best known as the lead vocalist and songwriter of rock band Thursday. He is also a member of hardcore punk band United Nations and the alternative rock group No Devotion with former members of Lostprophets, and is the founder of the label Collect Records. In 2023, his debut novel, Someone Who Isn't Me, was published by Rose Books.
Personal life
Rickly was born in Providence, Rhode Island and raised in Dumont, New Jersey, into a Catholic family, and attended Dumont High School, where he was a member of the band and played the tenor sax. He attended Rutgers University until 2000 before dropping out to pursue music. Rickly is a diagnosed epileptic, which has affected his ability to tour.
In early 2013, Rickly was mugged in New York City, where his cell phone, iPad, wallet, credit card, rent money, and medication were stolen. In 2015, Rickly was poisoned and robbed in Hamburg, Germany, while touring with No Devotion to play at the Reeperbahn Festival. Rickly was hospitalized, causing them to cancel their concert, but recovered for a scheduled show in Paris the following day.
In a 2017 interview with Spin, Rickly spoke of battling a heroin addiction that began shortly after Thursday's breakup in 2011. Following Thursday's reunion in 2016, Rickly was inspired to quit using the drug. In 2023, Rickly released his first novel, Someone Who Isn't Me, via Rose Books. The novel is an autofictional account of his struggles with heroin addiction and experimental psychedelic treatment with Ibogaine.
Rickly lives with his partner, Liza de Guia.
Career
Rickly has contributed guest vocals to many songs, including My American Heart's "We Are the Fabrication", Murder by Death's "Killbot 2000", This Day Forward's "Sunfalls and Watershine", Circa Survive's "The Lottery", and My Chemical Romance's "This Is the Best Day Ever". He also occasionally performs solo, most recently in Anaheim, California, at Kill Iconic Festival on March 23, 2024, performing his band, Thursday songs "Understanding in a Car Crash" and "This Side of Brightness" acoustically.
thumb|Rickly performing with Thursday in 2004
Lyrically, Rickly has been known to draw from a wide variety of influences, many of them being authors and poets. In a March 2009 interview, he cited the works of Denis Johnson, Martin Amis, Roberto Bolaño and David Foster Wallace as being among his influences for the lyrics of Thursday's Common Existence album, which was released in February 2009. A tattoo on his forearm reads "love is love", a lyric from the band Frail; Rickly adopted these lyrics into Thursday's "A Hole in the World". The band's song "Autobiography of a Nation" is clearly influenced by poet Michael Palmer's "Sun". Rickly has also written, recorded and played for United Nations, an experimental powerviolence collaboration.
In 2014, after Lostprophets disbanded following the conviction of frontman Ian Watkins for multiple sexual offences, the remaining members (Stuart Richardson, Lee Gaze, Luke Johnson, Mike Lewis and Jamie Oliver) formed a new band with Rickly, No Devotion. The band have released two albums, Permanence (2015) and No Oblivion (2022).
Collect Records
In 2009, Rickly formed Collect Records, a record label which in its early years only co-released various albums, including releases by Touché Amoré, United Nations and Midnight Masses, but in 2014, the label announced plans to be the primary label behind albums by Black Clouds, Vanishing Life, Sick Feeling and No Devotion.
Martin Shkreli controversy
thumb|left|Rickly performing with Thursday in 2022
During the 2015 public scandal of hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli and his controversial monetary inflation of toxoplasmosis-related pharmaceuticals, it was revealed that Shkreli was a silent investor in Collect Records, while still allowing Rickly to retain creative control.
- Darker Matter/// Mixtape 2 (2013, self-released)
Strangelight
- 9 Days (2013, Sacrament)
No Devotion
- Permanence (2015, Collect)
- No Oblivion (2022, Velocity)
As guest member
{|class="wikitable"
! Year
! Artist
! Album
! Song
! Ref
|-
| 2002
| My Chemical Romance
| I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love
| "This Is the Best Day Ever"
|
|-
| 2002
| This Day Forward
| Kairos
| "Sunfalls and Watershine"
|
|-
| 2013
| Man Overboard
| Heart Attack
| "Open Season"
|
|-
| 2023
| The HIRS Collective
| "We're Still Here"
| "So, Anyway"
|
|-
| 2023
| triton.
| "Sundown in Oaktown"
| "alcatraz_"
|
|-
|2023
| Sharkswimmer
| "Serenity"
| "Demolition of a Childhood Home"
|
|-
|2024
|Common Sage
|<nowiki>Nostos | Algos</nowiki>
|"Edin"
|-
| 2025
| A Lot Like Birds
| "When In Love" ft. Geoff Rickly
| "When in Love"
|
|-
|2026
|Pelican
|Ascending - EP
|"Cascading Crescent"
|
|}
As producer/engineer
{|class="wikitable"
! Year
! Artist
! Album
! Ref
|-
| 2002
| My Chemical Romance
| Like Phantoms, Forever
|
|-
| 2002
| My Chemical Romance
| I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love
|
External links
- Geoff Rickly on Bandcamp
- Geoff Rickly Community on Buzznet
- Collect Records