Tracey Thorn

Tracey Thorn
Tracey Thorn, c. 1990s
Background information
Born	26 September 1962 (1962-09-26) (age 47) Brookmans Park, Hatfield, Hertfordshire
Origin	Hull, England
Genres	Pop Folk Electronic House
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocalist
Years active	1982 - Present
Labels	Cherry Red Records 1982-1984 Virgin Records 2007 -
Associated acts	Everything But the Girl Marine Girls
Website	http://www.traceythorn.com
Notable instruments
Vocals Guitar

Tracey Thorn (born Tracey Anne Thorn on 26 September 1962, in Brookmans Park, Hatfield, Hertfordshire) is an English pop singer and songwriter. She is best known as being one half of the duo Everything but the Girl.

She grew up in Hatfield, Hertfordshire and studied English at the University of Hull, where she graduated in 1984 with First Class Honours. She lives with her husband ^[1] and bandmate Ben Watt in North London. The couple have twin daughters born in 1998 and a son born in 2001.

Career

Marine Girls (1980-1983)

Thorn began her musical career in the group Marine Girls playing guitar and singing occasional vocals. The band released two albums (Beach Party in 1981 and Lazy Ways in 1982) and several singles. The group disbanded when Thorn decided to concentrate on Everything but the Girl.

Everything but the Girl (1982-2002)

Thorn met Ben Watt at the University of Hull where they were both students, and both signed as solo artists to Cherry Red Records. Their first album together was Eden, released in 1984. Everything But The Girl released a body of work that spanned two decades. Their biggest chart success came in 1995, when DJ Todd Terry remixed a song from their Amplified Heart album. "Missing" became a huge hit all over the world, especially in the U.S., where it reached number two in the Billboard Hot 100.

Everything But The Girl have been on extended hiatus since 2002. Ben Watt has concentrated on his DJ work, and Thorn has been raising their children and, most recently, writing and recording her solo album.

The name "Everything but the Girl" was the slogan of a furniture store called Turners on Beverley Road in Hull.^{[citation needed]} Anyone driving from Paragon Station to the University of Hull would drive past the store. Turners has since been demolished.

Solo career and collaborations

Thorn's first solo work was a mini-album entitled A Distant Shore (1982). A re-recorded version of the track "Plain Sailing" was released as a single, and was included on the Pillows & Prayers Cherry Red records compilation album.

She collaborated with Massive Attack on several projects, including the soundtrack for the motion picture Batman Forever where she contributed with "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game". Their first project together was the song "Protection" from the album by Massive Attack of the same name. She also sings on the track "Better Things".

In the 1980s, Thorn also contributed guest vocals and backing vocals for The Style Council on the track "Paris Match" (from the album Café Bleu), The Go-Betweens on their track Head Full of Steam, Working Week on the single "Venceremos (We Will Win)", Lloyd Cole and the Commotions on the track "Big Snake", and Adam F on "The Tree Knows Everything", from Colours.

Just prior to her return to recording in 2007, Thorn contributed vocals to the song "Damage" by the band Tiefschwarz on the album Eat Books.

In March 2007, Tracey Thorn released her second solo album Out of the Woods on Virgin Records (Worldwide) and on Astralwerks (USA). It includes contributions from Cagedbaby, Ewan Pearson, Charles Webster, Sasse, Darshan Jesrani, Martin Wheeler and Alex Santos. Thorn's MySpace page includes several mixes of the single and the music video.

The first single from her 2007 album, "It's All True", accompanied by remixes from the likes of Kris Menace & Martin Buttrich, was released on 7 February and the second single, "Raise the Roof" was released on 18 June. The third single, "Grand Canyon" was released on 30 October. A fourth single, "King's Cross" (which is a cover version of a Pet Shop Boys song) was released on 12 December.

In mid-October 2007, Thorn commented that she has begun to write and collaborate with producer, Ewan Pearson, for the follow-up to Out of the Woods. By April 2009, work on the album was complete and was going through the mixing process. The new set is expected to be released in late 2009.^[2]

In 2008, Thorn collaborated with the Hungarian acoustic downtempo group The Unbending Trees on their single "Overture", which also featured on their album Chemically Happy (Is The New Sad), published by her partner and husband Ben Watt.

In 2009, Thorn collaborated with the Swedish singer-songwriter Jens Lekman for a cover of The Magnetic Fields' "Yeah! Oh Yeah!" for a compilation album commemorating twenty years of Merge Records, Score! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers!.

Thorn's third solo album, which will contain eight new songs and two cover versions is now complete. A release date has yet to be announced. Thorn announced on her Myspace that she was going independent and would release her new album as such.

Discography

Studio albums

• 1982 - A Distant Shore
• 2007 - Out of the Woods

Singles

Collaborations

References

External links

• Official Tracey Thorn website
• Official Everything But The Girl website
• Tracey Thorn Official Myspace
• 20 Questions with Tracey Thorn: The Line Of Best Fit
• Ewan Pearson On Thorn's New Album