patumahoe’s a market garden ghost town on the outskirts of auckland city, new zealand. blair jollands was born and raised there till he was 15.
he got a job mastering rarotongan ragas and splicing beats for aerobic models. started writing songs, playing the guitar. he played the folk and coffee houses up and down the country – acoustic guitar and harmonica, sometimes with fx pedals as accompaniment and andrew sisters cloning. his influences? too many to mention without leaving someone important out. johnny cash, bowie, beck, elvis, dylan, wainwright, al green, gypsy music, straightjacket fits…any sound that harnessed passion.
he recorded his first album in 1994 and took it and his guitar to the u.s.a. busking from venice beach to manhattan. san francisco bay to memphis. got lost in las cruzes and taken in at el paso. fell in love in new orleans then dumped for the man at the house of blues. met tom waits on burgundy. arrived in greenwich village for the cmj festival. played for a pizza and a tour of electric ladyland. left jfk london-bound. hit heathrow with 30quid and a map of soho. started playing at the folk-antifolk houses – bungies, the 12-bar, the troubadour. britpop was peaking and jungle was rattlin’ windowpanes. he set up a studio in a converted garage in portobello and recorded his second album, called it hotel. - formed a band and called it el hula - bringing in fellow kiwi guitarist rhys hughes. they got a manager by the name of steve fargnoli. fargnoli co-wrote purple rain – managed prince - sinead o’connor – world party. el hula got signed to boy georges label more protein and put out their first single ‘everything but you’ followed by the hotel lp. jollands wrote some more songs and this time the band teamed up with strokes producer gordon raphael. together they recorded their third album ‘violent love’.
its 2006. boy george moved to nyc, more protein shut shop so jollands moved everything over to his own label glowb records. they changed the band name to thethinmen to give voice to a new collection of songs and a new band line-up.
the thin men are blair jollands, rhys hughes, cymon reid on drums and johnny hillier on bass.
the new album is called arena. it was entirely self-funded, recorded and produced. it will be released on glowb records through shellshock distribution in the uk and selected european territories in june 2006.
