Thought Creature are a Wellington-based psychedelic rock band formed in 2005, built around the songwriting partnership of Will Rattray (vocals and guitar) and Danny Brady (bass and synth). Drummer Peter Copeland rounded out the original live trio. Drawing on surf guitar, garage rock, post-punk and psychedelia, the band became one of Wellington’s most distinctive acts of the 2000s.
Emerging from the Wellington scene with a self-titled EP in 2005, Thought Creature quickly attracted attention for their live energy. Their debut full-length Teleport Palace, released in 2008 and produced with Bevan Smith, cemented their reputation as one of the more inventive bands in the capital. The album blended twisting surf guitar, raw drumming and melodic vocal lines into something genuinely hard to categorise — as one early write-up noted, they were “the most un-categorizable band in the land.”
After Teleport Palace, the band shifted direction toward electronic music for the 2012 EP Total Recall, exploring what they described as electronic cyber-pop and touring through Europe, Australia and New Zealand. In the wake of the tour, Brady relocated to Dunedin to pursue other projects including Élan Vital and Death and the Maiden, while Rattray moved to Berlin, where he co-founded the record label Fantasy Fiction Records.
A decade after Teleport Palace, the pair reconvened for Ocean Dream (2018), an eleven-track album recorded inside the curved hull of Wellington’s iconic Tug Boat. The sessions — tracked back in 2009 and 2010 at Wellington’s Happy Bar Studio and the Tug Boat — had lain dormant for years before Rattray and Brady returned to finish and release the record on Fantasy Fiction Records. Mixed by Bevan Smith, the album pursued a “submerged watery sound,” with Rattray describing the ocean as a metaphor for consciousness running through all eleven songs. The 2018 New Zealand tour featured live drummer Andy Frost (Coyote) and keyboardist Jelena Mirceta (Full Moon Fiasco).
Rattray has also recorded and performed as Full Moon Fiasco, a closely related psychedelic garage rock project based between Wellington and Berlin.
I really wanted it to have a submerged watery sound. The ocean as a metaphor for consciousness is the over arching thread that ties the songs together.
Will Rattray, Under the Radar
Members
- Danny Brady (bass/synth, Death and the Maiden, Élan Vital)
- Peter Copeland (drums/percussion)
- Will Rattray (guitar/vocals, Full Moon Fiasco)
Discography
- Thought Creature EP (2005)
- Teleport Palace LP (2008)
- Total Recall EP (2012)
- Ocean Dream LP (2018, Fantasy Fiction Records)