Bio

 

Murray started his music career in Canada, performing as Murray Hardacker with various rock bands across the the country and into the U.S. mainland. Highlights included playing in The Henry Small Band with drummer Zak Starkey, then later with Penta/WEA recording artist Raymond May. May had a top 10 single in the eastern U.S. and Murray toured with him, opening for Iggy Pop, Aerosmith and the Georgia Satellites. Up to this point, Murray’s role in most groups was as a rhythm guitarist, keyboards and backup vocalist. After the Raymond May tour, he formed the band Hardacker as lead singer. His band independently released a self titled EP and played locally but were unable to gain tour support.

In 1998 he was invited by producer Bob Rock to visit Maui to help build Plantation Mixing and Recording, Rock’s home studio. He was also offered to train as a studio engineer but was not yet legal to work in the U.S. He did however, get a chance to be present for many recording sessions there with several major label artists who came to Maui work with Rock in his studio. Whenever possible, Murray took the opportunity to learn the studio recording process, sometimes helping to set up sessions. On one occasion he was also asked to sing backup vocals on a track for Our Lady Peace’s Gravity album. The experiences at Plantation inspired him to hone his songwriting skills and piece together a simple home studio of his own.

After legally immigrating, he changed his performing name to his mother’s maiden name, Thorne and released his first solo album Tin Can Telephone, which he recorded and produced himself in his home studio on Maui. It contained the track “Butterfly Kisses” which won a certified international top 100 artist award in the early days of internet streaming. Thorne credited the quality of the album’s production to what he learned from being around Plantation Studios, especially tips and tricks he picked up from his close friend Eric Helmkamp, who at that time was working with international artists on Grammy winning albums. Ironically, Eric had taken the engineering position that Murray was forced to previously turn down. 

Since the release of Tin Can Telephone, Murray gained popularity as a performer around his home on Maui. He had a very busy live career in the decade that followed, playing solo shows all over while also performing weekly with a local Celtic rock band, Celtic Tigers. He was also one of the original creators of Zeptember, a Led Zeppelin tribute that featured local Maui musicians. He co-produced and played in the first two annual Zeptember concerts before branching off to create and perform In The Flesh, a solo performance of Pink Floyd’s The Wall. The show, which also featured a film that he created himself, garnered critical praise, most notably from actor/director Woody Harrelson, who urged him to tour the show on the U.S. mainland. Since touring the production was too costly, he performed it instead over the next few years in various local Maui venues, each time to a sell out crowd. Eventually, however, his performing schedule, coupled with the responsibilities of family life, began to take time away from his songwriting. After the last run of In The Flesh shows in 2017, Murray had already begun to return to writing, though he was still very active playing live weekly gigs on Maui. Unfortunately however, his home studio had fallen into a state of disrepair due to lack of use. 

The covid shutdown ended up having a serendipitous effect on his career as a recording artist, giving him the opportunity to fully focus all his musical efforts once again on writing and recording songs. During the forced hiatus, he also got his home studio up and running again and began recording demos, some of which would become bed tracks for his new solo EP. 

On December 31, 2022, Thorne will release Sound Barrier as the first single from the EP. The song was chosen by his Facebook followers to be released first, and has already earned many positive reviews from listeners. He is planning release the rest of the songs in the spring of 2023 and tour to support it through the summer.