Rai Thistlethwayte

Thirsty Merc lead singer - the charismatic, curly-haired Rai is a gifted and multi-faceted guitarist and pianist, as well as an almighty vocalist.

Since first bursting onto the national scene back in 2003, the Sydney-based Thirsty Merc have quickly built up a reputation as one of the country's best live acts. Word-of-mouth and hundreds of shows around Australia - and, of course, a swag of great songs - saw the first Thirsty Merc CD spend over a year on the ARIA album charts and end up selling over 120,000 copies.

Almost three years on from the release of Thirsty Merc's much-loved, self-titled debut, 2007 saw the release of their second album ‘Slideshows'.

The core theme throughout ‘Slideshows' is about each of us deciding what's important in an ever-increasingly confusing world. What is real? What do you stand for? What actually matters? Rai tries to explain: “I'm feeling like today, global village, internet, MySpace, YouTube, static, advertising, commercial-meets-fashion-meets… Being busy with that, it's a very busy, cluttered environment. And everyone's got millions of friends and associates, whether it's digital or just out on the town. Whatever it is, everyone's a bit lost in translation. You have to redefine what really does matter to you.”

Musically, as much as Rai hates this description, he genuinely feels Thirsty Merc has matured a lot since recording THIRSTY MERC. Now 26, Rai points out that he was only 21 when he penned songs such as “Emancipate Myself” and “Someday, Someday”.

Rai Thistlethwayte (Thirsty Merc)

Contact us

Song Summit Sydney
APRA|AMCOS
Locked Bag 3665
St Leonards NSW 1590

T: 02 9935 7900
E: info@songsummit.com.au