One of the most influential figures on Michigan's indie rock scene, Fred Thomas is best known as the founder and leader of the celebrated indie pop band Saturday Looks Good to Me, but the remarkably prolific musician and songwriter has been involved in a wealth of other projects, as well as recording a handful of albums as a solo artist. Thomas was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan on August 6, 1976. Thomas grew up absorbing influences from his parents' record collection, which was dominated by Joni Mitchell, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan (his folks would take him to see Dylan when he was nine), and after learning to make music from the clatter of various household objects, he took up the guitar at age 11. By the time Thomas was in junior high, he'd started playing in bands with friends from school, and in 1994, the 17-year-old Thomas formed a math rock band called Chore, who played extensively in Michigan and launched East Coast and West Coast tours before splitting up in 1996.
After Chore disbanded, Thomas immersed himself in a wide variety of projects -- he recorded and toured with Warren Defever's experimental pop ensemble His Name Is Alive, and was a member of emo-punk band Lovesick as well as chamber pop combo Flashpapr. In 1999, Thomas launched Saturday Looks Good to Me as a home recording project, influenced by his friend Chris Fachini of Teach Me Tiger; featuring Thomas and a revolving cast of friends and musicians embracing an eclectic range of pop influences, the first SLGTM album appeared in 2000, and after playing a handful of live shows under the name, when the band Saves the Day invited SLGTM to tour with them in 2002, Thomas formed a live version of the group and they hit the road.
Between 2000 and 2007, Saturday Looks Good to Me released four proper albums and several singles and compilations, worked with noted indie labels K Records and Polyvinyl Records (as well as Thomas' own Ypsilanti Records), and toured extensively in the United States and Europe, with Thomas often joined by collaborators Scott Sellwood on keyboards, Betty Marie Barnes on vocals, and Ryan Howard on drums. In 2008, Saturday Looks Good to Me went on hiatus, and Thomas continued to maintain a busy schedule, forming the indie electronic duo City Center with SLGTM colleague Howard, playing guitar with the surf-influenced pop combo Swimsuit, recording the album Mighty Clouds with former SLGTM vocalist Barnes, and serving as producer and engineer on recordings by acts such as NOMO, Tyvek, Beauclerk, and Corpse Kisser.
Thomas released his first proper solo album in 2002, Everything Is Pretty Much Totally Fucked Up, and a steady stream of recordings have followed, ranging from carefully crafted full-length albums to limited-edition experimental CD-Rs. In 2012, Thomas assembled a new edition of Saturday Looks Good to Me and began recording and touring again under the handle, though typically it was far from his sole musical vehicle -- that same year, Thomas also appeared on a new album from Ian Svenonius' band Chain & the Gang, served as engineer and multi-instrumentalist on Hewn from the Wilderness by Calvin Johnson's group the Hive Dwellers, and released an ambitious new solo album, Kuma. Thomas is also a writer who covers contemporary music and publishes the zine Deflects Mirror.
–
Mark Deming, Rovi