THE ‘ONE TO WATCH’ INTERVIEW

The Red Tack: ‘This is the closest thing to flying a songwriter can experience’

The Red Tack on dancing to the rhythm of the washing machine, infiltrating the Boston scene during the time of Dinosaur Jr. and Throwing Muses, and how Diamond Dogs changed his life.

Questions by David Rea

15 November 2025

Photo: Brook Aitken

David Rea: What’s your earliest memory of hearing music?

Ted Thacker: My mother told me that I used to dance to the clank and hum of the clothes washer and dryer when she did the laundry. It explains my obsession with natural and mechanical beats and loops.

I can hear the click of a door handle as it’s closing, and it will send me into that specific sound on loop for a good while. The 1970s washing machine and dryer combo was my first loop station. After that, it was Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge over Troubled Water and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Willy and the Poorboys — two albums that helped shape who I’d become as a songwriter.

Was there a music fan in your early life who you looked up to and influenced your music taste?

Both my parents had fun tastes in music. My mom loved the big folk bands and my dad had a taste for dad pop, Neil Diamond and Olivia Newton-John. It was a battle in my house between the slick of Neil Diamond and the street hard cool of Creedence. Both my parents collected records. My dad had a huge stereo system that he’d blast almost every evening after work. I was already writing songs at the age of 5, so these were certainly big influences early on.

What was the first record/tape/CD you remember buying?

I traded my bike for Kiss’ Destroyer. I got in trouble and had to return it. I think my folks felt bad for me and bought me a copy. I wore it out.

Is there a song or album which changed everything for you?

After burying myself in Kiss for years, and learning how to play guitar with Ace Frehley blasting in my ears, it was hard for me to imagine another rock band. But one day, I had the great fortune of coming across a few of my older cousins’ records he’d left behind when he stayed with us. One of those records was David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs. The record blew my mind and I started a whole new journey into songwriting. The other album my cousin had in his small collection was Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here. Again, the songwriting and guitar playing would change my trajectory greatly.

What’s the record you have probably listened to the most in your life?

Hands down, Sly and the Family Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On. It’s my all time favourite album.

What’s your ‘getting ready to go out on a Saturday night’ song?

Wow, this is a hard one. A year ago it would have been anything off of Aha Shake Heartbreak by Kings of Leon. But today, I think it’s got to be something from Theloneous Monk. The first track off of Monk’s Blues, ‘Let’s Cool One’ is a fantastic starter to a Saturday night, and so is ‘Rootie Tootie’ blasted loud in the living room.

Ted Thacker of The Red Tack

Photo: Brook Aitken

What’s your Sunday morning record?

I’m still grooving off of the cool lushness of Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft. Such a great album, production wise. Likewise, Cocteau Twins’ Heaven or Las Vegas.

What’s the greatest gig you’ve ever seen?

The Clash at Red Rocks in 1982. I was a kid, but it really hit me hard watching Joe Strummer do his thing.

What’s the most rock ‘n’ roll thing you’ve ever done?

Stage diving while playing my guitar is pretty up there. I used to do that a lot. Or waking up right in the middle of a busy Saturday morning city street, like on the double yellow line, after partying way too hard with fans in a strange city (Indianapolis) years ago. Evidently, the cars were just zooming past me all morning, as I slept off the bad decision.

I read somewhere that you have a new song in your head nearly every 30 to 40 minutes every day. And that this has been happening your whole life since you were 5 years old. That is really quite something, but I wasn't sure if you were joking or not. Were you?

This is true most days. It can be annoying, especially for my family, because most of these ‘songs’ are just snippets of rhythms and melodies tied to lyrics that oftentimes make no sense. The only way to get real material down is to force myself to compose the piece and work it out, with lyrics that make sense and a song structure that interests me.

Could you say something about your creative process?

There are myriad ways I go about it. Sometimes it’s just me and my guitar and a pen, the classic way. It almost always works to get out material that way. I work this way on the piano as well. Another, and one of my favourites, is to create a loop with a pedal or recording software and write over that. This is the closest thing to flying I think a songwriter can experience.

You’ve been playing and recording under the name The Red Tack for several years now. (I believe it’s an anagram of your name.) Why did you start The Red Tack in the first place?

Yeah, I got the idea to make a name from an anagram of my own from Adam Pierce and Mice Parade. I loved the way he wrote and recorded, and thought it would be fun to copy his idea. I’ve been playing solo, under different monikers for years now. But when I can, I like to get a band together because that’s by far the best way to make music. So, having a ‘band name’ rather than just my own name seemed to be an appropriate way to head forward.

You've produced two albums as The Red Tack, in 2017 and 2023. How do you reflect on them from a little distance?

I like both records a lot, but as always, I feel like I can do better. None of my material seems to be graced with any sort of popularity, so it’s always a bit daunting to expose my art to folks, when I know it’s not going to get much play. It’s rewarding as hell, however, when even one person chimes in and says they like something I’ve done. It means the world to me. I can’t and won’t ever be able to stop playing music and writing songs, but I have thought about giving up making it public many, many times.

“Baldo Rex was a juggernaut. We began as a simple foil to afterschool boredom [but we went] on to infiltrate the scene in Boston during the time of Dinosaur Jr., Salem 66 and Throwing Muses.” — Ted Thacker

From what I can gather, you do pretty much everything yourself, from the songwriting to tracking in the studio. Do you mix and master your own albums?

I mix a lot of stuff and record a lot by myself, yeah. But it really helps to make the sound larger than life if you have professional mixing and mastering. I work a lot with Kyle Jones, who has been recording and mastering music for as long as I can remember. I did my entire first record with him and all of the mixing for my second record as well. His studio is the closest thing you’ll get to the feel of your own place, yet his gear and years of knowledge make it into an otherworldly experience for writing and recording.

Years ago you were in a band called Baldo Rex. There is a small Facebook group dedicated to the band, and the subheading says: ‘The greatest underground band of all time.’ I actually used to have a C90 cassette copy of one of the band’s albums. It was truly incredible, and I concur that it was the greatest underground band of all time. It's very difficult to find anything about the band online. Could you tell us a little bit about it? How did the band end?

Baldo Rex was a juggernaut. We began as a simple foil to afterschool boredom. After starting my first band, The Plague at 12 years old, I went through a series of punk and pop iterations with my middle school and high school musician friends. We played all the school and house parties. Eventually, Phil Wronski and I began to write material together and record it onto a two-track tape deck nearly every afternoon. After a year or so of this nonsense, we decided to start a band. After a few years in Boulder, with various name iterations, we moved to Boston to make it big, finally changing our name to Baldo Rex. That band would go on to infiltrate the scene in Boston during the time of Dinosaur Jr., Salem 66 and Throwing Muses. We then moved to San Francisco for a bit before coming back to Colorado. After years of touring and putting out two very loved and critically acclaimed albums, we decided to call it a day. It wasn’t a happy decision at all.

What are your plans for recording and performing in the near future?

I am busy right now attempting to record my next album. I already have all the material written, I just don’t have the funds to record anything outside of my own little demo studio in my house. Happily, I have a re-release on vinyl of my song ‘Judy’. It has been put on a compilation by the fantastic Label 51 Recordings. I’m on the comp with some fabulous local talent, and we have a November 14 release at Twist and Shout in Denver, along with a listening party happening at the Lion’s Lair, also in Denver, that same night. The super fun thing is that I’m now on the same label as one of my all time early musical heroes, Peter Criss of Kiss fame!

Thanks so much for talking to me, Ted. I really appreciate it.

Sure thing!