“A voice that could do anything, doing just what it wants.”
Hayley Thompson-King has been recognized internationally for her songwriting, stage performance, and “explosive display of vocal prowess” (PopMatters) since she emerged onto the rock scene fronting garage-rock trio Banditas in 2012. Her debut solo album, Psychotic Melancholia (2017) was praised by Paste Magazine as “a positively jaw-dropping exposition that celebrates the entire canon of rock ‘n’ roll’s energy, and should be considered an upping of the ante on the gritty sonic real estate of garage, punk, country, and Americana, into some amalgam altogether more apt of Thompson-King’s wondrous artistic aptitudes.”
Thompson-King with Major Stars, 2015
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Recording Hayley presented technical challenges. Very expensive German microphones proved no match for her powerful singing, and when mixing, her vocal tracks left Mad Oak’s vintage Geiger counter a smoking wreck! ”
In its review of her second studio album, Sororicide (2020), Newsweek observes, “in the vein of alt-classical song cycles and rock concept albums, her new work layers wide-reaching sonics with palpable psychodrama. At its core is the battle between an artist and the voice inside her head.” Produced by 90’s rock architect, Sean Slade (Radiohead, Hole, Lou Reed), Sororicide takes the listener on “a wild stylistic ride,” according to Billboard, as Thompson-King “accommodates country, rock and opera.”
In addition to her solo work, Thompson-King recorded and toured as the lead singer of the band Major Stars from 2012 – 2016 – appearing on the albums Motion Set (Drag City) and Decibels of Gratitude (Important Records).
Her diverse sonic influences ranging from garage rock to Americana to art music have earned Thompson-King radio play on Sirius XM’s Outlaw Country and Underground Garage stations, as well as opportunities to tour internationally appearing at Stockholm Americana Festival in Stockholm, Sweden, NPR’s Modern Love Live, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA, Americana Fest in Nashville, TN, SXSW, and Frank Turner’s Lost Evenings Fest at The House of Blues Boston. She has appeared on bills with Jason Isbell, Andrew WK, Hurray for The Riff Raff, Frank Turner, Brothers Osbourne, and Jimmy Dale Gilmore and Dave Alvin among others. Her music has been heard in film and television, including Marielle Heller’s Diary of a Teenage Girl.
Thompson-King has a Master’s degree in Opera Performance from New England Conservatory, and a Bachelor’s degree in Opera Performance from New York University. Her teaching methods are further supported by her study of Somatic Voicework (The LoVetri Method) as well as Dalcroze Eurythmics.
In addition to her creative work, she is currently an Associate Professor of Voice at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, and an Artist – Teacher of Jazz and Contemporary Music Studies in Voice at Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, MA.