“A voice that could do anything,” declares Americana UK. 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 with her band Banditas in 2012.
Her debut solo album, Psychotic Melancholia, was praised by Paste Magazine as, “considered an upping of the ante on the gritty sonic real estate of garage, punk, country, and a positively jaw-dropping exposition that celebrates the entire canon of rock ‘n’ roll’s energy, and should be Americana, into some amalgam altogether more apt of Thompson-King’s wondrous artistic aptitudes.”
In its review of her latest album, Sororicide, 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.”
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, 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. 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).
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 as well as Dalcroze. In coalition with her artistic work, she is an an Artist – Teacher of Jazz and Contemporary Music Studies in Voice at Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, MA and an Associate Professor of Voice at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA.