Nicholas Thorburn

Thorburn was born in 1981 in Campbell River, British Columbia, Canada, which he says has influenced his songwriting.^[1] Nature, in particular whales, are a subject of interest;^[2] his lyrics include references to rivers, swans and frogs. He also had a formative experience in a visit, along with his father, to see the killer whale Luna; his memories of the visit became an influential part of Islands' debut album Return to the Sea.^[1]

Thorburn has fronted The Unicorns, Th' Corn Gangg, Islands, Reefer, and Human Highway.^[3][4] Thorburn has gone by the stage name "Nick Diamonds."^[1][5]

His vocals have been noted as a distinguishing feature of The Unicorns and Islands.^[6][7] His production technique involves dark personification over enjoyable music, though he is "usually wary of composing dance tracks."^[8] This contrast is observed in his live performance as well.^[9]

In 2005, he co-wrote with Adam Gollner the satirical charity song "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?" organizing the collaboration of many artists.^[10] He guest performed on Les Savy Fav's 2007 album Let's Stay Friends.^[11] Reefer, his collaborative album with producer Daddy Kev as Reefer, was released on Alpha Pup Records in 2008.^[12]

Thorburn has made an album with Honus Honus (also known as Ryan Kattner) of the band Man Man: "One thing that has been floated around is Honus Honus from Man Man and I making a record in a new (sub)genre we are developing, called Doom Wop, which is essentially low frequency, and extremely slowed down music atop traditional doo wop harmonies. Or something."^[13][14] The project, called Mister Heavenly, also involves drummer Joe Plummer of Modest Mouse and The Black Heart Procession and has had actor Michael Cera playing bass on the tour.^[15]

He released the solo album, I Am an Attic, on his Bandcamp page in 2011.^[16] Thorburn was featured on the 2012 El-P album Cancer 4 Cure, singing the chorus of the track "Stay Down".^[17] In 2014, Thorburn composed the theme music and score for the critically acclaimed podcast Serial.^[18] In 2015, he released a second solo album titled City of Quartz.^[19]

• Music of Canada
• Canadian rock
• List of Canadian musicians