Ian Thornley (born July 21, 1972) is a Canadian rock guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He is best known for his work with the bands

Big Wreck Big Wreck are a Canadian-American Rock music, rock band formed by Ian Thornley and Brian Doherty in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1992. The band was rounded out with David Henning and Forrest Williams. They disbanded in 2002 and Ian Thornley pursued ...

and Thornley.

Career

Born and raised in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Ontario, Thornley studied jazz music at Boston's

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...

in the 1990s and formed the band

in 1993 with classmates David Henning, Brian Doherty, and Forrest Williams. They soon relocated from Boston to Toronto and eventually signed a US record deal with

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

. Their 1997 debut album, '' In Loving Memory Of...'', was a significant hit that year on rock radio in both Canada and the US. Big Wreck released a follow-up in 2001, called '' The Pleasure and the Greed'', and broke up in 2002. The same year, Thornley auditioned with Velvet Revolver for the position of lead singer. He later stated that he did not feel comfortable singing without playing guitar. The band eventually chose Scott Weiland as their vocalist. Later in 2002, Thornley formed a new band, simply titled Thornley, which released their first album, '' Come Again'', in 2004. Their follow-up record, '' Tiny Pictures'', was published in Canada on February 10, 2009, via 604 Records. It was produced and mixed by Nick Raskulinecz. Ian Thornley left 604 Records in 2011 and signed with Anthem Records. During this time, he reunited with his former Big Wreck bandmate Brian Doherty to resurrect the group. They began work on a new album, entitled ''

Albatross Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Paci ...

'', which was released on March 6, 2012. The group toured Canada from April to July. Big Wreck released their fourth studio album, ''

Ghosts In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

'', in Canada on June 10, 2014, and in the US on July 15. It debuted at No. 5 on the

Canadian Albums Chart The ''Billboard'' Canadian Albums is the official record chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music according to certain criteria during a given ...

, selling 4,000 copies in its first week. In 2015, Thornley published the album ''Secrets'' under the name Ian Fletcher Thornley.Ian Fletcher Thornley prueba landing 2 – Ian Fletcher Thornley
/ref> Big Wreck has since released the albums '' Grace Street'' (2017), '' ...But for the Sun'' (2019), '' 7'' (2023), and '' Pages'' (2023).

Discography

Big Wreck

Thornley

Solo (as Ian Fletcher Thornley)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thornley, Ian 1972 births Living people Berklee College of Music alumni Canadian rock singers Canadian male songwriters Singers from Toronto Writers from Toronto Canadian rock guitarists Canadian male guitarists Canadian alternative rock musicians Alternative rock guitarists 21st-century Canadian guitarists 21st-century Canadian male singers 21st-century Canadian singers Big Dirty Band members Thornley (band) members