Thief Taker: an alternative and experimental band from Leeds, UK. Weaving intricate melodies and harmonies into groove-driven progressive songs. Fusing jazz, pop, classical and rock to express powerfully emotive cinematic phunk soundscapes. 


Thief Taker are: James McIntosh (Guitar) / Charlie Eager (Bass) / Curtis Hudson (Drums / Luke Baxter (Vocals)


"Thief Taker.
So... you have read it all before. Four white middle class-ish guys meet randomly and start a band.
So what?
First two jam, soon they become three when they find a singer who can actually pen lyrics, and eventually step up to four.
So fucking what?
Hang on though…
So…. Thief Taker.
Chuck the Sat Nav, smash the iPod, cut the umbilical internet connection and just stop...and listen.
Information overload abounds. It bombards and seduces us into not thinking, but true human emotions still need to be expressed, someone has to sense the zeitgeist, suss the times out, sum it up and throw it back at us to help us truly see, truly understand.
In these times of consumerist throwaway expedience there are still things that need to be said, need to be felt. Now, more than ever.
If dating sites offer guaranteed 'love in 6 months, or your money back', how long is it before there is an aisle in Sainsbury’s where we pick up this week’s Instant True Love Pack - after we have popped the eggs and milk into the trolley?
Well, in these uncertain times, where we all feel uneasy about the direction where we are heading - Thief Taker are switching off X-Factor and doing some of the thinking for us, wrestling with modern life’s dilemmas and holding up a mirror to reflect the questions we are asking ourselves but do not allow ourselves to be conscious of.
It’s not a dogmatic manifesto, though. It is comments on life, love and the human condition, wrapped up in simple and accessible melodies to subvert us. Thief Taker are a band of committed partisans laying improvised explosive devices into our unconscious - not as terrorists, but freedom fighters.
Guitar, bass, drums and vocals: James, Charlie, Curtis and Luke.
Songs to listen to, love, glean a little truth from - and a growing band of like-minded fans who have got the message, and know it is saying something new.
So, go to Sainsbury’s – aisle 3 next to the eggs is where they sell the Instant True Love Pack, and the 3-minute boil-in-the-bag 'Answer to Life’s Great Questions'. Then - when you are home, flick on the kettle and boil up freeze-dried gratification while you comfortably forget yourself and watch the X-factor…
Or.... take a chance, step out and challenge your preconceptions.
Go see Thief Taker, soon. So you can say you were there in the beginning.
It might not change your life, but it could help you think a little differently…"
--- Richard Cotton, OXFORD (06/12/2010)


THIEF TAKER: A NARRATIVE. (Charlie's story thus far...winter 2010)
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Every Thief Taker fan has, at some stage in his or her life, inhabited a candle-lit room in solitude and pensive frame of mind and has reflected on the band that has shaped and sound tracked their lives so fittingly; and in this frame of mind every Thief Taker fan has asked themselves, "How did Thief Taker come to be? Why is Thief Taker here? Is there a God?"
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You probably think these questions unanswerable. You are so stupid.
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The answer to the latter is obviously maybe.
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However, the two former questions require a far more complex answer.
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James McIntosh, guitarist and founder, has planted numerous figurative and literal seeds in his lifetime, but the seed of Thief Taker is by far the most treasured one of all, for it has taken root and become a mighty oak.
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The roots deepened as McIntosh swiftly mastered the guitar, accompanied in a percussive manner by his close friend Curtis Hudson. Feeling an irrepressible artistic urge, McIntosh channeled every emotion he could through his instrument into the sound spectrum. It soon became manifest that the resulting harmonic progressions and attendant rhythms were rather pleasing to the ear and were more than deserving of further attention.
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Thus, the duo ambitiously sought after someone who could craft melodies and lyrics to their creations. Either by luck or by Providence they got all this and more in the form of Luke Baxter, the mastermind behind all Thief Taker’s lyrics, melodies and a not insignificant proportion of the instrumental parts.
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As Baxter effortlessly sculpted catchy melodies, soaring melancholy lines and lyrics that delved deep into the chaos of the human condition, all was going well for the group. There was, however, a distinct lack of low frequencies. Typically, such problems can be remedied with the addition of a bass guitar. So this they added. However, they needed someone to play it. Fortunately, some guy did that. Reader, that guy was me. I was terrible, and still am, but it is only bass, you can’t even hear bass half the time, so they let me stay.
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Thus, the trunk of the oak that is Thief Taker was fully formed and began to branch out. We took our music to the stage where it received rapturous applause and sitting ovations every night (most of our gigs are standing so the audience would display their admiration with a nice seating arrangement). Our troupe wrote and performed voraciously as only passionate musicians can, and the musical world was our oyster, a cherry ripe for the plucking.
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Alas, it was too good to be true, Curtis Hudson’s drumming career tragically died 14th January 2010. Bereaved, the gang accepted that the show must go on and so they recruited a Mr. Jonathan Cade who provided the band with a year of loyal service and musical ideas unprecedented in their artistic vision before leaving to pursue his flourishing career in electronic music. The band wishes him well.
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You dick, Jonny.
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Thief Taker was at an impasse. In true Spinal Tap style, the band had now lost two drummers. Then, reader, a miracle happened. Curtis Hudson’s drumming career experienced an afterlife. It came back with a new fire and passion previously undreamed of. Thus the mighty oak, though stripped of its leaves and left bare by this winter of discontent, has survived.
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May we be grateful for the fruit that it bears.
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Amen.
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Assuming that I am addressing a prospective fan, I expect that such a person may well be thinking “Well now I know that fascinating story of Thief Taker, and have been treated to a deciduous analogy, I am curious to know what their music actually sounds like. I would love a description of their music before I commit to listening to it.”
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You moron.
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Our music is unquantifiable by language. However, I will attempt to express to you what a Thief Taker musical experience is like through imagining a listeners’ thought process.
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“Play. Mmm. Those are very nice chords. They seem to fit together in a logical way and I can’t imagine them being any other way, but they also move me very deeply. The writer of this music obviously has a good feeling for and understanding of tension and release in music. That bass line is also touching, melodic but also technically accomplished, which I find admirable. Those drums are very interesting. Clearly, the drummer has some unique creative ideas and these beats I am hearing fit the mood of the music perfectly. To whom does that heavenly voice belong? I have never heard such an evenness of tone and such an emotional delivery. These words are really making me think hard about their particular subject matter also. WOAH. That guitar solo, aside from being Hendrixian in feel, has taken the song in a completely new direction. This band has a firm grasp on my heartstrings right now, and is jerking them one way and another, wherever they please. And I say, 'Thief Taker, you have full reign. Take me where you please'. So they do, and I am taken on a journey, with sounds swirling all around my head until I don't where I am. Where is up and where is down? When the music hit that crescendo just then, I welled up with tears. I am definitely going to “like” them on Facebook.com”
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-C EAGER.


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