Jeffrey Thomas of Air People performs an in-studio acoustic set

He joined CultureShift on the release day of the band’s self-titled album to talk about his musical journey and play a few songs.

jeffrey thomas sings and plays an acoustic guitar in WDET's live studio

Air People's Jeffrey Thomas performs in WDET's live studio Nov. 3, 2022.

Detroit musician Jeffrey Thomas has been playing music in the city for nearly two decades. He describes his style as drawing heavily from the classic 60s pop sounds of bands like The Kinks as well as the avant-garde art rock of The Velvet Underground. Thomas’s involvement in Detroit’s indie rock scene is not only lengthy, but broad, through numerous projects over the years like the band Genders, Gardens and Mama Roux.

His latest project is the psychedelic pop four-piece Air People, with drummer Ryan Clancy, guitarist Corey Weedon and bassist Rachel Eve. The band’s new self-titled album brings together ‘lost songs’ from Thomas’s musical past.

 

 

“It’s huge for me, a bunch of these songs are the best of carryovers from my other bands Gardens, Mama Roux, Common Families and many more, because [the band] broke up, never recorded these songs, the songs weren’t fast enough [for the band’s sound] or something like that. Not quite a greatest hits, but these songs are the ones that stood the test of time.”

Air People is having a record release show on Thursday, Nov. 3 at the Outer Limits Lounge in Hamtramck.

Thomas joined CultureShift on release day to talk about his musical journey and perform an acoustic set.

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Author

  • Amanda LeClaire
    Amanda LeClaire is an award-winning host and producer of CultureShift on 101.9 WDET-FM Detroit’s NPR station. She’s a founding producer of WDET’s flagship news talk show Detroit Today, and a former host/reporter for Arizona Public Media. Amanda is also an artist, certified intuitive and energy healer, and professional tarot reader.