In 2004, Brandon Wells, Brandon Fisher and Cliff Obrist, being high school friends who all played instruments and lived within two miles of each other, decided to get together and play music. There were no delusions of grandeur in becoming rock stars, only friendship and a love of music. With Cliff's songwriting, they began to develop and practice songs. A year later they had developed a solid repertoire, but still had no name and no bassist. Ben Culver, being a fellow musician at Fisher's church, stepped in as bassist. As for the name, B Wells suggested Thrifter due to our mutual love of thrift store's and the thrill of finding vintage clothing and merchandise.
In 2006, Thrifter came out with their first demo recording entitled Fiction Stories and Fashion Statements. It was surprisingly well received by friends and family, who to this day I believe were just trying to be nice. In any case, it encouraged the group to keep writing and prompted several requests for Thrifter performances at local graduation parties. Soon after, Ben left the group and Jameson Dunham came on as the new bassist. Jameson, in addition to being an excellent bass player, happened to live across the street from Wells making him an even better fit.
Despite Cliff being away at college, they continued to write and perform around the Syracuse area graduating to more legitimate venues such as The Lost Horizon and the Coffee Pavilion. In 2008, their sophomore album, A Question Like was released, selling over one hundred albums within the first several weeks. With this new release, both the song quality and recording quality had increased along with the band's ability to perform together. This dynamic continued throughout the next several years as they started to gain recognition outside of Syracuse, playing shows in Buffalo and Utica.
In 2010, Thrifter released their EP, Strange Beings. Despite having only three songs, it was their most cohesive release thus far and started to capture the sound the band had been trying to achieve from the start. Strange Beings was highly praised by Thrifter fans which encouraged the band to keep going even farther. Thrifter started playing shows more frequently and expanded their territory down to New York City and out west to Rochester, even winning a battle of the bands contest at the Westcott Theater in Syracuse. The summer of 2011 was Thrifter's busiest time, playing shows almost every weekend and sometimes several shows per day. This proved to be too much for Fisher and in August, he decided to leave the band. It was at this time that Wells also left the band.
On October 29, 2011, after many hours of songwriting, practicing and recording, Thrifter's latest album, Muddle In Your Bones was released and was Fisher's final performance with the band. With their new drummer Chris Flack, they decided to put together a small tour to promote the new album, playing across New York State from Jamestown to NYC and even down to Philadelphia. The tour was a great success and the album was nominated for Best Alternative Album at the 2013 Syracuse Area Music Awards.
Despite the band members living in separate cities, the band remained together from 2012-2015 playing only two more shows: once in July 2013 at the Lost Horizon and once in Sept 2013 for the Sub Rosa Sessions at Subcat Studios in Syracuse, NY. Also in 2013, Brandon Fisher rejoined the band as drummer and their song "Founded To Find" was featured in the independent movie "A Happy Ending". On February 9th, 2015, they released their last single "Sorry State" and officially announced the end of Thrifter.
Thank you all for the loving support and may you continue to enjoy Thrifter for years to come!
