UMD grad student Cody Thoreson inches toward the forefront of the Duluth music scene

Thoreson, left, poses with other members of Duluth-based One Less Guest. Photo by CCBoyle Photography

Cody Thoreson is a jack of all trades in the music industry doing everything he can to seize a successful career for himself and his bandmates. 

Thoreson is a University of Minnesota Duluth graduate student and teaching assistant. On top of the responsibilities that those things bring, he finds the time to be a lead writer, lead singer, percussionist and keyboard player for one band, and the drummer for a second band. 

Everyday, Thoreson lives and breathes music in everything he does. While 2020 has been filled with new opportunities for Thoreson, his love and commitment to music is nothing new. He explained that he has been playing music for as long as he can remember.

“I taught myself as a really small child off of this old school Casio keyboard that we had,” Thoreson recalled. when I was a teenager, [I] kind of started taking it seriously just because I was in a pretty rough spot in my life and it pulled me out of a lot of that.”  

This passion for music continued until Thoreson finally released his first solo album in 2019: “Free Bad Life Advice.” After the release of this album, he was asked by a band called One Less Guest to perform with them for a show and play some of the music from his album. This was a big deal, as One Less Guest is a very well-known Duluth band. Thoreson appreciated and embraced the opportunity, but left feeling unsatisfied with the performance.

“My album has me playing drums, keyboards, guitar, vocals, bass — everything,” Thoreson said. “I ended up having to do it with a backing track and it was a mess.”

Terrestrial Lifeforms recording their first single, “Robin.” Photo courtesy of Terrestrial Lifeforms

Thoreson noted that the audience really liked the performance and his music. Upon being asked to perform some of his music again, he brought together a group consisting of three UMD students, a University of Wisconsin Superior graduate and a Denfeld High School student, with the initial goal of having a talented group of musicians to play the music from his solo album. 

The group originally started as Cody Thoreson and the Terrestrial Lifeforms. As the band showed increasing interest in Thoreson’s music and offered more and more creative input, Thoreson dropped his name from the affair and Terrestrial Lifeforms was born.

“They do take creative liberties which I really enjoy,” Thoreson said of his band’s interpretation and creativity with music.

While the troubles that 2020 has brought have negatively affected many in the music industry, Thoreson has continued to move closer toward his goal of a successful career in music. At the very beginning of the year, One Less Guest, the band that Thoreson started out performing alongside, had an opening for a drummer. 

Thoreson has been friends with the members of the One Less Guest for years. They reached out to him asking if he’d be interested in an audition, and soon enough Thoreson was the newest member of the band. 

The pandemic pushed back a number of One Less Guest’s gigs after Thoreson joined, but they were able to find a considerable amount of work and keep very busy once the summer came, despite the challenges that still remained. Thoreson partially attributes this to the band’s size.

“We’ve probably played more music live this summer since COVID started than any world-famous band,” Thoreson said. “The only way to justify them playing a show is if they can fill a stadium with, you know, 100,000 people.”

Thoreson poses aside a marimba in his office in the Chester Park building. Photo by Michael King

The success continued for Thoreson when he released his second solo album, “Resonant Echoes from the End of the World,” in July. This album, along with the album “Free Bad Life Advice,” is listed as R&B soul on Apple Music, but Thoreson said it is difficult to label his music with traditional genres. 

“Someone once said that it sounded like jazz for millennials,” Thoreson recalled.

Thoreson noted the word “jazz” is brought up a lot when describing his music that “Terrestrial Lifeforms” plays. This is fitting, as all of its members are jazz students and four of them contribute greatly to the jazz program at UMD. 

“‘Indie-Soul’ I guess is a good way to put it,” Thoreson said of his music. “It’s like R&B soul music with a more aggressive tone to it — it deals with really difficult topics and sometimes becomes really aggressive like in the music because of it.”

Thoreson looks to the future as he continues with his final year of school. He continues to perform with regularity as the drummer for One Less Guest. 

Terrestrial Lifeforms is recording its first album together, as they look to transition from a band playing Thoreson’s music to a band playing music that they composed together. 

Thoreson is very passionate about his teaching and the musical groups in the UMD music program that he oversees. He spends a lot of time and energy writing music for other musicians or doing any studio work that they may need. 

When asked what area of his work in music that he will focus on in the long-term, Thoreson answered: “All of the above.” As of right now, Thoreson does a little bit of everything in the music industry and it doesn’t look like that is ever going to change.