Maddy Brotherton joined TUS in November 2023. She plays violin and sings backing vocals.
Maddy is Austin-born and since 2018 she has been a member of several local bands, including Marine Kimono, The Morose Society, Suna and the Strike, Mock Lobster (B-52's tribute), and Úlla.
Influences include: Emma Ruth Rundle, Cocteau Twins, The Cure, Radiohead, BUCK-TICK, and King Crimson.
Gear: acoustic violin with an LR Baggs pickup, custom effects pedals by Matt Simpson, a TC Hall of Fame reverb pedal, and a Fender Deluxe Reverb amp.
Favorite TUS song: Secret Gold.
Billy joined TUS on bass shortly after arriving from his home planet of Antares, the heart of Scorpio, in February 2023.
Influences include: Nine Inch Nails, Phish, and Prince.
He mainly plays his purple Schecter 5-string, but will occasionally rock a Fender or NS Design. He plays through various interstellar effects into a Mesa Engineering head powering various cabinets as the missions require.
His favorite TUS song changes daily.
Wayne joined TUS in December 2021. He plays drums and sings backing vocals and contributes to song-writing for TUS. He also plays the doumbek which is featured in the intro of Behind the Sun. For TUS he draws influence from jazz, industrial and world music.
Wayne's parents had a family band which included his father, uncle and mother. Their frustration with hired gun drummers led to handing 4 year old Wayne a pair of drum sticks. At 5 he got his first kit, a Sears toy drum set, for Christmas. At 7 he had his first live gig in a bar somewhere in Waco, TX. He practiced obsessively listening to tapes of old school funk, like Ohio Players, Dazz Band, Average White Band and old school country. By 7 he had studied with Joe Spata and David Prater (Santana, Sam & Dave, etc.). Later he studied with Jazz legend, Joe Morello in NYC. In his career, he's done 50+ recording sessions spanning every genre and played all over the world. Notable performances included with Arthur Brown, Johnny Gimble, David Allen Coe, Cindy Cashdollar, Oliver Rajamani, and many others, including with groups who have opened for the Toadies, Brian Setzer and ZZ Top. …Wayne's laid drum tracks for everyone from Willie Nelson to the late David Koresh of the Branch Davidians.
Influences include: Joe Morello, Max Roach, Vernel Fournier (from Ahmad Jamal trio), Rob Heaton (New Model Army), Herlin Reiley (Wynton Marsalis) and Benny Greb.
With TUS he plays a vintage 1968 Premier kit. He occasionally uses a solid-shell Noble & Cooley. Snare is usually a Ludwig Black Beauty and a wide-range of cymbals including a 22" Funch ride out of Denmark. Others include a UFIP hihat, and lately, Meinl Dual crashes. He uses a 1995 DW 5000 pedal and American Jazz 2 sticks. For TUS, he's also incorporated a Roland SPDSX sampling pad.
His favorite TUS song is Fate.
