San Francisco Bay Area native Peter Thomas began his musical journey behind a set of drums. His primary influences and style stems from the rock music of his youth, but he has since explored many other musical styles, including pop, electronica, blues and jazz, in both live and studio settings.
Today, Peter is a Senior Sound Designer at Disney. His association with Disney has proven rewarding with work on many projects that draw from Disney’s diverse catalog. These have included audio for well-known classics (“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”), Pixar favorites (“Toy Story”, “Finding Nemo” and “Monster’s Run”), the Star Wars franchise, and current Marvel blockbusters (“Guardians of the Galaxy”). He is also beginning to become much more involved as a composer for games and related video projects. While maintaining a full schedule with Disney, Peter is excited to be the drummer in the original rock trio Diablo Dukes, which has three releases, including Disney’s “Tron Run/r Remixes.” Recently in 2019, Peter relocated back to the Los Angeles area.
Background
In 1996, Peter headed to Los Angeles where he earned a B.A. in ethnomusicology at UCLA, studying and learning with some of LA’s finest jazz luminaries such as Oscar Brashear, George Bohanon, Roberto Miranda, and legendary guitarist Kenny Burrell. In addition to playing with various Los Angeles area jazz outfits, Peter also played with the rock trio Earshot, pop vocalist Alana Gentry and West LA jazz/funk group, the Septones. Later, Peter lent his percussion talents to movie soundtracks (“Shafted”), and played in Europe with funk rockers Calico Soul, and later with Broadway stars John Davidson and Pamela Blake.
During this period, Peter also took a deep dive into music and audio production. Following an internship at Cherokee Studios, Peter landed a studio assistant position at Craig Harris Music working alongside composer/sound designer Craig Harris (Quincy Jones, “Braveheart”). Moving to Primal Scream Music, Peter lead the technical operations of its post-production facility as well as engineering advertising spots for clients such as Dodge and Mattel. He also worked alongside various composers and sound designers, including the heralded Claude Letessier (“The Thin Red Line”) and Ralph Schuckett (“Pokemon”).
Upon his return to the San Francisco Bay Area, Peter joined Studio Hibiki. In addition to his role as chief engineer, Peter soon found himself also managing the recording facility. While at Studio Hibiki, he engineered sessions for various projects and clients while establishing Studio Hibiki as a leading Bay Area recording studio. Notable projects included mastering the first WPMA concert DVD (featuring INXS, Maxi Priest and Gloria Gaynor), and a range of recordings for artists such as Jon Secada, Shankar and Ginger, Colin Jesse James, Pete Escovedo, Dennis Chambers, Hiram Bullock, and Jimmy Degrasso. When Hibiki closed its doors, Peter freelanced as both an audio engineer and as a drummer. During that time, he also played drums for Squaretape, who would go on to open shows for groups such as Cracker and The Tubes. In addition, he also became a Pro Tools certified instructor at Future Rhythm.
Peter then made the shift into video game production, working as a note-tracker/sound designer on the popular Guitar Hero video game franchise for Activision. He was involved in game audio production and mixing as well as developing the drum performance elements of the game. His work can be seen and heard in the fan-favorite release Guitar Hero: Van Halen. Simultaneously, Peter could be heard playing with cover band The Cut Loose, and backed various artists and groups in the Bay Area such as Jeremy Goodfeather and Bray.