Born and raised in Montreal, Qc. Canada.
Quach acquired a bachelor in mechanical engineering from École Polytechnique de Montréal in 2002. Since 1996, he has worked within numerous engineering fields from urban planning to risk analysis research to large-scale industrial & hydroelectric projects, and since 2002 as a professional engineer & a member of the Order of Engineers of Quebec.
In parallel to his engineering career (currently on hiatus), Quach has always been artistically-driven and highly involved in the the local arts scene. Visual arts and music are both important creative mediums that help with his escape from the reality that he is exposed to on a daily basis. Within engineering as the foundation of our material world and the pillars of our society's infrastructures, lie the roots of our political, economical and sociogical systems. As an artist, his perspective of the world could be considered quite unique.
Self-taught in all the creative domains he has dipped his feet into, he started to draw from a young age and took up painting during his mid-teens to later develop a figurative abstract style with acrylics in the early 00s. With the evolution of softwares, he took up on digital photography & manipulation, graphic design, basic web design and video editing - most of which are now used in conjunction with his music. By the same token, he also took up on sound recording and mixing.
Through phases of indie, new-wave, electro, psychedelic, prog, grunge, noise rock & hard rock - it was really the discovery of more introspective ambient, shoegaze & early post-rock bands that has led him to pick up the guitar and to dwelve in the world of effect pedals in the early 00s.
In 2002, he founded Destroyalldreamers, an instrumental band deeply influenced by shoegaze & post-rock, which gained an international cult following. His solo endeavour, thisquietarmy, was born in 2004 as an experimental/drone side-project. In 2008, it became his main focus, which in turn led to several collaborations with his peers as well as several other side-projects: Mains de Givre (neo-classical dark ambient), Ghidrah (dark power-drone/noise), Parallel Lines (kraut/shoegaze) and his unofficial alter-ego Hi My Quiet Tsar. All six projects are still active to this day. He also runs TQA Records since 2006, a micro-label of limited handmade releases and a webstore for his releases and other distributed titles.
By the end of 2011, he has been credited on over 50 official recordings - most of them as the main composer, performer & recording engineering. His work has been released on more than 25 different record labels from Canada, USA, UK, Germany, France, Poland, Switzerland, Israel, Australia & Japan. He has also performed close to 200 concerts in Canada, USA & a dozen of countries within Europe. |
