'Joe Meek Warns Buddy Holly' tells the curious story of the late London-based independent record producer Joe Meek, and a warning he reputedly received in 1958 via spirit communication (Meek, an occult enthusiast, participated in biweekly seances) predicting the date of his hero Buddy Holly's death: February 3.

'Joe Meek Warns Buddy Holly' tells the curious story of the late London-based independent record producer Joe Meek, and a warning he reputedly received in 1958 via spirit communication (Meek, an occult enthusiast, participated in biweekly seances) predicting the date of his hero Buddy Holly's death: February 3.

A panicked Meek actively sought out Buddy, and personally delivered a note to him backstage when Buddy was on tour in the UK. Holly thanked him politely, and later even laughed about the meeting/warning in a post-tour interview well after February 3. However, exactly one year later, the date proved to be tragically accurate after all when Holly was killed in a plane crash along with Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper, and the pilot.

February 3, 2009 will mark the 50th Anniversary of Holly's Death, and also that of Joe Meek, who killed himself on the upper floor of his 304 Holloway Road apartment after shooting his landlady, Violet Shenton, following a heated argument, on the same date (probably not coincidentally) in 1967.

Between those fateful days much happened in the world of Joe Meek, including recording of a 'talking' cat in a cemetery, claimed additional communication with Holly via Ouija Board ("SEE YOU IN THE CHARTS"), the production of a Holly tribute record, legal and financial problems and a gradual descent into drug-addled paranoia and madness. Meek was even convinced that Decca Records and Phil Spector had planted microphones behind his wallpaper in order to steal his recording secrets.

Thomas Truax's (pronounced troo-aks) song touches on all this and also name checks Meek's most famous number one single 'Telstar' (by The Tornadoes) and incorporates a nod to Meek's third UK #1, The Honeycombs' "Have I The Right?" (1964).

Truax and Meek share some common ground: Both staunchly independent, innovator/ inventors, fascinated by spiritualism and the occult, working alone out of self-built studios in their homes, experimenting and making curiously otherworldly music that is nonetheless accessible and appealing.

Not surprisingly, Truax is a long time Meek fan. "I usually base songs on my own experiences and imagination, but this man's life was such an outrageously extreme mix of elements and events, both tragic and comic - and on top of that this supernatural element - that it reads almost like a cartoon. Yet it really happened."

Though Meek's importance has often been overlooked in music history, this may be changing. Truax's single coincides with a rising tide of interest in Meek, including a new biography and the scheduled release in 2009 of two films (Nick Moran's "Telstar", and a new documentary called "A Life In The Death Of Joe Meek"). There is also a music video for the Truax song by filmmaker Andrew Werner.

New Yorker Thomas Truax is known for his killer live shows featuring strange self-made instruments like his legendary 'Hornicator' and motorized mechanical 'drum machines' (the most recent, Mother Superior, is what provides the rhythmic backing in 'Joe Meek Warns Buddy Holly'), as well as three acclaimed albums 'Audio Addiction', 'Full Moon Over Wowtown', and 'Why Dogs Howl at the Moon', and numerous singles and compilation tracks. He has been labeled 'Steampunk' and 'Antifolk' but denies all charges. He is currently holed up in London finishing work on his first all-covers album 'Songs from the films of David Lynch' .