Donnette Thayer

In 2014, Thayer recorded a version of the Scott Miller song "The Red Baron," which originally appeared on Game Theory's 1984 EP Distortion. Her version, released as a music video in June 2014, is expected to appear on an upcoming Scott Miller memorial tribute album.

Thayer contributed vocals and lyrics to the song "Peregrine," music by Tony Pucci and Stefan Horlitz, for the ALS charity CD Songs for Jenny, released on Heyday Records in October 2009. The Songs for Jenny CD also featured vocal performances by Tim Powles of The Church and Margot Smith, among others.

In 1997, Thayer released a solo album, Chaos and Wonder, on Escapist Music.

The Kilbey-Thayer duo returned to the studio to produce their second Hex recording, Vast Halos, released in 1990, with guest percussionist Jim McGrath credited for "pounding, shaking, and apple eating."

Hex, the 1989 self-titled debut album by the duo, was originally released on First Warning, then on Rykodisc. Kilbey's biographer has described this collaboration as "one of the most inspired and artistically rewarding collaborations of Steve's career. The arrangements for many of the songs were spare – often consisting of softly strummed acoustic guitars, ambient keyboard textures, and tasteful electronic percussion – which allowed her voice to float up through the wide open spaces like smoke."

In 1988, Thayer teamed up with Steve Kilbey of Australian psychedelic rock band The Church, to create the band Hex. Kilbey and Thayer were romantically involved at the time – Kilbey's nickname for Thayer was "Starfish," which became the title of The Church's album Starfish. Starfish featured the single "Under The Milky Way," a Top Ten hit for The Church which was No. 12 for the year 1988.

With Game Theory, Thayer recorded the cult classic double album Lolita Nation (1987), and toured extensively promoting the album. Thayer wrote the song "Look Away" (originally performed with her earlier band, X-Men), and is credited as co-writer of "Mammoth Gardens" and "Not Because You Can." She also played on Game Theory's subsequent album, Two Steps from the Middle Ages (1988). Following a promotional tour for the release of Two Steps, Thayer left the band in 1988.

In 1986, Thayer joined power pop/college rock band Game Theory as a guitarist and vocalist. She had previously appeared as a guest performer on the band's debut album, Blaze of Glory (1982).

Donnette Thayer is a vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter most active in the 1980s and early 1990s indie rock scenes of Northern California. Thayer was a member of the band Game Theory, and later formed Hex with Steve Kilbey of The Church.

Thayer began her musical career in the late 1970s in Davis, California, as guitarist and vocalist for X-Men. She later formed The Veil, which released one album, 1000 Dreams Have Told Me (1984), produced by Scott Miller of Game Theory. In the mid-1980s, Thayer moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, and formed a short-lived band called No Matter What, which included guitarist Zachary Smith, bassist Daniel Liston Keller, and drummer B Jon Chinburg.