Thighpaulsandra was born in Pontypridd, South Wales, to a musical family. His mother was an opera singer, one grandfather a church organist and the other a conductor and French horn virtuoso. His father, though not a trained musician, had a great knowledge of music and it was in this environment that Thighpaulsandra spent his early years, attending weekly chamber music concerts in Cardiff, often attending performances of the BBC Wales Symphony Orchestra under the direction of conductor and neighbour John Carewe. It is undoubtedly the influence of John Carewe and the exposure to many contemporary works that was to establish Thighpaulsandra's future musical direction. He spent his teenage years at Christ College Brecon, where he studied piano and organ. Then, after training to become a Registered Mental Nurse, as well as a piano tuner and restorer, he eventually secured the position of house engineer at Loco Studios in Caerleon. Here, during the late eighties and early nineties, he learnt the disciplines of being a recording engineer and producer, working with many successful indie bands. He spent much of his downtime recording his own group Daterape, a self-styled 'Pervrock' group, with his friends Martin Schellard, David Ryder-Prangley (Rachel Stamp) and the late Jon Lee (Feeder).

It was while working at Loco that he met Julian Cope, engineering his Autogeddon album (1994) followed closely by the Paranormal In The West Country EP. His relationship with Cope blossomed and with a mutual love of Krautrock they formed the group Queen Elizabeth, releasing their first album on the Echo label on Prince Charles' birthday. The press and many Cope fans hated it. Nevertheless, the relationship with Cope continued and Thighpaulsandra contributed to further Cope recordings, adding synthesizers and treatments as well as performing his usual role as engineer. In 1995 they recorded the double album 20 Mothers and Thighpaulsandra became part of the Cope touring band, with Michael Mooney (guitar), Rooster Cosby (drums), and K.R. Frost (bass). After some difficult rehearsals fraught with paranoia, in which Cope became convinced that Thighpaulsandra had been sent by the devil to destroy him, they completed what Thighpaulsandra describes as the 'Tour Of Hell', a nightmare journey through Britain in which Cope descended into psychotic collapse. It all culminated in a tense show at Nottingham Rock City where Cope first threatened to destroy the dressing rooms with a sledgehammer and then, during the show, threw all the monitors off the stage and lay on the floor screaming "My band is shit!"

With a post-tour band reshuffle, and some time to reflect, Thighpaulsandra continued working with Cope. The albums Interpreter and QE2 were started at Loco Studios in Wales, but owing to the sale of the studio Interpreter was finished at Real World studios near Bath, and QE2 at Golliwog Farm. Interpreter was fairly well received but QE2 prompted many of the same responses as its predecessor. Another short Cope tour followed, this time without any of the behind-the-scenes dramatics. After the Shepherds Bush Empire show, Thighpaulsandra received a message from John Balance of Coil, who had seen the show and wanted to get in touch. Taking a break from a recording session at Island studios in Chiswick, Thighpaulsandra met with Balance and the two immediately became great friends. Thighpaulsandra admitted to not having heard any Coil material since he'd bought Horse Rotorvator some years before, but felt very much at ease around Balance and his partner Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson, visiting them whenever he was in London. He was eventually asked if he would like to record with them; the result was the album Astral Disaster, recorded at Gary Ramon's studio in Southwark. Thighpaulsandra rejoiced in the liberation afforded to him by Coil, so when Balance invited him to join the group he was more than happy to accept.

Coil's decision to move from London to Somerset at this time meant that Thighpaulsandra could spend more time with John and Sleazy, and with Cope now spending more time writing books and less time involved with music, Thighpaulsandra concentrated on working with Coil and on developing his own music. He was surprised one day to get a call from his old band mate Michael Mooney, who asked what he was doing. Mooney had joined Spiritualized, who were about to embark on a US tour, but Kate Radley had decided to quit the group and they needed a keyboard player urgently. With just one three-hour rehearsal Thighpaulsandra embarked on a tour of America with Spiritualized. He was quoted as saying "I've entered a strange world of matchsticks, droning Farfisa organs and band politics." Spiritualized was in a state of turmoil, with Mooney, Sean Cook (bass), and Damon Reece (drums) separating themselves from Jason Pierce, leaving Thighpaulsandra and fairly recent band member Ray Dickaty (sax) as confused observers. Spiritualized, having just released Ladies and Gentlemen, were at the height of their popularity. On stage the band were brilliant, attracting rave reviews everywhere, but off-stage there was much backbiting and plotting. Nevertheless, the band managed to produce the acclaimed Live at the Royal Albert Hall album, The Abbey Road EP and also contributed to the Dr John album Anutha Zone. In between the recording sessions and long tours with Spiritualized, which saw them performing in such unusual locations as the top floor of the World Trade Center in NYC and the CN Tower in Toronto, Thighpaulsandra entered a very productive period in his musical career, recording Coilís Musick To Play In The Dark Vols 1 and 2; Time Machines Live; Constant Shallowness Leads To Evil and The Queens of The Circulating Library, featuring his mother Dorothy Lewis; and also contributing to further releases from Julian Cope: Odin; Cornucopea; and An Audience With The Cope. Julian Cope's Cornucopea show at the Royal Festival Hall also saw Coil's first real venture onto the concert stage. Thighpaulsandra had always known that Coil could be a fantastic live experience, and after much persuasion convinced John and Sleazy to try a one-off show at Cope's invitation. The show was a tremendous success and inspired Coil to perform more often. Thighpaulsandra's first solo EP, Some Head, was released to coincide with Coil's Festival Hall show.

Meanwhile, the conflict within Spiritualized came to a head, resulting in the sacking of Mooney, Cook and Reece who went on to form their own group, Lupine Howl. Spiritualized held auditions for new members, and Thighpaulsandra drew on his circle of friends and associates for help. Donald Ross Skinner, Gavin Skinner, James Eller, and even Rat Scabies, amongst others, auditioned for the available positions. Eventually Martin Schellard and Doggen manned the bass and guitar posts respectively, with Kevin Bales, another Cope associate, on drums. These auditions and the subsequent appointments were not received well in Wiltshire, and sparked an outburst of jealousy and recrimination from Cope which resulted in Thighpaulsandra being denied full credit on Odin after he was unable to commit to a proposed Queen Elizabeth show in Germany. Cope, no doubt suffering from dope induced paranoia, accused Thighpaulsandra of stealing all his musicians, including Michael Mooney who had just been sacked from Spiritualized. Needless to say, a period of silence occurred between Cope and Thighpaulsandra. With a new band in place, Spiritualized started work on a new album, Let It Come Down, at Air Lyndhurst Studios in London. After a month the sessions were moved to Abbey Road, where the album was completed and mixed. Soon after, Thighpaulsandra finished and released his first full-length album I, Thighpaulsandra, a double album incorporating a wide range of styles and influences, with striking cover artwork by Ruth Bayer and Peter Christopherson. It attracted largely favourable reviews, with only a few publications being totally bewildered. Thighpaulsandra released The Michel Publicity Window EP as a companion piece, and later that year made contributions to albums by The Waterboys, RocketGoldStar and Cyclobe.

Coil continued with more studio sessions, playing their first and only American show at Irvine Plaza NYC, and their first show in Moscow. Coil shows were becoming more frequent, and this, coupled with the heavy Spiritualized touring schedule, made for some tense times. Consequently, Coil embarked on a European tour in Spring 2002 without Thighpaulsandra, whose time was split between touring with Spiritualized and recording their new album Amazing Grace at Rockfield Studios, Wales. The break from Coil did not last long, however, and later that year they completed another tour of Europe together, this time venturing further north and east to Scandinavia, Finland, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Austria. Although marred by John Balance's heavy drinking, the shows were generally very well received and spawned four live Coil albums.

Thighpaulsandra spent the next few months recording his second solo album Double Vulgar, but due to the amount of material amassed he decided to release it as an album in two parts, feeling that another double album was perhaps more than some people could stand. The cover art for Double Vulgar featured a series of homoerotic photographs by Peter Christopherson depicting several male nudes in S&M situations. The albumís release became fraught with problems after the manufacturers first refused to print the images and then even after some content adjustment could not get their packing department to handle it. Eventually all the problems were resolved but the albumís release was delayed by several months. Relationships with Cope had thawed somewhat by this point and the two had been recording together again, with Thighpaulsandra contributing to Cope's Brain Donor, Rite Now and L.A.M.F albums. However when Cope received a copy of Double Vulgar all communication ceased. Thighpaulsandra had yet again been very busy touring with Spiritualized and recording with Coil, so a lack of contact with Cope was not unexpected. Several months passed and Thighpaulsandra tried to contact Cope but there was no response. They were never to communicate again, and it was only through mutual associates that Thighpaulsandra discovered that Cope had been offended by the Double Vulgar artwork to the extent that he had chosen to disassociate himself completely. Thighpaulsandra was quoted in an interview as saying "I have a great respect for Julian as a songwriter and author but beneath his right on facade lies a very bitter and twisted man with an unpleasant personality."

Coil continued to record and perform, although appearances became more infrequent as John Balance became increasingly incapacitated by alcoholism. Thighpaulsandra continued to work on his own material, and in 2004 released Rapescene, an album of studio improvisations with his regular collaborators Martin Schellard and Sion Orgon. With demand for live shows increasing, Thighpaulsandra took his new material to the concert stage, along with elaborate costumes designed by David Cabaret, and a changing line-up of musicians including Martin Schellard, Sion Orgon, Frank Naughton and Tom Edwards.

On the evening of Saturday November 13th 2004, Thighpaulsandra was working in his studio when Sleazy called him from the hospital with the news that John Balance had just died. A great feeling of helplessness ensued as Thighpaulsandra, constrained by the need to care for his sick mother, could only watch at a distance as his friend Sleazy dealt with the very personal and yet mechanical process of a loved one's death. After a quiet period, in which Sleazy rested and reflected in Thailand, the painful process began of assembling the remaining Coil recordings into their final album The Ape Of Naples. John's death opened a huge chasm in the lives of all those who knew him, and into this fell Coil and all the magic that could have been.

January 2005 saw work commence on the recording of another Spiritualized album, with Thighpaulsandra engineering as well as playing keyboards. The recording process took much longer than usual, with Jason Pierce suddenly being taken ill and diagnosed with double pneumonia. During Jason's hospitalization and subsequent recuperation, Thighpaulsandra continued writing and recording his own material, and that summer saw the release of Double Vulgar 2, but as with the first part of Double Vulgar the homoerotic imagery of the cover art (again by Peter Christopherson) caused delays to the release. This time not only were there manufacturing problems but the label, Beta-Lactam Ring Records, became concerned about being prosecuted for importing pornography as they used manufacturers outside the USA. Eventually, with parts of the sleeve being redesigned and assembled in the USA, the album was released although the controversy over the cover art and particularly the inclusion of the erect penis image overshadowed the music. This was fuelled by Beta-Lactam who, unbeknown to Thighpaulsandra, had issued a promo of the album with this image on the front cover thereby sparking a wave of hostility before the album was released. The delay in the release of Double Vulgar 2 meant that Chamber Music, an album combining studio-improvised and written pieces followed later the same year. It received very good reviews and so a limited edition vinyl release appeared at the beginning of 2006.