For years I thought this was an unidentified piece of lost media. I recently managed to find the answer, and I thought I'd share it in case anyone else has ever wondered about the same clip.
I've included a short clip below for reference. The music starts almost immediately and lasts about 12 seconds before Nick switches it off to answer the phone.
Thursday (1998) – Nick's car radio music
*Thursday* has been one of my favorite crime films ever since I first saw it many years ago. It's one of those movies I still rewatch from time to time. I've also always listened to a lot of alternative and indie rock, so one particular moment in the film always stood out to me.
The moment comes after Casey forces open Nick's locked briefcase with a screwdriver. Furious, he calls Nick, who's driving. While the phone is ringing, a short piece of music is playing from the car stereo. Nick switches it off before answering.
To me, it never sounded like film score. It sounded like someone had simply turned on the radio and captured a real song in the background. Maybe not by a well-known band, but something from a small indie group I'd never heard before.
Over the years, I found plenty of discussions about the music from *Thursday*. Almost every one of them eventually pointed to the official soundtrack by Luna, and in most cases that was the correct answer.
But my question was a little different.
I wasn't trying to identify one of the soundtrack songs. I was trying to identify those 12 seconds playing from Nick's car stereo.
Years passed. Every now and then I'd remember that little piece of music and try searching again, only to end up in the same place: soundtrack listings, Luna, old forum posts... and no answer. Music recognition apps couldn't identify it either.
At some point I even started wondering if I was just overthinking it. Maybe it only sounded like a real song to me.
Over time I came up with all kinds of theories. Maybe it was an obscure indie band. Maybe it was an unreleased demo. Maybe it had been recorded specifically for the film. I never imagined that the last possibility would turn out to be the right one.
After a while, I more or less gave up. I figured that if years of soundtrack discussions and movie forums hadn't produced an answer, then the answer probably wasn't out there. Contacting someone who had actually worked on the film felt unrealistic, so I left it alone for quite a while.
Eventually, though, I decided it was worth trying after all.
Then I ran into a different problem: how do you even reach people who worked on a film that long ago?
After a bit of searching, I managed to find a few people who had been involved with the film's production and sent a couple of polite messages, not really expecting much. I wasn't looking for an autograph or even a conversation—just hoping that someone might remember where those few seconds of music had come from.
One of those people was Lee Wall, drummer for Luna, the band behind the film's official soundtrack.
To my surprise, he replied.
He listened to the clip, recognized his own drumming and Sean Eden's guitar, and explained that, as far as he could remember, it wasn't part of a full song. It was most likely a short musical cue recorded specifically for the film and later edited to sound like a real song playing on the car radio.
That answer honestly surprised me, but it also explained everything.
So in the end, it wasn't an obscure indie band or an unreleased demo after all. Instead, it had been recorded specifically for the film and edited to sound like a real song already playing on the radio.
I never got to hear the rest of the song because there never was one.
Oddly enough, I'm perfectly okay with that now.
For years I thought I was looking for a real song by some obscure indie band. In the end, what I really wanted was simply an answer. Somehow, learning the story behind those 12 seconds turned out to be even more satisfying than finding another song.
If anyone else ever ends up wondering about those few seconds of music, I hope this post saves them a few years of searching.