Akron/Family’s Miles Seaton Dead At 41
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Akron/Family’s Miles Seaton has died at age 41, as Dead Oceans confirms. “Akron/Family are the type of band that underscore the whole reason Dead Oceans exists,” the label’s co-founder Phil Waldorf wrote in a statement. “I feel lucky that I knew Miles, and sad that I have to say goodbye. We hope you’ll share some memories. There are too many for me to count right now.”
Seaton founded Akron/Family with Seth Olinsky, Dana Janssen, and Ryan Vanderhoof in 2003. They got their start playing in a Brooklyn coffee shop and were signed to Michael Gira’s Young God Records and put out their self-titled debut album in 2005. They teamed up with Gira on an Angels Of Light album that same year. In 2006, they released Meek Warrior and the following year came Love Is Simple.
After recording that, Vanderhoof left the band and Seaton, Olinsky, and Janssen continued on as a trio. They often switched roles in the band, playing different instruments and singing intricate three-part harmonies. They signed to Dead Oceans and released their first album for them, Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free, in 2009. Two more albums followed: 2011’s Akron/Family II: The Cosmic Birth And Journey Of Shinju TNT and 2013’s Sub Verses.
Akron/Family parted ways after that and each member pursued solo projects. Seaton most recent album under his own name was Phases In Exile in 2017.
“You were such a comet. You crash landed in my life and changed everything. First time I heard your music it changed it all for me,” Brad Cook, who toured with Akron/Family while in Megafaun, wrote in an Instagram post. “I didnt know you at the time but it changed me. Then we became friends and our friendship changed me.”
