Richard Swift Dead At 41
Richard Swift has died. The singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer was hospitalized last month with an undisclosed life-threatening condition. Pitchfork reports that he passed away this morning in a Tacoma, Washington hospital. Swift was 41.
Swift grew up splitting his time between Minnesota and Utah, playing music in churches. In 2001, he moved to California and began self-releasing his home-recorded music — much of which was collected in The Richard Swift Collection, Vol. 1, a collection that Secretly Canadian released after Swift signed with the label in 2005. He released a number of solo albums and EPs, many of which featured friends like Ryan Adams, Sean Lennon, and Mark Ronson.
Swift also did a great deal of work with other bands. In the early ’00s, he played in the band Starflyer 59. In recent years, he’s been a member of both the Shins and the Arcs, and he joined the Black Keys as their touring bassist in 2014. As a producer, Swift has worked with artists like Nathaniel Rateliff And The Night Sweats, Foxygen, Damien Jurado, and the Mynabirds. He also owned and founded the Oregon recording studio National Freedom.