THE guitarist and songwriter who founded the American rock band Cake has died aged 56.
Greg Brown passed away after a short illness, according to a statement on the band’s official Instagram account.
“Greg was an integral part of Cake’s early sound and development,” it read.
“His creative contributions were immense, and his presence—both musical and personal—will be deeply missed. Godspeed, Greg.”
Established in Sacramento in 1991, Greg founded the alt-funk band alongside vocalist John McCrea, trumpeter/keyboardist Vince DiFiore and Frank French – Gabe Nelson joined in 1992.
Current members of the band include guitarist Xan McCurdy, bassist Daniel McCallum and drummer Todd Roper.
He played his distinctive guitar on the band’s first two albums – Motorcade of Generosity in 1994 and the 1996 follow-up, Fashion Nugget.
Greg received a solo credit for writing the 1996 single The Distance, which reached number four on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart, as reported by Billboard.
The Distance crafted an incessant, ever-present throbbing of sound and compulsion. The instrumentation chugs ever forward, growing and receding, but never ending, VICE reported.
He also co-wrote several songs with McCrea including Jolene, Is This Love?, Mr. Mastodon Farm and Open Book.
He left the band before the third album was released but contributed on a song on the 2011 album Showroom of Compassion.
“I might have told you one thing back when I was 27 years old, and I left hot headed and mad about what I considered to be irreconcilable personality problems or whatever,” he said in 2021.
“As 51-year-old me, I see a much larger context of what was going on in my life. Rather than get into all of it, I would just say there was a lot of turmoil at the time, and I felt like leaving Cake would be a decision that would be good for my health.”
In the years following his departure, Greg formed the band Deathray in 2000 and released a solo EP in 2023.
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