This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Artist News
Black Key’s collaborator Richard Swift dies
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 4 July 2018
The Black Keys have led the tributes for Richard Swift, who has died aged 41. The duo said that the musician “was the funniest person we ever met and one of the most talented musicians we have ever worked with. We feel so honoured to have known him”.
A singer, songwriter, record producer and multi-instrumentalist, Swift played bass with The Black Keys at their live shows and was also drummer with The Shins for five years. He was admitted to hospital last month with an undisclosed life-threatening condition.
Swift also worked as a songwriter and producer with a number of other artists, and founded a recording studio in Oregon. Meanwhile, as a solo act, he put out records with US independent Secretly Canadian. The label joined many members of the music community in also paying tribute to Swift yesterday.
In a post recalling their time working with him, Secretly Canadian’s Chris Swanson and Eric Deines wrote: “From the moment he first came into our lives in the fall of 2004, it was clear he was a rarefied soul … his wit, irreverence, talent, and most of all his understanding of true beauty was immeasurable”.
