For Against Vocalist Jeffrey Runnings Dies at 61

Jeffrey Runnings, the vocalist and bassist with Nebraska post-punk band For Against, died on March 3 on account of stage 4 most cancers, Independent Project Records has confirmed. “Jeffrey Runnings was not solely a very good buddy and an impressive musician and songwriter, however somebody whose life revolved round music,” Impartial Challenge Information founder and co-owner Bruce Licher wrote in an announcement shared with Pitchfork. He added: “His distinctive voice will probably be missed on so many ranges.” Discover Licher’s full assertion beneath. Runnings was 61.

Runnings was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1963. He shaped For Towards in 1984 in Lincoln, Nebraska, at first taking part in keyboard within the group. After a sequence of personnel modifications, the band solidified with the core trio of guitarist Harry Dingman III, drummer Gregory Hill, and Runnings, who pivoted to bass and vocals. For Towards launched their 1987 debut album Echelons on Impartial Challenge Information, in addition to the following LPs December (1988), Within the Marshes (1990), and Aperture (1993).

For Towards launched albums for the subsequent 15-plus years, with their closing full-length being 2009’s By no means Been. In 2014 Captured Tracks launched a box set of their first three albums; Phrases on Music had beforehand reissued the the LPs within the early 2000s. In 2018, Saint Marie launched a restricted version vinyl field set of For Towards’s handful of albums from the Nineteen Nineties.

In 2024, Runnings recorded a solo album titled Piqued, which is ready for launch later this yr. The LP may even embrace a 4-track EP of uncommon recordings from the late Eighties. Runnings shared “Batman Forever,” his first single from the solo effort, earlier this yr.

Bruce Licher:

Jeffrey Runnings was not solely a very good buddy and an impressive musician and songwriter, however somebody whose life revolved round music. Jeff was all the time enthusiastically sharing music that he thought his pals would take pleasure in, and for years he would ship me handwritten letters typically accompanied by data he thought I ought to have, or a mixtape he’d made that he thought I ought to hear. Even now, in the midst of the second decade of the twenty first Century, when he despatched me his new album to listen to for the primary time, it was on a cassette tape that he mailed by way of the publish. I couldn’t have requested for something extra particular. His distinctive voice will probably be missed on so many ranges.