As reported by Pitchfork, musician David Roback—the co-founder of Mazzy Star alongside Hope Sandoval—has died. The news was confirmed by a representative for the band, but a cause of death has not been given. Roback was 61.
Roback was born in Los Angeles in 1958 and first found success as a musician in the mid-’80s with his band Rain Parade. The group developed a major following through L.A.’s psychedelia-inspired Paisley Underground scene, and after releasing one album—1983's Emergency Third Rail Power Trip—Roback left and worked with another L.A. group called Rainy Day. After that, he co-founded Opal with The Dream Syndicate’s Kendra Smith and released an EP and an album (1987's Happy Nightmare Baby). Smith left the group while touring to support the album, and she was replaced by vocalist Hope Sandoval.
Together, Sandoval and Roback formed Mazzy Star in 1989, and the band became one of the most iconic alternative rock acts of the era on the strength of the massively successful single “Fade Into You” off of 1993's So Tonight That I Might See (Mazzy Star’s second album after 1990's She Hangs Brightly). Roback and Sandoval co-wrote all of the band’s songs, releasing four albums and a handful of EPs, most recently with Still in 2018.
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