David Edward Roback (April 4, 1958 – February 24, 2020) was an American guitarist, songwriter and producer, best known as a founding member of the

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

band

Mazzy Star Mazzy Star is an American alternative rock band formed in 1988 in Santa Monica, California, from remnants of the group Opal. Founding member David Roback's friend Hope Sandoval became the group's vocalist when Kendra Smith left Opal. Mazzy St ...

Early life

Roback was born on April 4, 1958 and raised in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, a son of

nurse Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health c ...

Rosemary (née Hunter) and

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

George Roback. He graduated from Palisades High School, before studying art at Carleton College and the

University of California in Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

. He and his brother Stephen Roback, a bass guitarist, formed the band Unconscious alongside Susanna Hoffs, who would go on to become a member of

The Bangles The Bangles are an American pop rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1981. The band recorded several singles that reached the U.S. top 10 during the 1980s, including " Manic Monday" (1986), " Walk Like an Egyptian" (1986), "Hazy Shad ...

Career

Roback was active in the Paisley Underground

indie music scene An independent music scene is a localized independent music-oriented (or, more specifically, indie rock/indie pop-oriented) community of bands and their audiences. Local scenes can play a key role in musical history and lead to the development of ...

in Los Angeles in the early to mid-1980s as leader of the band Rain Parade, which was popular on the local club circuit. Shortly after the release of their debut album in 1983, '' Emergency Third Rail Power Trip'', Roback left Rain Parade to join Rainy Day, a collective featuring other musicians from the Paisley Underground. Their first and only album was issued in 1984, which also featured contributions from

The Dream Syndicate The Dream Syndicate is an American alternative rock band from Los Angeles, California, originally active from 1981 to 1989, and reunited since 2012. The band is associated with neo-psychedelia and the Paisley Underground music movement; of the ba ...

vocalist

Kendra Smith Kendra Smith (born March 14, 1960)Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongate, is an American musician who was a founding member of The Dream Syndicate, a member of Opal, and later recorded as a solo artist. Biography Afte ...

. That same year, Roback and Smith formed Clay Allison, changing that band name to

Opal Opal is a hydrated amorphous form of silica (SiO2·''n''H2O); its water content may range from 3 to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6 and 10%. Due to its amorphous property, it is classified as a mineraloid, unlike crystalline form ...

by the time they released their debut album in 1987, '' Happy Nightmare Baby''. While promoting the album, Smith acrimoniously exited the band while they were partway through a tour opening for

The Jesus and Mary Chain The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride in 1983. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid. After signing to independent label Creation Records, they re ...

. She was replaced by

Hope Sandoval Hope Sandoval (born June 24, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter who is the lead singer of Mazzy Star and Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions. Sandoval has toured and collaborated with other artists, including Massive Attack, for whom she san ...

, but this lineup never released an album; they changed the name of the band to

in 1989. Mazzy Star released three albums in the 1990s: '' She Hangs Brightly'' (1990), '' So Tonight That I Might See'' (1993), and ''

Among My Swan ''Among My Swan'' is the third studio album by American band Mazzy Star, released on October 29, 1996. Although ''Among My Swan'' did not contain any US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 hits like its predecessor, '' So Tonight That I Might See'', this album ...

'' (1996), making their commercial breakthrough with the 1994 single "

Fade into You "Fade into You" is a song by American alternative rock band Mazzy Star from their second studio album, '' So Tonight That I Might See'' (1993). The song was written by lyricist Hope Sandoval and composer David Roback, who also served as produ ...

" before going on hiatus. In the years that followed, Roback produced and recorded music with other artists: he produced songs on Beth Orton's 1999 album '' Central Reservation'' and performed on

Bert Jansch Herbert Jansch (3 November 1943 – 5 October 2011) was a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and came to prominence in London in the 1960s as an acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter ...

's 2006 album '' The Black Swan'', among others. Roback wrote and produced the songs that actress Maggie Cheung sang in the 2004 film '' Clean''. He also played himself in the film. He spent much of his later life in Norway, where he collaborated with various musicians and created original music for art installations. He reunited with Sandoval to release Mazzy Star's fourth studio album in 2013, '' Seasons of Your Day'', followed by the 2018 EP ''

Still A still is an apparatus used to distill liquid mixtures by heating to selectively boil and then cooling to condense the vapor. A still uses the same concepts as a basic distillation apparatus, but on a much larger scale. Stills have been use ...

'', which was promoted with a three-night residency at the Sydney Opera House. Prior to his death, Roback had been working with Kendra Smith on re-releases of ''Happy Nightmare Baby'' and a compilation of Opal EPs titled ''Early Recordings'', both of which are "imminently" due for release via INgrooves.

Death

Roback died in Los Angeles on February 24, 2020 from

metastatic cancer Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spread from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, the ...

. Numerous musicians paid tribute to him, including his Mazzy Star bandmate

, Unconscious bandmate Susanna Hoffs,

Clairo Claire Elizabeth Cottrill (born August 18, 1998), known professionally as Clairo, is an American singer-songwriter. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Carlisle, Massachusetts, she began posting music on the internet at age 13. Clairo rose ...

, Jennifer O'Connor, Joe Pernice,

Craig Wedren Craig Benjamin Wedren (born August 15, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and composer, who began his career fronting post-hardcore band Shudder to Think. Following the disbandment of Shudder to Think, Wedren pursued a career as ...

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Matthew Caws Matthew Rorison Caws (born August 5, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the alternative rock band Nada Surf. Caws is also a member of the indie rock duo Minor Alps, alon ...

Nada Surf Nada Surf is a New York City-based American alternative rock band formed in the 1990s, consisting of Matthew Caws (guitar, vocals), Ira Elliot (drums), Doug Gillard (guitar, backing vocals), and Daniel Lorca (bass, backing vocals). History ...

Doug Gillard Douglas Scott Gillard (born December 23, 1965) is an American guitarist and songwriter. He has been a member of major indie pop and punk bands, most notably Guided by Voices, Nada Surf, Bambi Kino, Death of Samantha, and Cobra Verde. Early ...

of Guided by Voices, Grasshopper of

Mercury Rev Mercury Rev is an American indie rock band formed in 1989 in Buffalo, New York.
Original personnel were J Mascis Joseph Donald Mascis Jr. ( ; born December 10, 1965), better known as J Mascis, is an American musician who is the singer, guitarist and main songwriter for the alternative rock band Dinosaur Jr. He has also released several albums as a solo art ...

Dinosaur Jr. Dinosaur Jr. is an American rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1984, originally simply called Dinosaur until legal issues forced a change in name. The band was founded by J Mascis (guitar, vocals, primary songwriter), Lou Barlo ...

Mac McCaughan Ralph Lee "Mac" McCaughan (; born July 12, 1967) is an American musician and record label owner, based in North Carolina. His main musical projects have been Superchunk since 1989 and Portastatic since the early 1990s. In 1989 he founded the in ...

of Superchunk,

Colin Meloy Colin Patrick Henry Meloy (born October 5, 1974) is an American musician, singer-songwriter and author best known as the frontman of the Portland, Oregon, indie folk rock band The Decemberists. In addition to vocals, he performs with an acoust ...

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Anton Newcombe Anton Alfred Newcombe (born August 29, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and founder of the music group The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Newcombe was the subject of the 2004 documentary film '' Dig!'', along ...

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, A. C. Newman of

The New Pornographers The New Pornographers are a Canadian indie rock band, formed in 1997 in Vancouver. Presented as a musical collective of singer-songwriters and musicians from multiple projects, the band has released eight studio albums to critical acclaim for th ...

Simon Raymonde Simon Philip Raymonde (born Simon Philip Pomerance; 3 April 1962, in London) is an English musician and record producer. He is the son of the late arranger and composer Ivor Raymonde. He is best known as the bass guitarist and keyboard player ...

of Cocteau Twins, as well as bands

The Pastels The Pastels are an indie rock group from Glasgow formed in 1981. They were a key act of the Scottish and British independent music scenes of the 1980s, and are specifically credited for the development of an independent and confident music scen ...

, Sleigh Bells and The Vacant Lots.

Impact and legacy

Roback's songwriting and guitar work has, according to Alexis Petridis of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', been highly influential, "most strikingly on

Lana Del Rey Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (born June 21, 1985), known professionally as Lana Del Rey, is an American singer-songwriter. Her music is noted for its cinematic quality and exploration of tragic romance, glamour, and melancholia, with frequent r ...

: you could clearly detect azzy Star'sshadow ... on her breakthrough album '' Born to Die'', a more explicit examination of the LA darkness that had always lurked somewhere in Mazzy Star's sound. In turn, Del Rey went on to exert a vast influence of her own, which meant that one of the most reticent bands in recent history ended up becoming a part of latter-day pop's musical DNA."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Roback, David 1958 births 2020 deaths Alternative rock guitarists American alternative rock musicians American rock guitarists American male guitarists Carleton College alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Deaths from cancer in California Songwriters from California Musicians from Los Angeles 20th-century American guitarists Mazzy Star members Rainy Day (band) members Opal (band) members Guitarists from California 20th-century American male musicians American male songwriters