Jeremiah Green, the drummer and a founding member of Modest Mouse, has died at 45 after a battle with cancer. “I don’t know a way to ease into this: Today we lost our dear friend Jeremiah,” the band wrote on social media shortly before midnight on New Yeary’s Eve. “He laid down to rest and simply faded out. I’d like to say a bunch of pretty words right now, but it just isn’t the time. These will come later, and from many people. Please appreciate all the love you give, get, have given, and will get. Above all, Jeremiah was about love. We love you.”
Green was born on in Oahu, Hawaii, where his father was stationed in the army, and spent his early years in Moxee, Washington. Having moved to the Seattle area in 1989, Green immersed himself in the local music scene, citing bands such local groups such as Treepeople and Hammerbox alongside the likes of the Cure and Fugazi as inspirations. “I joined a band and just started playing and listening to music – going to shows at nights and watching people,” he told Modern Drummer in 2017. “Back in the day I’d go to pretty small shows, and I could fit behind the drummer and actually see what he or she was doing physically. When you’re only listening to music, you don’t know what kind of movements people are doing.”
Having played with the bands Vells, Satisfact, Red Stars Theory, and Peeved, Green co-founded Modest Mouse in 1992 in Washington with lead singer and guitarist Isaac Brock and bassist Eric Judy. The band’s first album, the classic This Is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About, was released in 1996, followed by 1997’s The Lonesome Crowded West. They made their major label debut with The Moon & Antarctica, which came out in 2000 via Epic and cracked the Billboard 200 chart, debuting at No. 120.
Green temporarily left Modest Mouse in 2003 prior to the release of their album Good News for People Who Love Bad News, later revealing that he had suffered a nervous breakdown. During his absence from Modest Mouse, Green put out the self-titled EP and debut full-length from his project Vells. After rejoining Modest Mouse in 2004, Green went on to play on 2007’s We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, 2015’s Strangers to Ourselves, and 2021’s The Golden Casket.