San Fadyl Passes Away

A News Blog for Friends of the Elephant 6 Recording Company

Published Thursday, April 26, 2007 by Jeff | E-mail this post

San Fadyl, longtime drummer for The Ladybug Transistor, has passed away. I've always told friends that the band is one of my very favorites, and while I did not know Fadyl personally, I have fond memories of his superb skills on the occasions when I saw him perform live; this is devastating news. The band has posted the following on their MySpace page:

Dear Friends,
We are very sad and shocked to let you know that Ladybug drummer San Fadyl passed away on the morning of April 26th at his home in Zurich, Switzerland. San was hospitalized just a few weeks ago with serious asthma problems, something he's battled for a long time. After being treated and released he was home for a week but suffered a severe attack that was related to his condition. It's hard to put into words just how much we will miss San after 10 years of music and friendship. He was a genuinely beautiful person that touched everyone who met him with his warmth, kindness, generosity and humor. His wide smile is something people often remember first. We know there are lots of you out there who love him and will miss him as much as we do already. Our thoughts are with San's family, his wife Brigit and their new baby Liam.

San Fadyl has a MySpace page here where you can listen to some of his home recordings. You can listen to a couple of Ladybug MP3s below. My heart goes out to San Fadyl's friends and family--my understanding is that Liam was just recently born, which makes this all the more painful. (I don't yet know how this will affect their upcoming tour promoting their new album, but I will post more information as it comes. In the meantime I'm dimming the lights here for a week in memoriam. This is terrible.)

UPDATE 4/26 2:33 PM CST: Gary Olson (Ladybug Transistor) has set up a blog so that fans and friends could leave comments (although feel free to use this one too). Take a look at it here.

And Ben Crum (of the Ladybugs and Great Lakes) leaves his thoughts on the Great Lakes MySpace page.

UPDATE 4/27 9:30AM CST: Pitchfork has posted a respectful piece about San Fadyl, including some videos and an MP3.

The Ladybug Transistor - The Reclusive Hero
The Ladybug Transistor - Today Knows
The Ladybug Transistor - Always on the Telephone