Jeremiah Green, co-founding member of Modest Mouse, an indie band that rose to mainstream success, died on Saturday at the age of 45.
Staying with his stepfather, Brian Namatame, in the small coastal city of Sequim, Washington, he was being treated for cancer at a nearby hospital. The cancer, as confirmed by his mother, Carol Eckerich-Namatame, was the cause of death.
Jeremiah Martin Green was born on March 4, 1977 in Oahu, Hawaii, where his father, Donald, was stationed as a staff sergeant in the United State Army. His parents divorced in his early years and he moved with his mother to Washington State, where she worked as an administrator at a trucking company in the office of a produce wholesaler.
By his teenage years, Jeremiah knew he wanted to play punk rock music. His mother supported his interest and found him a drum teacher. However, Jeremiah found his new instructor to be rather "uninspired" and decided to teach himself the instrument. Then, according to an interview with Modern Drummer in 2015, Jeremiah started attending local rock shows in the Seattle music scene, studying the movements of the drummers he saw performing.
In 1995, after graduating from the alternative school, Best High School, in Kirkland, Washington, he dedicated his increased free time to pursuing artistic endeavors. He created Modest Mouse with the lead singer and songwriter Isaac Brock, the bassist Eric Judy and the guitarist Dann Gallucci in Issaquah, Washington, outside Seattle. In 1996, shortly following Jeremiah's 19th birthday, Modest Mouse released their first studio album, "This Is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About," an atonal rock album with introspective lyrics that won over the sensitive souls in the indie rock community.
In 2004, Jeremiah opened up about his diagnosis of bipolar disorder to Spin magazine, detailing the difficulties he experienced finding the appropriate medication and communicating with his bandmates. After many terrible fights, he found himself briefly in a mental hospital! But, many times, it's in the face of our greatest struggles that we find our greatest blessings. In that same year, Modest Mouse released their album, "Good News for People Who Love Bad News," revealing a transformed sound, with the vocals and guitar riffs becoming more melodic and the drums driving a sound that listeners could dance to. This album ensured that Modest Mouse would go on to produce more hit songs--which they did, including, "Float On", arguably one of the most popular rock tracks of the 2000's.
“Modest Mouse has built a career out of music that sounds like it’s on the brink of falling apart, but importantly, it never collapses into the threatened hodgepodge,” Stylus magazine wrote in 2007. “Jeremiah Green’s drumming gathers the mess of howling vocals and scrabbling guitars and focuses it into something approaching pop music.”
In 2021, Modest Mouse released “The Golden Casket,” its first album in six years. Last month, the radio disc jockey Marco Collins wrote on Facebook that Green had been forced to pull out of a tour marking the 25th anniversary of Modest Mouse’s second studio album, “Lonesome Crowded West.”
Jeremiah lived with his family, including wife Lauren Engle and son Wilder, in Port Townsend, Washington. In addition to his mother, stepfather, wife and son, he is survived by a brother, Adam; a half sister, Teri Dean; and a stepsister, Emiko VanWie.
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