David Fair, co-founder of the influential long-running experimental rock band Half Japanese, has died. David co-founded the group with his brother Jad Fair in the mid-1970s. On Sunday morning, David’s late-’00s label Thick Syrup Records and his longtime friend Jeff Feuerzeig, director of the 1993 documentary Half Japanese: The Band That Would Be King, announced his passing on social media. Jad posted a childhood photo of the brothers on Facebook, and friends are sharing condolences in the comments. No cause of death has been reported.
Brothers Jad and David Fair started Half Japanese as a bedroom project after they moved from Michigan to Uniontown, Maryland. Jad eventually emerged as the frontman of the band, but the two brothers traded instruments and vocal duties early on. They developed an idiosyncratic, glowingly naïve sound that felt childlike and amateurish, crafting a catalog of noisy but oddly catchy lo-fi rock ‘n’ roll songs.
Half Japanese released their debut EP Calling All Girls in 1977, followed by the 1980 triple LP 1/2 Gentlemen/Not Beasts. Over the years, the band expanded to include underground rock figures such as Don Fleming and Kramer, with support from fans like Penn Jillette. While David Fair left the band in 1987, he returned throughout the group’s existence and collaborated with Jad on numerous projects outside the main discography.
Although David was not part of the lineup when the band gained significant visibility in 1993 while opening for Nirvana, he returned to the fold for their 2014 comeback album Overjoyed, their first record in over a decade.
