Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin, the co-founding guitarist of Black Midi who performed on their debut album, Schlagenheim, before leaving the group in 2021, has died, his family announced in a statement via the band’s label, Rough Trade. His death followed “a long battle with his mental health,” according to the statement. He was 26 years old.
Kwasniewski-Kelvin took up guitar in primary school, quickly adopting a taste for skater-adjacent punk-pop. His father, who played in a party band, occasionally invited him to rehearsals, where Kwasniewski-Kelvin, then 12, would solo over the group’s blues and pop jams. He met his future Black Midi bandmates—Geordie Greep, Cameron Picton, and Morgan Simpson—at the London performing arts institution the BRIT School, where Greep helped steer his classmate’s tastes towards “harsh noise, drone music, Merzbow,” as Kwasniewski-Kelvin told Pitchfork in 2019, two years after the band formed.
Feted for hectic shows at Brixton’s Windmill venue—with Kwasniewski-Kelvin alternating delirious post-hardcore riffs with abstract, sometimes improvised noise—the four-piece spearheaded the south London scene that launched a generation of British experimental rock, frequently sharing stages with the likes of Black Country, New Road, Jerskin Fendrix, and Shame.
After signing to Rough Trade, the band released Schlagenheim, produced by Speedy Wunderground honcho and scene shepherd Dan Carey, to rave reviews in 2019. They squeezed in major tours of North America and Europe before the coronavirus pandemic, but when the band returned, with Cavalcade, in early 2021, Kwasniewski-Kelvin was absent. “I have been taking some time off from the band as I have been mentally unwell,” he wrote, adding that he hoped to be back soon. At the time, the band said, “We’re all fully behind our best mate in his recovery,” and noted, “you’d be surprised at the lengths people will go to help you.”
After a third album, Hellfire, the remaining Black Midi trio went its separate ways—“indefinitely”—in 2024. In the meantime, Kwasniewski-Kelvin continued to play casually in London, including a guest appearance on Wu-Lu’s 2022 album Loggerhead. In 2024, he released a polemical solo recording criticizing the British Labour Party and calling for a free Palestine.
In its statement, the Kwasniewski-Kelvin family added, “A talented musician and a kind, loving man finally succumbed; despite all efforts…. Please take a moment to check in with your loved ones so we can stop this happening to our young men.”
If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts or know someone who is, we recommend these resources:
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
https://988lifeline.org/
Call or text 988
UK Samaritans: 116 123
Denmark: 70 201 201
