David Fair, co-founder with his brother Jad of Half Japanese, one of the freest and most unclassifiable groups to emerge from the American underground, has died. Fair died this Saturday, August 29, at the age of 74 due to cancer, as confirmed by his brother to Rolling Stone.
The Fair started Half Japanese in their bedroom and released their first home recordings in 1977. Their music mixed noise, pop, experimentation, crazy covers and a completely DIY philosophy, especially visible in their famous text “How to Play Guitar”, where he argued that learning to play basically consisted of forgetting the rules.
Although Jad was always the main creative driving force of the group, David participated intermittently and also developed a career as a visual artist, producer and solo musician. Half Japanese would end up becoming a cult group, with fans like Kurt Cobain and an invitation from Nirvana to open several concerts on their ‘In Utero’ tour in 1993. The myth also wanted Cobain to wear a Half Japanese t-shirt when he died.
In Spain we have been able to see Half Japanese on several occasions, including at Primavera Sound in 2011 and at GetMAD! in 2017.
