Jeremiah Green, Drummer for Modest Mouse, Dies at 45

Jeremiah Green, a drummer who was one of the founding members of Modest Mouse, an indie rock band that rose to mainstream fame in the early 2000s, died on Saturday. He was 45.

His family, which confirmed his death on Facebook, said the cause was cancer. It was not immediately clear where he had died.

The band said on Instagram that Mr. Green had “laid down to rest and simply faded out” days after Isaac Brock, a bandmate, shared the news that Mr. Green had cancer and was undergoing treatment.

Mr. Green’s mother, Carol Namatame, said on Facebook on Christmas that he had Stage 4 cancer. She did not specify the type of cancer.

Mr. Green was one of the founding members of Modest Mouse, a band that formed in Issaquah, Wash., outside Seattle, in the 1990s. The band’s hit singles include “Ocean Breathes Salty,” “Dashboard,” and “Float On,” which became a ubiquitous pop anthem and was sampled by the rapper Lupe Fiasco in his song “The Show Goes On.”

Modest Mouse, which was known for its textured and wide-ranging sound, from moody and experimental to airy pop, last released an album, “The Golden Casket,” in 2021. It was the band’s first album in six years.

In its review, Pitchfork called the album a “procession of pinging, clanging, reverberating tactile pleasures, an inventive backdrop for Isaac Brock’s familiar blend of forced optimism and unforced paranoia.”

In a 2020 interview on the podcast “Never Meet Your Idols,” Mr. Green said he lived in Port Townsend, Wash., in the Pacific Northwest.

He spoke about the serendipitous way he began drumming as a child, recalling that he became jealous after his brother received a bass. Mr. Green’s family then got him a drum set.

“We both really wanted to play music,” Mr. Green said, adding that he and his brother began listening to punk rock at an early age. “I don’t know why I picked drums.”

He cited early percussive influences like Brendan Canty of the band Fugazi and Bill Ward of Black Sabbath. He said they both shaped his style and that he considered Johnny Marr, the former guitarist of the Smiths who later joined Modest Mouse, to be one of his musical idols.

On Twitter on Sunday, Mr. Marr said that Mr. Green was a “friend, bandmate, and the most creative musician I ever met.”

A complete list of Mr. Green’s survivors was not immediately available.