Chet ‘JR’ White Of Girls Has Died At 40

Chet “JR” White, who was best known half of the indie band Girls and as a producer, has died at 40 years old. A representative of True Panther, the label that released Girls’ music, confirmed the news to Pitchfork. Additionally, Stereogum reports that according to True Panther founder Dean Bein, White died on Sunday at his family’s Santa Cruz home after his heart stopped during the night. No other details are publicly known as of press time.

Christopher David Owens, White’s Girls bandmate, mourned the loss, tweeting, “I hope you feel nothing but peace now my brother. I love you, and thank you for believing in me, and for what you brought to the table. Always and Forever, and I’ll always be proud of you… I’ll always remember you protecting Liza, Patrick, myself and Beta from the jerks.”

White and Owens formed Girls in 2007, and before disbanding in 2012, the group released three albums: Album (in 2009), Broken Dreams Club (2010), and Father, Son, Holy Ghost (2011). All three releases earned critical acclaim. Following Girls, White was respected as a producer and worked on the 2013 Cass McCombs album Big Wheel And Others and the 2015 Tobias Jesso, Jr. album Goon. He also recorded material with Diiv in 2013 that hasn’t been released.

In a 2013 Paste interview (with Uproxx’s own Philip Cosores), White discussed his love of producing, saying, “I do like making music, but at some point I realized that I like producing better. I really do like to help people realize their music as they imagine it, or being another set of ears to help them realize something that they haven’t thought about. It’s a really interesting way to be a part of music and art, almost the sneaky, backdoor way of being in a band.”