Benjamin Vallé, a founding member of the Stockholm-based post-punk band Viagra Boys, has passed away at 47.
Viagra Boys released a statement along with a collection of photos of Benjamin Vallé on their Instagram page this morning, memorialising the guitarist’s death.
Vallé was an original member, co-founding Viagra Boys with Sebastian Murphy, Martin Ehrencron, Oskar Carls, Henrik Höckert, and Tor Sjödén in 2015.
In an Instagram post for Vallé, the band shared:
“Benjamin was loving and kind and the sweet memories we have together are countless. i cant stop crying while going through pictures of you but also laughing because you were one of the funniest, goofiest, people i had the pleasure of knowing. benjamin or ‘benis’ as we knew him, spread laughter and happiness wherever he went and i will cherish the memories we have of touring the world together.”
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The band’s singer Sebastian Murphy also added his own tribute to the late guitarist on his Instagram account, writing in Swedish: “Rest in peace my beloved beloved Benjamin. I will love you forever wonderful man. See you in the cosmos.”
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Vallé played guitar on Viagra Boys’ debut album Street Worms, which was released in 2018, and on last year’s surprise Common Sense EP.
However, he didn’t appear on the group’s most recent record, January’s Welfare Jazz, and was not an active member of the band at the time of his passing. The details around his departure of the group have not been made public.
Prior to his work with Viagra Boys, Vallé was a member of post-rock outfit Pig Eyes and Swedish hardcore band Nine.
The band have toured Australia and have a connection with the Aussie music scene, thanks to a friendship with Melbourne punk icons Amyl & The Sniffers, having made a cover of John Prine’s In Spite Of Ourselves with lead vocalist of the Sniffers Amy Taylor.
No cause of death has been published at this time.
