Stewart Lupton dead: Johnathan Fire*Eater singer dies aged 43

Band were credited with paving the way for many prominent New York bands including the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Strokes

Stewart Lupton performing (Valeria Rosalez/Flickr)

Stewart Lupton, frontman of the New York indie band Jonathan Fire*Eater, has died aged 43.

His cousin, Sarah Lupton, confirmed reports of his death in a post on Instagram, where she described him as "an inspiration through the ages".

"Your overwhelming, gut-wrenching genius even you don't understand," she said. "It has been such a strong beacon of inspiration since I was a child."

A family member confirmed reports of his death to Pitchfork. An official cause of death has not yet been released.

Jonathan Fire*Eater formed in the early 90s in Washingon DC as the Ignobles. A move to New York resulted in both a lineup and name-change, with Lupton taking charge on vocals. Their self-titled debut was released in 1995, but after they moved to a major label in 1997 for their second album; friction between band members caused them to split.

"There's a prefabricated danger some bands cultivate, but ours seemed more like a sentence," Lupton told The New York Post in 2005. "It was a double-edged sword that we wielded for a brief moment and then fell on."

Lupton moved back to DC to study poetry at George Washington University - while three of his former bandmates formed The Walkmen - and remained largely out of the spotlight asides from a brief stint in the band Child Ballads, and an EP release in 2009 called A Little Give and Take with his Carole Greenwood collaboration, the Beatins'.

Despite this, the band's sound paved the way for several prominent bands from the same scene, including the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol, The Strokes and LCD Soundsystem, something noted by YYY frontwoman Karen O in Meet Me In The Bathroom, a book about the 90s and early noughties music scene in New York.