Sydney singer-songwriter Jack Colwell has died aged 34, having passed away on Thursday, according to an obituary from The Guardian.
A cause of death was not reported.
The late singer, songwriter, musical director and choirmaster was well established in the Australian music scene, with his debut single Don’t Cry Those Tears – produced by fellow singer-songwriter Sarah Blasko – named as one of the best Australian releases of 2015.
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She remembered him in a tribute on Instagram, describing him as, “One of my favourite people in this whole wide world, who possessed the charm of a thousand princes & a musical spirit like no other has passed into another realm.”
“Good night darling Jack, changed forever by your presence,” Blasko wrote.
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Colwell saw a number of achievements throughout his career, having sold out the Sydney Opera House and once touring with English singer-songwriter Patrick Wolf in Australia and London.
As a musical director and arranger, he arranged the strings and vocals for an Avalanches tribute night at the Sydney Opera House, was chorus coordinator for Karen O’s Stop the Virgens at Vivid Sydney in 2013, and organised Sydney’s Unity: the Equality Campaign in 2017.
Despite his long career, he had only released one studio album, titled Swandream, in 2020.
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The singer was remembered by loving friends, including author Jenny Valentish, who penned his obituary in The Guardian.
She described his performances as a “one-man séance, cresting operatic highs and frightening the horses with guttural, primal lows. Visually, he was a vision board of romantic leads, from a knight in shining armour eating an ice-cream sundae, to a shirtless dreamboat swooning into a bed of flowers. On record, through his cluster of EPs and singles… he tackled darkness and trauma head on.
“As a friend, he was generous and loyal, almost to a fault,” she added.
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Comedian Gen Fricker had known Colwell since they attended high school together at the Sydney Conservatorium. She wrote on Instagram, “We met when we were 14 and loved each other instantly. My first best friend. I have spent nearly two thirds of my life loving him… I am devastated and furious.”
In The Guardian she recalled, “He was out and flamboyant at 14,” Fricker says. “So brave and so himself, always.”
The singer was on the verge of announcing a follow-up to his debut album, with one of his last social media posts featuring a video of him recording himself shaking egg shakers to add to his songs.
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“Feel so unbelievably proud of all this hard work myself and others are contributing to the record. It’s a sort of folky, storyteller album that’s inspired by some of my heroes like Arthur Russell, Nick Drake, Patrick Wolf, and Beth Gibbons solo work,” he had shared of his second album.
“On the home stretch now and into your ears (sometime) soon – just adding a bit of final egg shaker.”
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