Rob Laakso, Kurt Vile & The Violators guitarist, dies at 44

Rob Laakso, a veteran guitarist best known as a member of Kurt Vile & the Violators, has died at the age of 44.

Laakso's death was confirmed last Friday (May 5) on a GoFundMe page that had been set up to assist him and his family with medical costs. The guitarist had been battling cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and aggressive form of bile duct cancer.

"I am absolutely shattered to share with you that our beloved Rob passed away quickly and peacefully yesterday afternoon," his wife, Mamie-Claire Cornelius, wrote in a statement last Friday. "After praying for a miracle every day since he was diagnosed my prayers recently changed to a peaceful home departure surrounded by love. I realize now every day we had together was a miracle."

Born in Massachusetts in 1979, Laakso developed an interest in both guitar and audio production at an early age. 

While in Boston for college, Laakso joined the renowned local indie band Swirlies – eventually playing on a number of the band's albums – and also played in the band Mice Parade.

A prolific audio engineer, Laakso also worked on audio projects for Google, Apple, Adidas, and Epic Records, and composed, engineered, and performed all the instruments on the theme song for the Cartoon Network show, Superjail!

It was with Kurt Vile & the Violators, though, that Laakso's playing was most widely heard. Replacing Adam Granduciel (who would later form The War on Drugs) in the Violators in 2011, Laakso played guitar – plus a number of other instruments – with the band on Vile's 2013's Wakin on a Pretty Daze, 2015's B'lieve I'm Goin Down..., 2018's Bottle It In and 2022's Watch My Moves.

"Wakin was his first full time Violator [sic] record and you can see the shift to epic proportions from Smoke Ring to it," Vile wrote in a lengthy tribute to Laakso on Instagram today (May 8). 

"Tributes are never easy but this one is just too close to the bone I guess," he wrote elsewhere in the post. 

"Thank you to everyone who reached out. It’s been beautiful seeing all the nice things written about Rob, because yeah, he was quiet but there was so much to
him. Musical genius. Recording whizz. Best husband and father."