Will Cullen Hart, Elephant 6 Co-Founder, Dies at 53

Will Cullen Hart, a founding member of the Athens, Georgia, indie-rock collective Elephant 6, died on Friday, November 29, of a heart attack, according to a statement on the Elephant 6 website. One of the musician’s Elephant 6 co-founders, Robert Schneider, shared that Hart died “suddenly, peacefully, and in a very happy mood around the release of the two new OTC songs”—the recently released Olivia Tremor Control singles “The Same Place” and “Garden of Light.” Will Cullen Hart was 53 years old.

Born in Athens, in 1971, Hart grew up in Ruston, Louisiana, alongside Schneider, Bill Doss, and Jeff Mangum. As teenagers, the four put out home recordings under the Elephant 6 banner, and, after completing high school, Doss, Hart, and Mangum moved to Athens, where they formed the Olivia Tremor Control. Schneider ended up in Denver, Colorado, where he founded the Elephant 6 Recording Company label to put out music created by his band Apples in Stereo. Hart, a visual artist, created most of the artwork for his own band and others associated with the collective.

The Olivia Tremor Control released their first proper album, Music From the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle, in 1996, the year after Mangum’s departure from the group. More music followed before the group disbanded in 2000. The next year, Hart formed Circulatory System and released the new band’s debut album. Both of his bands remained dormant until 2009 when the Olivia Tremor Control reunited and Circulatory System shared their second album, Signal Morning. The Olivia Tremor Control’s resurgence was slowed, however, by Bill Doss’ death in 2012.

Hart’s last album with Circulatory System, Mosaics Within Mosaics, came out in 2014. That same year, an Elephant 6 documentary was announced, and it would eventually see a wide release, in 2022, as A Future History Of: The Elephant 6 Recording Co.

“Will was infinitely chatty, infinitely funny, infinitely expressive, infinitely creative,” Robert Schneider wrote in his eulogy for Hart, “He was infinitely loved by me, and by his bandmates and the Elephant 6 and Athens communities.”