INDEPENDENT PROJECT RECORDS ISSUE STATEMENT ON THE PASSING OF FOR AGAINST FOUNDER JEFFREY RUNNINGS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LOS ANGELES, CA & LINCOLN NE. (TUESDAY APRIL 15, 2025) – Everyone at Independent Project Records feels great sadness in announcing that our friend and noted musician Jeffrey Runnings, founding member, bassist and vocalist of the Nebraska-based band For Against, has passed away on Monday, March 3 due to stage 4 cancer.

Since its inception in 1984, For Against consistently produced a drifting yet distinctly rhythmic sound, soldiering through the myriad trends of the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s, one foot in the British post-punk of Joy Division and the other in the gliding atmospherics of Kitchens of Distinction. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s For Against worked extensively with Bruce Licher at Independent Project Records. In the early 2000s, three of the band’s 1980s releases were reissued on CD by the Words on Music label, and in 2013, the Captured Tracks label reissued these same For Against albums, this time in a limited-edition vinyl box set. In 2018 the Saint Marie label released the band’s three 1990s albums in another limited edition vinyl box set, and three more albums were released on CD by Words on Music in the early 2000s.

A posthumous solo album recorded last year, Piqued, will be released by IPR in mid-2025 and will also feature a 4-track EP of rare recordings from the late ‘80s – two of them previously unreleased. The first single, “Batman Forever,” which will be released to all outlets at a later date, can be heard here.

“Jeffrey Runnings was not only a good friend and an outstanding musician & songwriter, but someone whose life revolved around music,” said Independent Project Records Founder and Co-owner Bruce Licher. “Jeff was always enthusiastically sharing music that he thought his friends would enjoy, and for years he would send me handwritten letters often accompanied by records he thought I should have, or a mixtape he’d made that he thought I should hear. Even now, in the middle of the second decade of the 21st Century, when he sent me his new album to hear for the first time, it was on a cassette tape that he mailed through the post. I couldn’t have asked for anything more special. His unique voice will be missed on so many levels.”

Born in Omaha, Nebraska on April 22, 1963, Jeffrey Scott Runnings grew up loving music and began buying and collecting records at a very young age. He took piano lessons as a youth and became an incredible pianist. He later moved on to the guitar, which Jeffrey played backwards – he was left handed, but played right handed guitars upside down – it’s likely he was self-taught.

A lover of cats, Jeff worked at a cat cafe in Omaha for a while and got to be with cats of all ages.  He loved to ride his bike and take long walks. Besides these things, he enjoyed staying at home with his husband Sean Applegate and their cats over the years. Jeff and Sean would travel to their condo timeshare in Vail, Colorado during the week whenever Jeff was feeling good and could make the trip.

Jeff is survived by his husband Sean Applegate; brother Steve (companion, Linda Lou Fuss); nephews Rudy (Darcy) Runnings & Phil Runnings; niece Christina Kruger; uncle Gerald Abboud and many friends and fans across the world. He was preceded in death by his parents and his sister Karen Runnings.

A musician, a writer and a terrific human being, Jeffrey Runnings will be missed.

Our thoughts are with his husband Sean and all his family and friends.

If you are able, please consider donating to the Jeffrey’s GoFundMe page.

Remember Jeffrey fondly for the music he helped create.

 For more information, please contact Joshua Mills at
It’s Alive! Media, 323-464-6314, josh@itsalivemedia.com, www.itsalivemedia.com

or
Camilla Aisa, camillaaisa@gmail.com

Follow Independent Project Records on Social Media:
Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok, Bluesky

Left to right: Greg Hill – drums, Jeffrey Runnings – bass & vocals, Harry Dingman III – guitar