Local drummer Tommy Milburn dies

Tommy Milburn, drummer of Vancouver post-hardcore band the SSRIs, died on July 1, two days after falling through the skylight of a Main Street restaurant. A statement on the band’s MySpace and Facebook pages reads, in part, “We loved him so much and he was loved by anyone who was ever lucky enough to have met him. We send our love and condolences to all of his family and friends, and hope everyone is doing their best to cope with this horrible loss. Tommy, we’ll always remember you and we’ll always love you.”

Milburn, who was 20 years old, joined the SSRIs in February, and had just finished recording an EP with the unit. Guitarist Elliot Langford told the Straight, “We’d been friends with him for years. He was a huge creative spark, and we were way more productive in that short period of time than we had been in the past year-and-a-half. We had a band where everyone was best friends, and everybody was on the same page musically.”

Although Langford and vocalist-keyboardist Joseph Hirabayashi plan to release the EP eventually, the SSRIs have been put on hiatus. “I can still barely believe what happened,” Langford said.

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