Boysetsfire Mourns Death of Founding Drummer Matt Krupanski

Boysetsfire lost one of its own last week. The post-hardcore band announced the death of founding drummer Matt Krupanski on March 29, sharing a grief-stricken statement to Instagram that stopped short of clinical language and leaned entirely into memory. No cause of death has been publicly disclosed.

"Today the BSF family lost one of our founding members, our drummer Matt Krupanski," the band wrote. "Words are failing us. Snapshots of memories skitter through our mind." The statement recalled his first tour, taken while he was still in high school and requiring his parents' permission, as well as the basement songwriting sessions where early material took shape, specifically citing the tracks "ATE" and "Rookie," written in his parents' basement.

Krupanski was part of a tight orbit of drummers from the early 2000s post-hardcore scene. The band's statement named his circle plainly: "His weird ass drummer gang with Tucker from Thursday, Mike from the Souls and Brandon from Rise Against." That list reads like a drumline of the era's defining records, and it places Krupanski squarely inside one of the most fertile moments in independent heavy music.

He stepped away from Boysetsfire in 2012, trading touring for a career in design and construction. He went on to hold a Director of Engineering position at Hadley Exhibits Inc., channeling the same precision that anchors a good groove into structural work. His departure from the band was a professional pivot, not a severing, and the statement made clear the personal bonds never broke.

The band addressed Krupanski's parents directly: "We are so sorry Marc and Melissa. And our heart breaks for his daughter Georgie. We are so sorry." They followed that with a concrete commitment: "We are planning on a fund raiser for Georgie maybe for college or whatever the family decides. Matt you are missed and we love you."

That fundraiser, still being organized, reflects something consistent about independent music communities: when a member of the extended family dies, the scene tends to show up practically. For anyone who came up on Boysetsfire's early catalog, this is a moment to revisit those records with fresh ears and an awareness of who was behind the kit when they were made.