Kevin Bronson on December 31st, 2013

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Benjamin Curtis, the guitarist who propelled the bands Secret Machines and School of Seven Bells to prominence, died Sunday night after a one-year battle with cancer, the Dallas Observer reported. He was 35.

The Oklahoma native and Dallas resident was diagnosed with T-cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma a year ago. His music career began in the 1990s with Dallas band UFOFU, and Curtis later played drums in Tripping Daisy. With his brother Brandon, he started Secret Machines in 2004; their debut “Now Here Is Nowhere” was released in 2004 to much acclaim. Curtis started School of Seven Bells in 2007 with twin vocalists Alejandra and Claudia Deheza. SVIIB, as they became known, released three albums, the final, “Ghostory,” in 2012.

Fellow musicians rallied in support of his battle against cancer, staging benefits to help defray his medical expenses. (Filter magazine hosted a message board in October.)

A note on the SVIIB Facebook page read:

“We can’t thank all of you who supported him and his music through the years enough. All of you who attended or participated in the various benefits in and around New York City over the past year since his diagnosis, and of course those who contributed and gave generously to help support him throughout that journey. You made it possible for all of us, and for him, to see how truly loved he was and how many lives he had touched through his music by your gestures. We will all miss this incredibly talented and rare person every day, but we are fortunate enough that he shared with us his music, and that is something that we can keep forever.”

Photo from September 2012 at the Santa Monica Civic by Carl Pocket