Gary Smith who helped produce for bands Pixies and Blake Baby has died. The producer who owned the Boston studio for Apache Studios passed away due to a short illness.

The creator previously worked on a number of records for select bands including Pixies, Throwing Muses, Billy Bragg, Blake Babies and more. In the span of his career, many iconic albums produced for these bands were created with the help of Smith.

Though no official statements have not been made regarding his death, reasons have been pegged to illness. Since then, many of his well-known colleagues, artists he previously worked with, and close friends of the producers have shared their tributes.

According to Brooklyn Vegan, a number of artists close to the producer, including Blake Babies’ John Strohm posted social media tributes. On Facebook, Strohm wrote “If anyone ever really ‘discovered’ a band, Gary discovered Blake Babies. We were struggling when we met Gary. Gary came to our show one night at The Rat, strode right up to us when we came offstage and said, ‘I love your band. I own a studio. Would you like to make a record? Storybook stuff.’” We went to Fort Apache that night, and it instantly became our favorite place on earth. A place he made with a few buddies with an idea and whatever cash they could scrape up. They built a young musician’s paradise.”

Tanya Donelly, Billy Bragg and Juliana Hatfield are some of the few close friends who have since posted tributes.