Josh Clayton-Felt; Vocalist for Group School of Fish

Josh Clayton-Felt, a co-founder and lead singer of the band School of Fish who went on to become a solo recording artist, is dead of cancer at the age of 32.

Clayton-Felt, who also performed under the name Josh Clayton, died Jan. 19 in Los Angeles, less than a month after his illness was diagnosed, said Robert Weide of Whyaduck Productions.

The singer, composer and guitarist released his first solo album, “Inarticulate Nature Boy,” in 1996. It proved somewhat different from his work with School of Fish from 1989 until the group disbanded in 1993. The band’s albums included “School of Fish,” featuring the song “Three Strange Days,” in 1991 and “Human Cannonball” in 1993.

The band had concentrated on alternative rock, but on his own, Clayton-Felt incorporated influences from folk music he had learned from his stepfather, as well as a panoply of rock sounds.

“This is classic rock in the best sense of the term,” noted a Times reviewer evaluating the solo album. “Clayton-Felt has found his own voice, full of melodic ideas and throbbing hooks of groove-laden funk crossed with notable, memorable song craft.”

For the album, Clayton-Felt wrote and sang the songs and played all the instruments--guitar, drums and an old Wurlitzer piano he taught himself to play. He rented a house in Topanga Canyon to use as his recording studio.

The CD, whose best known song is “Window,” was accompanied by a surrealistic video that Clayton-Felt made in New York, Prague and New Delhi. Another song, “Soon Enough,” was used in the 1996 motion picture “Kingpin” starring Woody Harrelson.

Clayton-Felt self-released two other albums, “Josh Clayton . . . Felt Like Making a Live Record” from a 1996 tour, and “Beautiful Nowhere” in 1999. He had completed an album, “Too Cool for This World,” for A&M; Records, but release was delayed by that company’s acquisition by Universal.

Brought up in Boston, Clayton-Felt was always interested in music, once telling an interviewer: “In fourth grade I had a music class I’d always get to early so I could bang on the bongos.”

Clayton-Felt dropped out of college and moved to Los Angeles in 1988 to make his career in music.

Survivors include his mother, Marilyn Felt Lucas; his father, John Clayton; his stepfather, Henry Felt; two brothers, Sasha and Aaron Clayton; and a sister, Laura Clayton Baker.

The family has asked that any memorial donations be made to Descendants of the Earth, P.O. Box 301, Ventura, CA 93002.