For a musician to have been in a one band that mattered to even just a small group of fans can be considered a fine achievement. Scottish multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter Patrick Doyle was in at least three, four, five, or more such bands and solo projects, depending on who you ask and how deep into the recent annals of obscure indie-pop they might delve.

The likes of Dot to Dot, The Royal We, Correcto, Sexy Kids and Veronica Falls may have each come and gone with the same readiness with which many people change hairstyles (only Veronica Falls lasted more than one album). Doyle’s solo projects Boys Forever and Basic Plumbing, meanwhile, were only beginning to blossom when he died suddenly and unexpectedly in Los Angeles a few days ago, aged 32.

But you could already put together one hell of a greatest hits mixtape of material performed on or written by this talented, witty, energetic, inspiring, wise, and infectiously charming young man of endless depths. He had a disarmingly sweet and harmonic voice, and a natural mastery of seemingly any instrument, tools that let him get out and do the thing he loved and did best. Doyle was the kind of man of instinctual gallusness and chutzpah who never waited for music to happen to him, but went out and made it happen.

He was only 15 or 16 when, in the early 2000s, he started making his presence known on the Glasgow music scene, when he moved down from Keith in Moray to study photography. A familiar face at cult clubnights of the era such as the Winchester Club and National Pop League, given to such memorable affectations as carrying around a Fireman Sam lunchbox (later lost on a number 23 bus, never to be found despite an appeal published in the letters section of the Metro), he found his tribe among the whimsical waifs and strays of post-millennial Scottish indie-pop.

Patrick Doyle, right, playing with Veronica Falls in 2012. Photograph: Dosfotos/Rex/Shutterstock

Doyle first began making a mark as a musician as guitarist with Dot to Dot, The Royal We (who released one excellent self-titled album on Stephen Pastel’s Geographic imprint for Domino in 2007) and the fantastically un-Googleable Sexy Kids, as well as bassist with Correcto (also featuring Franz Ferdinand drummer Paul Thomson). He moved to London after graduating in the late 2000s, but not before undergoing that proud rite of passage for any whimsically stylish and bookishly good-looking Glasgow indie bod: appearing on the artwork of a Belle & Sebastian album (the reverse of 2006’s The Life Pursuit).

It was together with Roxanne Clifford – also a bandmate in The Royal We and Sexy Kids – that Doyle formed his longest lasting and probably most meaningful musical partnership. Switching to drums – an instrument that he had quietly taught himself and quickly mastered – Doyle and singer/guitarist Clifford formed Veronica Falls, and went on to tour widely after signing to Bella Union. Taking the dreaminess and jangle of indie-pop and shrouding it in darkness, drama and lush multi-part harmonies – Doyle’s voice always high and distinctive in the mix – when they were good they were untouchable.

Watch the video for Veronica Falls: Teenage

Veronica Falls’ second album, 2013’s Waiting for Something to Happen, won widespread acclaim, including a five-star review from this publication, but they seemed to dissolve without any formal announcement, as Clifford went solo under the moniker Patience and guitarist James Hoare formed Ultimate Painting.

Doyle was late to bloom as a writer and performer of his own material, but with Boys Forever he rapidly established a distinctive voice and style full of all the winsome hooks, mischievous wit, yearning romance and DIY values any follower of his career might have expected. Albeit he had a troubled side, too, that had perhaps gone unrecognised in the output of this hitherto perennial sideman and backup player.

His self-titled debut album under the Boys Forever moniker, released in 2016 on Amour Foo records (“bent music for bent people”, Doyle proudly described the label), used clattering and melodious garage pop as a suitably scrappy setting for lyrics alluding to struggles with mental health in fairly frank terms. “There’s a voice in my head and I don’t wanna hear it again,” he sings on Voice in my Head. “It says go down to the river, everything’s easy when you’re sleeping.” Moves to New York and later Los Angeles to record and live seemed to further catalyse Doyle’s solo creative blossoming, and he had started to unveil yet another embryonic solo project called Basic Plumbing as recently as last year.

Watch the video for Basic Plumbing: As You Disappear

The circumstances of Doyle’s death have yet to be made known, but a message on the Boys Forever Facebook page requests donations to be given to the Los Angeles LGBT Center, which was “an invaluable support for Patrick”. After his death, Doyle’s Veronica Falls bandmate Marion Herbain wrote on Instagram: “Everything hurts and it’s been hard finding the right words while dealing with feelings ranging from complete heartbreak to remorse. It hasn’t fully sunk in yet, but I’m glad I got to spend some of the best years of my life by your side, as a bandmate and a friend.” Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos tweeted: “I am heartbroken by the news of the death of my friend, Patrick Doyle. Smart, funny, a great musician … I can’t sum up his life on here. I will miss him.”

It scarcely bears saying that Doyle left the world tragically early. Nor that with it, he left more promising bands unformed, and many more additions to that greatest hits mixtape unwritten.