Pete Byrne, the frontman of British new wave group Naked Eyes, has died at 74. The band announced on Wednesday that he died peacefully in Los Angeles on 14 September after a brief illness, which is the kind of phrasing that makes you wish illness could just be a little less brief.

Byrne was a card-carrying member of the "second British invasion," that moment when synthpop and new wave bands from the UK, powered in part by MTV, swept into the US alongside peers like Duran Duran and A Flock of Seagulls. He formed Naked Eyes in the late 1970s after his groups Studio and Neon failed. Neon, notably, featured future Tears for Fears members Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal, plus his future Naked Eyes bandmate Rob Fisher. "Rob and I found that running a band was not as interesting as writing and recording," Byrne said. "We decided to go back to square one." A radical concept: admitting that band administration is boring.

They split off as a duo, renamed themselves, and signed to EMI. Their debut single became their biggest hit: a cover of the Burt Bacharach-penned Always Something There to Remind Me, powered by Byrne's earnest boyish croon. It reached the Top 10 in the US, Canada, and Australia. In their native UK, Naked Eyes never hit the Top 40, which is a very British way of saying "we'll take our success elsewhere, thank you."

They continued a run of US successes with three more Top 40 hits: Promises, Promises (which reached No 11 and featured Madonna on unreleased remixes), When the Lights Go Out, and (What) In the Name of Love (remixed by Arthur Baker). The group couldn't replicate their synth-heavy studio setup on tour, and they split after their second album, 1984's Fuel for the Fire. Byrne later blamed the split on him and Fisher living in Los Angeles and London respectively, and on EMI losing faith in the project. Geography and corporate doubt: the two most reliable band-killers.

Byrne retreated, writing and producing with other artists - later including a song for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen - and recorded backing vocals for Stevie Wonder's 1985 US No 1 Part-Time Lover. He released a solo album, The Real Illusion, in 2001, and began working with Fisher again, rebooting Naked Eyes as a solo project after Fisher's death in 1999. Byrne released two further albums under that name and became a familiar face on 80s revue tours, alongside the likes of the Go-Go's and the Human League. Speaking in 2017, Byrne said music has been "the main focus of my life since I was 18. Nothing has changed really. I still get up in the morning, make coffee, fiddle around on the guitar and scribble down some nonsense. And I eventually look back and say: 'There might be something there.'"

He is survived by three children, Merlin, Dylan, and Chloe, from his marriage to ex-wife Elena, as well as his siblings Eileen, Sandy, Carol, and Steve.