Alec Ounsworth (born December 1, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and frontman of

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is an indie rock band active since the early 2000s in and out of Philadelphia. The band was founded as a collaboration between singer-songwriter Alec Ounsworth, Sean Greenhalgh, Robbie Guertin, Lee Sargent, and Ty ...

. He is also a member of The Pelican Picnic and

Flashy Python Flashy Python was a project by Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. It also featured band members from Dr. Dog, The Walkmen, and Man Man. Their debut album, '' Skin and Bones'', was self-released in 2009. History Skin and Bones wa ...

. His first solo album, '' Mo Beauty'' was released October 20, 2009, on Anti- Records.

History

Ounsworth was born in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

and grew up in

Mount Airy, Philadelphia Mount Airy is a neighborhood of Northwest Philadelphia in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Geography Mount Airy is bounded on the northwest by the Cresheim Valley, which is part of Fairmount Park. Beyond this lies Chestnut Hill. On the we ...

. Around his mid-teens, he started writing and recording music — a hobby that would stay near to him throughout his time as a student at

Connecticut College Connecticut College (Conn) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut. Originally chartered as Thames College, it was founded in 1911 as the state's only women's colle ...

. In college, he shared a dorm room with Lee Sargent during their first year. They would both graduate in 2000. Sargent, who had a special interest in Ounsworth's songs, contacted him in 2004 via

Friendster Friendster was a social networking service originally based in Mountain View, California, founded by Jonathan Abrams and launched in March 2003.Eric Eldon, August 4, 2008.Friendster raises $20 million, nabs a Googler to be CEO" VentureBeat. ...

about starting a band. After several contacts, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah was formed, and the band started playing live shows and recording demos. Prior to the success of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Ounsworth released several home demos of his work onto the internet, many of them being early versions of songs that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah would record. All ties between him and the files have been severed, as both flashypython.com and his

MySpace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

page have been deleted. The files are still distributed among fans over the Internet.

Musical equipment

Ounsworth's collection of guitars includes two

Fender Telecaster The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele (), is an electric guitar produced by Fender (company), Fender. Together with its sister model the Fender Esquire, Esquire, it was the world's first mass-produced, commercially successfulLes ...

s, a

Fender Stratocaster The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of double- cutaway electric guitar designed between 1952 and 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corpora ...

, a Gibson Hummingbird, and a

Gibson SG The Gibson SG is a solid-body electric guitar model introduced by Gibson in 1961, following on from the 1952 Gibson Les Paul. It remains in production today in many variations of the initial design. SG stands for "solid guitar". Origins The S ...

. He also has at least four acoustic guitars, two of which are made by Gibson. On April 4, 2007, he sported a Gibson

Flying V The Gibson Flying V is an electric guitar model introduced by Gibson (guitar company), Gibson in 1958. The Flying V offered a radical, "futuristic" body design, much like its siblings: the Gibson Explorer, Explorer, which was released the same ...

guitar on Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's appearance on ''

Late Night with Conan O'Brien ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show is the second installment of the ''Late Night (franchise), Late Night'' franchise originally established by David Letterman. Hosted by Conan O'Brie ...

''. He employs the

Vox AC30 The Vox AC30 is a Instrument amplifier, guitar amplifier manufactured by Vox (company), Vox. It was introduced in 1958 to meet the growing demand for louder amplifiers. Its "jangly" high-end sound made it widely used by British musicians and oth ...

amp to produce the sound he desires. On his tours with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, he has played through a 4x10 Fender Hot Rod DeVille.

Personal life

On January 12, 2007, Ounsworth married Emily Jean Stock, who is the inspiration behind the song of the same name on the album '' Some Loud Thunder.'' In 2008, they had a daughter, Rosemary. In 2020, Ounsworth and Emily Jean Stock divorced.

Discography

Solo albums

*2009: '' Mo Beauty''

with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

*2005: ''

'' *2007: '' Some Loud Thunder'' *2007: '' Live at Lollapalooza 2007: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah'' *2011: '' Hysterical'' *2014: '' Only Run'' *2017: ''The Tourist'' *2021: '' New Fragility''

with Flashy Python

*2009: '' Skin and Bones''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ounsworth, Alec 1977 births Living people American folk guitarists American male guitarists American folk singers American rock guitarists American male singer-songwriters American rock singers American rock songwriters Connecticut College alumni Chestnut Hill Academy alumni Singer-songwriters from Pennsylvania Guitarists from Philadelphia 21st-century American singer-songwriters 21st-century American guitarists 21st-century American male singers Anti- (record label) artists