Alex Kapranos
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Alexander Paul Kapranos (born 20 March 1972) is a Scottish musician. He is the lead singer and lead guitarist of Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand. He has also been a part of the supergroups FFS and BNQT.


Early life

Alexander Paul Kapranos Huntley was born on 20 March 1972 in Almondsbury, South Gloucestershire, the son of an English mother and Greek father. As a two-month-old he moved to
Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...
, moving to Scotland when he was a child. He attended Bearsden Academy,https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/alex-kapranos-of-franz-ferdinand-accuses-nationalists-of-making-him-english-on-wikipedia-2461893 then the
University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; ) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bis ...
to study Theology. After dropping out, he continued studying at the
University of Strathclyde The University of Strathclyde () is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal charter in 1964 as the first techn ...
, gaining a BA. In 2005, he was awarded Strathclyde's Alumnus of the Year. Kapranos worked as a chef, barman, waiter and delivery driver prior to his success in music. From the early 1990s, he was a fixture of the Glasgow music scene, running live nights at The 13th Note Café, most notably The Kazoo Club.


Career


Performing

While working at the Glasgow's Anniesland College in late 90's, Alex Kapranos played in some of city's bands, including The Blisters (later known as The Karelia), The Amphetameanies and The Yummy Fur. He also contributed to the
noise rock Noise rock (sometimes called noise punk) is a noise music, noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimal music, minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, a ...
band
Urusei Yatsura is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It was serialized in Shogakukan's ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' from September 1978 to February 1987. Its 366 individual chapters were collected in 34 ''tankōbon'' volum ...
and Lung Leg recordings. After dropping "Huntley" from his name, Kapranos formed Franz Ferdinand in 2001. The band was composed of Kapranos,
Nick McCarthy Nicholas John McCarthy (born 13 December 1974) is an English-German musician. His main focus is on songwriting and song production. He is also a guitarist, singer and keyboard player. McCarthy was a founding member of the Glasgow-based band Fr ...
(rhythm guitar, keyboards, vocals), Paul Thomson (drums, backing vocals) and Bob Hardy (bass). The band saw chart success after their second single "
Take Me Out A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production. Film In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup". Takes of each ...
" was released on 12 January 2004 and reached Number 3 in the UK Charts followed by their debut album '' Franz Ferdinand'' (released 9 February 2004), which debuted on the UK album chart at Number 3. The band went on to win the 2004
Mercury Music Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual Music award, music prize awarded for the best album released by a musical act from the Music of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom or Music of Ireland, Ireland. It was cre ...
and two Brit Awards in 2005 for Best British Group and Best British Rock Act. In 2015, the Franz Ferdinand collaborated with American band Sparks to form a supergroup named FFS. Also in 2015 Kapranos joined the supergroup BNQT. In 2019 British band All We Are released a single "Heart Attack" with Alex Kapranos. In 2020 Kapranos released an English-French cover of " Summer Wine" with Clara Luciani.


Producing

Kapranos produced '' Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever''—the third album by British
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 ...
group
The Cribs The Cribs are a British indie rock band originally from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, that formed in 2001. The band consists of twins Gary Jarman, Gary and Ryan Jarman and their younger brother Ross Jarman. They were subsequently joined by ex-The ...
in
Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
, B.C., released on 14 May 2007. He also produced their single-only track " Don't You Wanna Be Relevant?", which was featured with "Our Bovine Public" (from ''Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever'') as a
double A-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of vinyl records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a single usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or ...
. Kapranos makes a
cameo appearance A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...
in the video for " Our Bovine Public". His remix of the single " New in Town" by British pop singer
Little Boots Victoria Christina Hesketh (born 4 May 1984), known professionally as Little Boots, is an English singer-songwriter and DJ. She was previously a member of the band Dead Disco. Since performing as a solo artist, she has released four albums: ''H ...
was featured on various formats of the singles release. He produced the debut album by British indie rock band Citizens!, ''Here We Are'', which was released by Kitsuné on 28 May 2012. He produced the second album of Scottish guitarist RM Hubbert, ''Thirteen Lost & Found''. In 2019, he produced the single "Pista (Great Start)" by London-based band Los Bitchos, which he described thus: "Truly international with cumbia beats, Turkish psychedelia, a hint of Swedish pop and a touch of shoegaze shimmer. More than anything, they put you in a really good mood when you listen to them. Celebratory trills and whoops energise the vibrant Dick Dale-esque guitars and brass, making for a blistering escape to a rip-roaring desert session."


Other work


Writing

In September 2005, Kapranos began "Soundbites", a weekly food column for G2 in ''The Guardian'' newspaper, which detailed his culinary adventures as Franz Ferdinand traversed the globe on their world tour. '' Sound Bites: Eating on Tour with Franz Ferdinand'', a book of the column and unreleased material illustrated by Andy Knowles, was released in 2006. ''Sound Bites: Eating on Tour with Franz Ferdinand'' was read by Kapranos on
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
's ''Book of the Week'' for 4–8 December 2006, described as "his account about what he ate while touring the world."


Narration

Kapranos narrated the 2008
BBC Scotland BBC Scotland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. Its headquarters are in Glasgow, employing approximately 1,250 staff as of 2017, to produce 15,000 hours of television and radio programming per year. BBC Scotla ...
documentary ''Edwyn Collins: Home Again'' on the recovery of
Orange Juice Orange juice is a liquid extract of the orange (fruit), orange tree fruit, produced by squeezing or reaming oranges. It comes in several different varieties, including blood orange, navel oranges, valencia orange, clementine, and tangerine. As ...
singer Edwyn Collins. Also in 2008, Kapranos narrated the BBC Radio 1 documentary ''The Story of Kraftwerk''.


Film

In 2016, Kapranos took part in a documentary about Glasgow music, and Chemikal Underground Records, calle
''Lost in France''
The film was directed by Niall McCann and brought Kapranos (along with members of
The Delgados The Delgados are a Scottish indie rock band formed in Glasgow in 1994. The band is composed of Alun Woodward (vocals, guitar), Emma Pollock (vocals, guitar), Stewart Henderson (bass guitar), and Paul Savage (drums). Biography The band was f ...
,
Mogwai Mogwai () are a Scottish post-rock band, formed in 1995 in Glasgow. The band consists of Stuart Braithwaite (guitar, vocals), Barry Burns (guitar, piano, synthesizer, vocals), Dominic Aitchison (bass guitar), and Martin Bulloch (drums). Mogwa ...
and others) to Mauron, Brittany, to recreate a gig they played when Kapranos was in his earlier band, The Karelia. The film features Kapranos playing live with
Stuart Braithwaite Stuart Leslie Braithwaite (born 10 May 1976) is a Scottish musician, singer and songwriter. He is the guitarist of post-rock band Mogwai, with whom he has recorded ten studio albums. He is also a member of the British alternative rock supergrou ...
of Mogwai, and other musicians such as Emma Pollock and RM Hubbert, and Holy Mountain, as well as interviews with Kapranos and his old label-mates. ''Lost in France'' premiered at the
Edinburgh International Film Festival The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), established in 1947, is the world's oldest continually running film festival. EIFF presents both UK and international films (all titles are World, international, European or UK Premieres), in al ...
to wholly positive reviews and was called "Funny, vital and sobering" by Scotland's arts publication, '' The Skinny''. Kapranos was interviewed for
Edgar Wright Edgar Howard Wright (born 18 April 1974) is an English filmmaker. He is known for his fast-paced and kinetic, satirical Film genre, genre films, which feature extensive utilisation of expressive popular music, Steadicam tracking shots, dolly zo ...
's 2021 documentary film '' The Sparks Brothers'', centered around the band Sparks, with whom Franz Ferdinand formed supergroup FFS.


Radio presenting

From 7 August to 11 September 2022, Kapranos presented a six part Sunday night radio programme titled "The Alex Kapranos Show" on
Absolute Radio Absolute Radio is a British digital radio station owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK as part of the Absolute Radio Network. It broadcasts nationally across the UK via digital audio broadcasting. The station focuses on alternative ...
.


Personal life

In his spare time, Kapranos enjoys "crafting abstract furniture in his carpentry workshop" . In June 2005, Kapranos was detained for around an hour by officials at
Domodedovo Airport Moscow Domodedovo International Airport ( rus, links=no, аэропорт Домодедово, p=dəmɐˈdʲɛdəvə) (IATA: DME, ICAO: UUDD), formally Domodedovo Mikhail Lomonosov International Airport, is an international airport serving Mosc ...
in
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
after being mistakenly identified as belonging on a U.S. "no-fly" list. This occurred due to the surname on his passport, Huntley, also having been previously used as an alias by the former
MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
agent
Richard Tomlinson Richard John Charles Tomlinson (born 13 January 1963) is a former officer of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). He argued that he was subjected to unfair dismissal from MI6 in 1995, and attempted to take his former employer to a tri ...
. Tomlinson had been fired, imprisoned, and labelled a security risk after circulating to publishers a draft of a book on MI6. Kapranos was released after officials determined that he did not fit Tomlinson's description. Growing up in
Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...
, he supported the local football club Sunderland A.F.C. Kapranos has
asthma Asthma is a common long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wh ...
and is allergic to peanuts. Kapranos dated singer Eleanor Friedberger for a few years (he dedicated the song " Eleanor Put Your Boots On" to her). Since 2019, he has been in a relationship with French musician Clara Luciani. Luciani announced her pregnancy with the couple's first child in May 2023. They married in Scotland at the end of May 2023. Their son was born in September 2023.


Discography


Singles


References


External links


Franz Ferdinand official websiteAlex Kapranos interview with World HumAlex Kapranos interview
with SPIN {{DEFAULTSORT:Kapranos, Alex 1972 births Living people 20th-century Scottish male singers Scottish rock singers Scottish rock guitarists Scottish male guitarists Scottish male songwriters Scottish male singer-songwriters Scottish singer-songwriters Scottish people of English descent Scottish people of Greek descent Franz Ferdinand (band) members Ivor Novello Award winners Alumni of the University of Strathclyde Alumni of the University of Aberdeen People from Almondsbury People educated at Bearsden Academy FFS (band) members BNQT members The Yummy Fur members The Cribs members British post-punk musicians 21st-century Scottish male singers