The indie-rock band Franz Ferdinand deserves attention as a project that has changed this direction in music in the bud. But the soul of the team is the frontman and author of almost all the tracks - Alex Kapranos. In this article we will try to reveal the formation of him as a musician and not only. After all, this person has many more interesting hobbies in his life.
Childhood and youth
Alex Capranos was born in one of the counties of England under the name Gloucestershire. This event happened in 1972, March 20. However, the boy grew up in Greece until the age of 7. Alex's father is Greek by nationality, and it is from here that the singer has such an unusual surname for Scotland. The Kapranos family lived in Edinburgh, and then moved to a suburb of Glasgow. At the time of growing up (17 years), he decides to change his surname to his mother. Thus, for several years he becomes Alex Huntley. The decision to change the name to Scottish was due to Alex's fear of mockery and ridicule of fellow students at the university.
At first, Alexander Paul Kapranos Huntley went to university to study theology. It was Aberdeen University. But theology very quickly bored the future star of indie rock, and after a while he entered another educational institution. This institution was the University of Strathclyde. There he graduated as an art critic, and received his bachelor's degree in 2005, and even with the honorary title “Graduate of the Year”.
Musical activity before the creation of Franz Ferdinand
Alex Kapranos began his career in music a few years before the creation of the now super-popular group. It was in the late 1990s. Alex participated in such bands as The Blisters (the group was renamed The Karelia in the future), The Amphetameanies, Urusei Yatsura and The Yummy Fur. In addition, the musician and songwriter has his own individual album, released by him in 1997 and entitled Divorce At High Noon. The projects of Kapranos, in which he participated before the creation of the FF, were successful at the Glasgow level.
And Kapranos worked in various clubs in Glasgow as a light. Naturally, this brought him a lot of acquaintances with the musicians of the Scottish capital.
Surprisingly, the self-sufficient person and charismatic leader of a very popular group at first was afraid of how he looks on stage. But then he overcame this fear, coming to the conclusion that if he has the courage to simply go out to the public, this is already good.
Creation and development of the Franz Ferdinand group
Since Alex often revolved in the musical circles of Scotland, he became interested in this type of art. And he thought about creating his own team at the beginning of the 2000s. And so the group “Franz Ferdinand” was born, conquering the hearts of not only the British, but also fans of indie rock in other countries of the world. A group was formed of friends of Alex and of himself in 2001.
At the beginning of their career, musicians played at small local concerts and in nightclubs in the capital of Scotland. It lasted from 2002 to 2004. But the band releases a strong single called Take Me Out and attracts the attention of the general public. In the United Kingdom, for example, the song occupied an honorable 3rd place on the charts. And, in general, it has become popular outside the English-speaking world.
In the same year, “Franz” released the first of the four existing albums to date and received several British prizes at once: one Mercury Music Prize and two BRIT Awards, becoming the best in the nominations “British Band” and “British Rock Band”. Among other things, the guys managed to be nominated for a Grammy Award and become one of the brightest stars in the world of indie rock.
While working on the third album, the personal life of Alex Kapranos rolled into tartarara. He broke up with his girlfriend, and this for a while plunged him into a deplorable state. But, fortunately, he found the strength to get out of depression and create further.
Other hobbies of Kapranos
Even before the popular Scottish band Franz Ferdinand was conceived and created, Alex was sometimes fond of activities that were completely far from music. He managed to work as a chef, welder, bartender, lecturer, music promoter and driver. Of all these classes, he especially liked to teach. After all, in the field of a lecturer, he was engaged with people who fled to Great Britain from war and deprivation. He sincerely admires those who have traveled such a terrible path in order to use the most elementary of human goods. He taught Kapranos English and information technology.
In addition, Alex Kapranos is fond of writing (he wrote a column in one of the newspapers and then released a book), sometimes interviews other musicians, participated in the dubbing of one of the Air Force films and loves carpentry.