Alex Kapranos

Alexander Paul Kapranos Huntley (born 20 March 1972), commonly known as Alex Kapranos, is an English-born Scottish musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the Glasgow-based rock band Franz Ferdinand.

Alex Kapranos was born in Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, England to an English mother and Greek father. He moved to Scotland at the age of seven, attending Blackhall primary school in Edinburgh and high school in Bearsden, a suburb of Glasgow. At the age of 17, Kapranos attended the University of Aberdeen to study Theology. After dropping out, he continued his studies at the University of Strathclyde, eventually gaining a BA. In 2005, he was awarded Strathclyde's Alumnus of the Year. He worked as a chef, barman, music promoter, driver, welder and lecturer prior to finding fame with Franz Ferdinand.

From the early 1990s, he was a fixture of the Glasgow music scene, running live nights at the 13th Note, most notably The Kazoo Club. While working as a chef, bartender, lecturer in IT at the city's Anniesland College, and other various jobs, he played in some of Glasgow's popular bands, including The Blisters (later known as The Karelia), The Amphetameanies, and The Yummy Fur. He is also known to have contributed to the noise act Urusei Yatsura and Lung Leg recordings.

After dropping "Huntley" from his name, he formed Franz Ferdinand in 2001. The band is composed of Alex Kapranos, Nick McCarthy (guitar, keyboard, backup vocals), Paul Thomson (drums, backup vocals, sometimes guitar) and Bob Hardy (bass). The band saw chart success after their second single Take Me Out (released 12 January 2004) 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 and two Brit Awards in 2005 for Best British Group and Best British Rock Act.

Alex Kapranos performing with Franz Ferdinand

In 2015, the band collaborated with American band Sparks to form a combined group named FFS.

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's Book of the Week for 4–8 December 2006, described as "his account about what he ate while touring the world."

Production

Kapranos produced Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever – the third album by British indie rock group The Cribs in Vancouver BC, 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.

Kapranos makes a cameo appearance in the video for Our Bovine Public.

His remix of the single "New in Town", by British pop singer Little Boots 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

Narration

Kapranos narrated the 2008 BBC Scotland documentary Edwyn Collins: Home Again on the recovery of Orange Juice singer Edwyn Collins.

Also in 2008, Kapranos narrated the BBC Radio One documentary The Story of Kraftwerk.

Hobbies

When not on the road or recording in the studio, Kapranos spends time in his carpentry workshop, crafting abstract furniture.

Incident in Russia

In June 2005, Kapranos was detained for around an hour by officials at Domodedovo airport after being mistakenly identified as belonging on a US "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 agent Richard Tomlinson. Tomlinson had been fired, imprisoned, and labelled a security risk after circulating to publishers a draft of a book on the MI6. Kapranos was released after officials determined that he did not fit Tomlinson's description.