Alexander Paul Kapranos Huntley is a Scottish musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and author. He is best known as the lead singer and guitarist of Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand. He has also been a part of the supergroupsFFS and BNQT.
Early life
Alexander Paul Kapranos Huntley was born on 20 March 1972 in Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, the son of an English mother and Greek father. As a 2-month-old he moved to Sunderland, moving to Scotland when he was 7. He attended the University of Aberdeen to study Theology. After dropping out, he continued studying at the University of Strathclyde, gaining a BA. In 2005, he was awarded Strathclyde's Alumnus of the Year. Kapranos worked as a chef, barman, music promoter, driver, welder, and IT lecturer prior to finding fame. 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. While working at the city's Anniesland College, he played in some of Glasgow's popular bands, including The Blisters, The Amphetameanies, and The Yummy Fur. He is also known to have contributed to the noise act Urusei Yatsura and Lung Leg recordings.
Career
Performing
After dropping "Huntley" from his name, Kapranos formed Franz Ferdinand in 2001. The band was composed of Kapranos, Nick McCarthy, Paul Thomson and Bob Hardy. The band saw chart success after their second single "Take Me Out" was released on 12 January 2004 and reached Number 3 in the UK Charts followed by their debut albumFranz Ferdinand 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. In 2015, the band collaborated with American band Sparks to form a supergroup named FFS.
Producing
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" 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 singerLittle 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. In 2019, he produced the single "Pista " by London-based band Los Bitchos which he described as followed: “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. , 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."
In 2016, Kapranos took part in a documentary about Glasgow music, and Chemikal Underground Records, called . The film was directed by Niall McCann and brought Kapranos 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 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 to wholly positive reviews and was called "Funny, vital and sobering” by Scotland's arts publication, The Skinny.
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 in Moscow 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 agent Richard Tomlinson. 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.
