John Grant (singer)

John William Grant

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Queen of Denmark   UK 59  silver 05/01/2010 (1 week) Pale Green Ghosts   UK 16  silver 03/23/2013 (5 weeks) Gray Tickles, Black Pressure   DE 89 10/16/2015 (1 week)   UK 5 10/22/2015 (3 weeks) Love is Magic   UK 17th 10/25/2018 (1 week)

John William Grant (* 1968 ) is an American singer and songwriter. He is a former member of The Czars and began a solo career in 2010.

biography

Grant was born in Buchanan , Michigan and moved to Parker , Colorado when he was twelve . He was inspired by many musicians whose music he listened to in his childhood, such as ABBA , Supertramp , Nina Hagen and The Carpenters . He learned to play the piano at an early age and sang in the church choir for years.

After graduating from high school, Grant lived in Heidelberg for a year and then studied German and Russian at the Faculty for Translation, Language and Cultural Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germersheim . However, he noticed that his knowledge of German was not good enough to become an interpreter. When his mother developed lung cancer, he returned to the United States.

There he founded the band The Czars with Chris Pearson , but they had little commercial success and disbanded after ten years and seven studio albums released.

Grant moved to New York , where he studied Russian Medical Interpreting at New York University for two years and then started working as a hospital interpreter. He also worked as a waiter in the renowned Gramercy Tavern restaurant .

In 2008 the members of the band Midlake invited him to their studio in Denton , Texas after hearing Grant sing live. He accepted the offer and with her support recorded his debut album Queen Of Denmark . It was released on April 19, 2010 by the Bella Union record company . The album received very good reviews and was named the best album of 2010 by Mojo music magazine . The songs Marz and TC and Honeybear were used in the film Weekend . Sinéad O'Connor also covered the song Queen Of Denmark on her album How About I Be Me (And You Be You)? .

In 2011 Grant performed at the Iceland Airwaves Festival in Reykjavík and during a later trip to Iceland he met Birgir Þórarinsson, aka Biggi Veira, a member of the music project GusGus . He invited Grant to his studio in Reykjavík, where they recorded two songs. This convinced him to record his second album, not as planned, back in Texas with the support of Midlake, but together with Biggi Veira.

His second album "Pale Green Ghosts" was released on March 11, 2013. He also translated Ásgeir Trausti's Icelandic album Dýrð í dürðaþögn , so that the English language album In the silence was released in October 2013. Grant also starred in the music video for King and Cross , a track from the album.

In the 2015 Bella Union album Gray Tickles, Black Pressure , electronic and acoustic instruments meet, elegiac ballads stand alongside uptempo titles with sarcastic and funny lyrics. There is a guest duet each with Amanda Palmer and Tracey Thorn .

Personal

Grant now lives his gay orientation openly, but had problems accepting his homosexuality, especially in his childhood and youth, because he grew up in a strictly religious household. Many of his songs are about broken relationships and his problem with accepting himself. He struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for years, but is now clean and dry.

While performing live with the band Hercules and Love Affair at the 2012 Meltdown Festival , Grant made it public that he was HIV positive. This subject is also dealt with in his song Ernest Borgnine .

Grant is a polyglot . He speaks English, Russian, German, Spanish, French and Icelandic, among others.

Grant currently lives in Reykjavík.

Discography

Albums

with The Czars

• 1996: Moodswing
• 1997: The La Brea Tar Pits of Routine
• 2000: Before ... But Longer
• 2001: The Ugly People vs. the Beautiful People
• 2004: Goodbye
• 2005: Sorry I Made You Cry

solo

• 2010: Queen Of Denmark
• 2013: Pale Green Ghosts
• 2015: Live in Concert (with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra)
• 2015: Gray Tickles, Black Pressure
• 2018: Love Is Magic

swell

1. ↑ Chart sources: Germany Great Britain
2. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK
3. ↑ http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/2010/12/03/john_grant_getting_his_sad_mojo_working.html
4. ↑ http://johngrantmusic.com/biography/
5. ↑ Video aspects: The melancholy sound of John Grant (April 5, 2013, 11:45 p.m., 5:34 min.)  In the ZDFmediathek , accessed on January 30, 2014. (offline)
6. ↑ http://www.du-und-ich.net/news-2000/john-grant-hat-schon-viel-durchmachen-und-verheimlicht-nichts.html (archived version)
7. ↑ http://cwas.hinah.com/interview/?id=38
8. ↑ http://www.wfuv.org/audio/archives/fuv-live/john-grant-fuv-live-2013
9. ↑ http://www.edinburgh-festivals.com/viewpreview.aspx?id=1718
10. ↑ http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/509f01d2-f362-11df-b34f-00144feab49a.html
11. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jun/20/john-grant-queen-of-denmark
12. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated May 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
13. ↑ http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/sftw/4842734/john-grant-on-new-album-sinead-oconnor-and-being-hiv-positive.html
14. ↑ http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/interviews/john-grant-119080
15. ↑ Dark songs with a bit of hope , musician portrait John Grant on Deutschlandradio Kultur on October 6, 2015
16. ^ Gray Tickles, Black Pressure Tracklisting
17. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEyoBQtfmH0
18. ↑ http://www.klatsch-tratsch.de/2013/03/04/john-grant-sieh-aus-wie-ein-wikinger-und-macht-ein-himmlisches-elektro-album/153033
19. ↑ http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/132307-20-questions-john-grant/

Web links

Commons : John Grant  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• John Grant's website
• John Grant at Discogs (English)