John Grant (musician)
John William Grant ( b. 1968 ) is an American singer and songwriter. He is a former member of the band The Czars and launched a solo career in 2010.
Biography
Grant was born in Buchanan, Michigan, but moved at the age of twelve years after Parker in Colorado. He was inspired by many musicians whose music he heard in his childhood, such as ABBA, Supertramp, Nina Hagen and The Carpenters. He learned early to play the piano and sang in the church choir for many years.
After graduating high School Grant spent a year in Heidelberg and then studied German and Russian at the Faculty of Translation Studies, Linguistics and Cultural Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Germersheim. He noted, however, that his English skills were not good enough to be an interpreter. When his mother was diagnosed with lung cancer, he returned to the United States.
There he founded with Chris Pearson, the band The Czars, but had little commercial success and disbanded again after ten years and seven studio albums released.
Grant moved to New York, where he spent two years studying Russian Medical Interpreting at New York University and then started working as a hospital interpreter. In addition, he worked as a waitress at the renowned restaurant Gramercy Tavern.
2008, the members of the band Midlake invited him to her studio after a Denton, Texas, after hearing Grant sing live. He accepted the offer and took with their support his debut album Queen Of Denmark on. It was released on 19 April 2010 by the record label Bella Union. The album received great reviews and has been nominated by the music magazine Mojo the best album of the year 2010. The song " March " and " TC and Honeybear " were used in the film Weekend. In addition, Sinéad O'Connor coverte the song " Queen Of Denmark" on their album " How About I Be Me ( And You Be You )? ".
2011 Grant stepped on the Iceland Airwaves festival in Reykjavík, and during a later trip to Iceland, he learned Birgir Þórarinsson, aka Biggi Veira know, a member of the music project GusGus. He invited Grant in his studio in Reykjavik, where they recorded two songs. This convinced him to resume his second album, not as previously planned in Texas, with the support of Midlake, but together with Biggi Veira.
His second album " Pale Green Ghosts " was released on 11 March 2013. Moreover, he translated Ásgeir Traustis Icelandic album " Dýrð í dauðaþögn ", so that the English-language album "In the Silence " was released in October 2013. Grant also plays in the music video for " King and Cross", a track from the album with.
Personal
Grant is openly gay, but had especially in his childhood and youth problems in accepting his homosexuality because he grew up in a strict religious household. Many of his songs are about broken relationships and his problem to accept yourself.
He struggled for years with drug and alcohol addiction, but is now clean and sober.
In a live performance with the band Hercules and Love Affair at the Meltdown Festival 2012, Grant made publicly known that he is HIV -positive. This topic is also in his song " Ernest Borgnine ".
Grant is a polyglot. He talks including English, Russian, German, Spanish, French and Icelandic.
He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York City, but lived previously in Reykjavík to work on his second album.
Discography
Albums with The Czars
Solo
- 2010: Queen Of Denmark
- 2013: Pale Green Ghosts