Alex Lloyd

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the British racing driver, see Alex Lloyd (racing driver).

Alex Lloyd (born Alex Wasiliev in Sydney, November 1974) is an Australian singer-songwriter. His most popular album Watching Angels Mend released in 2001 went double platinum and his third album Distant Light released in 2003 has featured three songs that have made the Australian top 40 singles charts. He has also won two ARIA awards for "Male Artist of the Year" in 2000 and 2002.

Contents

[edit] Early years

Lloyd was born with the surname Wasiliev in Sydney and adopted the surname Lloyd after his mother's maiden name in tribute to her following her death.

Lloyd grew up in the inner Sydney suburb of Balmain, where he attended a local high school. He began his career at age 13, playing at local pubs with self-formed blues band The Beefs, and left school at age 16 to front local indie rock band Mother Hubbard.

[edit] Solo career

His solo career began in 1997 when he started writing songs for his debut solo album Black The Sun and spent time at a songwriting clinic organised by Miles Copeland, former manager of The Police. Lloyd started producing the album in 1998 and finished the album with producer Ed Buller, a former member of the Psychedelic Furs, who had produced albums by Pulp and Suede.

Black The Sun won a great deal of critical acclaim with Triple J listeners voting it their album of the year. Lloyd won an ARIA award for "Best New Artist" in 1999 and his first award for "Best Male Artist" in 2000.

Lloyd's second album Watching Angels Mend went double platinum in Australia after its release in 2001. The second single "Amazing" proved to be a breakthrough for him, becoming his first top 40 single in Australia, being the top song on the Triple J Hottest 100 for 2001. It went to go to number one in New Zealand and be the most played track on Australian radio during 2002.

Two further top 40 singles in Australia followed in 2002 "Green" and "Everybody's Laughing". Lloyd went on to win his second ARIA award for "Best Male Artist" and was nominated in several other categories.

Lloyd's third album Distant Light was released in 2003. It featured Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey of Midnight Oil on several tracks. It was produced by Stuart Miller, who had also produced Watching Angels Mend and mixed by Tony Hoffer who has worked with Air, Beck and Turin Brakes.

Distant Light was also a success on the ARIA charts. Three singles charted from the album - "Coming Home" in August 2003, "1000 Miles" in November 2003 and "Beautiful" in April 2004. The album has been certified platinum in Australia.

In 2005, Lloyd released a new single, entitled "Never Meant To Fail", which reached the top 30 in Australia. This was released on October 25 in the album that featured his own name as the title. This has been nominated by critics as 'his best album yet' but no official recognition of this has yet been made. Singles which have been released from this album ("Never Meant To Fail", "The Wonder" and "Brand New Day") have had significant airplay on radio stations across Australia.

In 2006, Alex Lloyd performed in the grand finale of Dancing With The Stars, singing his breakthrough song, "Amazing". His performance in the show may have helped with sales of his album, as the album re-entered the albums chart a couple of weeks after the show. Alex Lloyd also released his greatest hits compilation, titled Amazing: The Best Of Alex Lloyd which covers all the singles from the four previous Alex Lloyd albums. The limited edition of the compilation features a second CD of B-sides and rarities.

[edit] Family life

In February 2003 Lloyd married Amelia, a biomedical science student. The couple live in Newtown with their son Jake, who was born in February 2004. On Monday, June 19, 2006, Alex and Amelia welcomed the arrival of a second baby boy, Isaac, weighing in at 4.2 kg (9 lbs., 4 oz.).

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] Singles

From Watching Angels Mend:

  • "Downtown" (2001) - #75 Australia
  • "Amazing" (2001) - #14 Australia, #1 New Zealand
  • "Everybody's Laughing" (2002) - #33 Australia
  • "Green" (2002)- #25 Australia

From Distant Light:

  • "Coming Home" (2003) - #24 Australia
  • "1000 Miles" (2003)- #32 Australia
  • "Beautiful" (2004)- #30 Australia

From Alex Lloyd:

  • "Never Meant to Fail" (2005)- #27 Australia
  • "The Wonder" (2006)
  • "Brand New Day" (2006)- #53 Australia

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../a/l/e/Alex_Lloyd_dbcf.html"