| Alexander Wolfe | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Alexander Gordon de Menthon |
| Also known as | Alexander Wolfe |
| Born | 24 December 1981 |
| Origin | Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK |
| Occupations | Songwriter, Singer, musician |
| Years active | 2009–present |
Alexander Wolfe is an English singer-songwriter and musician.
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Alexander Wolfe (born 24 December 1981 in Cambridge, United Kingdom) is a musician and songwriter. Born Alexander Gordon de Menthon in Cambridge, he moved to London as a child. His parents are Anne de Menthon & James Louis Gordon. On his mothers side he has a Canadian grandmother called Betty Wolfe and a French Grandfather called Count Henri de Menthon. The de Menthon family are one of the oldest families in Europe dating back to the Knights of Charlamagne. among their numbers is Saint Bernard de Menthon who was made a saint for rescuing lost travellers from the alps with the help of his dogs who went on to inherited his name. Betty & Henri met during his military service & they began a relationship which bore 3 children. When the relationship ended Betty moved with the children to England. In 1997 Alexander's Grandfather Henri died and in his will he left Alexander a Rembrant lithograph which Alexander later sold to fund the making of his debut album and the beginning of his musical career.
Alexander attended Plumcroft Primary School in Plumstead followed by Crown Woods Secondary School in Eltham both in South East London. In his teenage years he began writing songs & experimenting with bands. Upon leaving school Alexander formed his 1st band proper 'Taxi' with Jamie Cullum after a chance encounter in a guitar shop on London's Denmark St. The band enjoyed mild live success and toured with Paul Weller before finally imploding in the summer of 2002 due, partly, to Jamie's pending solo deal with Universal & partly due to musical differences. During this time Alexander's Grandmother Betty died. He took her maiden name as his own and decided to pursue a solo career, he began writing the songs that would go on to form his debut solo album.
Alexander Wolfe's debut album 'Morning Brings a Flood' was originally intended to be an acoustic collection of songs what began life as some simple recordings, evolved into a dense, sprawling, internally-driven piece of work. He sold a Rembrant Lithograph left to him by his Grandfather to fund the making of the album. He bought a portable home recording studio set up (a mic, a laptop etc.) enabling him to record anywhere. Determined to make the record he had in his head, Alex took a completely DIY approach and shut himself away in various lofts, bedrooms and studios around London and Buckinghamshire, where he played all of the instruments (bar the drums, the strings & the horns) and took a self-taught crash course in recording and production. The result is an utterly personal, direct musical insight into the world of Alexander Wolfe. Flitting between the intimate and the lonely to the upbeat and majestic, the 11 songs on this record are about the trappings of the human mind - the high and lows, the dark and light, empathy, panic attacks and paranoia, experiences of love and loss, all wrapped in charming lyrical metaphors and sweeping musical drama.
The bones of 'Morning Brings a Flood' was recorded in Wheeler End Studios in Buckinghamshire, UK. The "home" studio owned by Noel Gallagher of Rock band Oasis. All the instruments were played by Alexander except the drums, which were played by Steve Pilgrim (Paul Weller, formally The Stands), and the strings and horns. Alexander chose to adorn the album with extras in the shape of videos and artwork. He created the charming stop frame animation video for 'Teabags in Ashtrays' in his loft and followed that with the 7 minute album closer 'Stuck Under September' as a short film. The film stars Emilia Fox as the moon, and was premiered at the National Portrait Gallery in September 2010 The album artwork came from a chance visit to Goldsmiths Art School (100 yards from Wolfe's front door), where he fell in love with a painting called 'The Future; Stage 1' by Shaan Syed.
Since its release in March 2010 'Morning Brings a Flood' has garnered significant critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. The New York Post called it "the most beautiful album heard in years. Period" as well as 4 star reviews in Q magazine & Uncut which described the album as "An object lesson in how to wring out every last drop of emotion". The Sunday Times simply declared it "A beautiful album". 'Song For the Dead' was used as the opening & closing music for BBC 2 sitcom Whites starring Alan Davies as the executive chef at a country house hotel. The album was released on Dharma Records in March 2010. It was preceded by the double A-side single 'Till Your Ship Comes In/Teabags In Ashtrays' which was released in November 2009. 'Song For The Dead' was released as a single in May 2010. 'Breakdown EP' was released in July 2010.
Whites (TV series) is a BBC sitcom, written by Oliver Lansley and Matt King, and starring Alan Davies as the executive chef at a country house hotel. BBC 2 gave the go ahead for the show to go into production in August 2009 with the first episode airing in September 2010. The opening and closing music is "Song for the Dead" written and performed by Alexander Wolfe.