Alex Greenwald primer!
Today, I am going to tell you a little bit about Alex Greenwald. At the end of the post I'll put links to the main places I found information, because I know some people are curious about sources.
Alex is 29 years old. He was born on October 9th, 1979, in Los Angeles, California.
His mother was a guitar teacher, and she was always heavily involved in music. He remembers her building a harpsichord from a kit and wondering why, instead of giving him attention, she was always doing things like that. She taught him how to play guitar, and he soon started to become more interested in music than in anything else.
Around 13, he and four friends created the band you're probably familiar with - Phantom Planet. Back then, the band was made up of Alex Greenwald, Sam Farrar, Darren Robinson, Jason Schwartzman, and Jacques Brautbar. The line-up has changed a little over the years - in the summer of 2003, Jason Schwartzman (who was the drummer) left the band to pursue acting full-time. According to Alex, "He wanted to be creative in other ways than just music, which was fine."
Jason left while the band was recording their self-titled third album, and was replaced by Jeff Conrad. Jacques Brautbar also left the band in May of 2004 to pursue photography. He was not replaced.
Phantom Planet has 4 officially released albums: Phantom Planet Is Missing (1998), The Guest (2002), Phantom Planet (2004), and Raise The Dead (2008). "So I Fall Again" from Phantom Planet Is Missing made it onto the "Sabrina The Teenage Witch" soundtrack, and I'm sure everyone knows that "California" from The Guest was the theme song for the popular show "The O.C.".
When asked if the band got more recognition after "California" being on such a popular TV show, Alex replied that they asked specifically not to be credited for the song.
I asked for us not to be credited on the titles. I just think "California" is an old version of Phantom Planet. So it's sort of not really our song anymore. I was just sort of giving an old pair of pants away to a friend that needed them.
Unfortunately, on November 25th, 2008, Phantom Planet announced that they would be playing their last show on December 12th, 2008, at the Troubador in LA (the venue they played their very first all-ages show at back in 1994). The band has reiterated several times in several different places that they are NOT broken up - this is just an indefinite hiatus for them to pursue other interests. There is a Flickr set here with some photos from that last show, I'll just post that instead of re-posting every photo in it. ;)
Instead, have a few random pictures of Phantom Planet/Alex:
He performs in pools.
And this is fantastic: Phantom Planet will go to the homes of fans to put on an acoustic show for them. Only the best kinds of bands (and people) will give another entire show for free after they have given a show for pay. This post gives you a little more on that, plus some videos.
He's kind of a hipster, really.
He is also sometimes gorgeous. His glasses though...
His little thumbs up, ugh D:
While Phantom Planet (up until recently, of course) was Alex's main claim to fame, he had a few other projects on the side during the course of the band. One such project was blackblack, the band he started with then-girlfriend Diva Dompe and her sister Lola Dompe.
In blackblack, Alex adopted a psuedonym, if you will: Clark Schadelkopf. In German, the obscure last name means "skullhead" - this name fits nicely with Alex's YouTube channel name, skullheadandclark.
blackblack was known mostly for their outrageous stage costumes and outfits - this was for a music video for the song Sophia. I don't think Alex is in the video, but...really. They are neon butterfly worshippers or something.
One show they did in particular created a bit of a controversy - Alex, Diva and Lola dressed up as "shadows", but a few members of the audience believed this to be "blackface" and found it offensive. The band was defensive about this, and the very next night dressed up in all-white paint instead of all-black paint - this may or may not have made the situation worse. Overall, though, blackblack has been a pretty low-key band without much recognition outside of LA (and Japan).
They also covered themselves in fake blood.
Diva and Alex are also kind of cute.
The band was started in 2004, and (according to wiki, I have no confirmation) Alex left in 2007.
Alex has also recorded with Mark Ronson (and, according to his Twitter, is working with him again) on a cover of "Just" by Radiohead.
This is a live performance of "Just" at the Glastonbury festival in 2007, along with "California". Alex is like a monkey. And this (embedding is disabled) is the making of the video for "Just".
Alex is also working with Ryan Ross and Jon Walker on the debut record for their new band, The Young Veins. He plays the guitar solo in their song "Change" and is producing the record.
Along with The Young Veins, Alex has helped produce songs with The Like - which leads me to JJAMZ.
JJAMZ is made up of James Valentine (Maroon 5), Jason Boesel (Rilo Kiley/Conor Oberst), Alex Greenwald (Phantom Planet), Michael Runion (solo), and Z Berg (The Like). The name of their band comes from the letters of their first names, and they created the band as sort of an escape from their own individual bands. The vocals are split primarily between Alex and Z, and the band is something of a supergroup - all the members have been friends for years, and came together during a karaoke night.
"Get What You Want" by JJAMZ - this was the song that Ryan Ross posted on his former band's since-purged webblog, We're So Blogging.
Alex has also been a model and an actor, briefly. He modeled in several commercials for Gap, such as this one:
He also played bully Seth Devlin in the 2001 movie Donnie Darko, alongside Seth Rogen and star Jake Gyllenhaal:
This video contains ~spoilers though, in case you haven't seen the movie.
Alex is also a vegan! He was a vegetarian throughout childhood and his girlfriend in college dared him to go vegan in exchange for her to quit smoking - he won, and has stayed vegan ever since. And if you have no other reason to watch the video, Alex takes his shirt off a few seconds in. ;)
I'm sure some people are also interested in his love life, so I'll go ~briefly into that: Alex dated not-really-famous model Kelly McKee in 2001-2002, and then got together with Kirsten Dunst - that ended the same year. As I said somewhere up there, he dated and was in a band with Diva Dompe from 2004 to (maybe) 2007.
More recently, he dated model Agyness Deyn. Apparently they're not together anymore, but have remained friends:
Alex and Agyness with Ryan Ross, Alex's newest ladyfriend. Okay I'm just kidding, but really.
In conclusion: Alex is a busy little man and he is ridiculous.
And he is a pretty princess. With fishnets.
THE END
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Alex is 29 years old. He was born on October 9th, 1979, in Los Angeles, California.
His mother was a guitar teacher, and she was always heavily involved in music. He remembers her building a harpsichord from a kit and wondering why, instead of giving him attention, she was always doing things like that. She taught him how to play guitar, and he soon started to become more interested in music than in anything else.
Around 13, he and four friends created the band you're probably familiar with - Phantom Planet. Back then, the band was made up of Alex Greenwald, Sam Farrar, Darren Robinson, Jason Schwartzman, and Jacques Brautbar. The line-up has changed a little over the years - in the summer of 2003, Jason Schwartzman (who was the drummer) left the band to pursue acting full-time. According to Alex, "He wanted to be creative in other ways than just music, which was fine."
Jason left while the band was recording their self-titled third album, and was replaced by Jeff Conrad. Jacques Brautbar also left the band in May of 2004 to pursue photography. He was not replaced.
Phantom Planet has 4 officially released albums: Phantom Planet Is Missing (1998), The Guest (2002), Phantom Planet (2004), and Raise The Dead (2008). "So I Fall Again" from Phantom Planet Is Missing made it onto the "Sabrina The Teenage Witch" soundtrack, and I'm sure everyone knows that "California" from The Guest was the theme song for the popular show "The O.C.".
When asked if the band got more recognition after "California" being on such a popular TV show, Alex replied that they asked specifically not to be credited for the song.
I asked for us not to be credited on the titles. I just think "California" is an old version of Phantom Planet. So it's sort of not really our song anymore. I was just sort of giving an old pair of pants away to a friend that needed them.
Unfortunately, on November 25th, 2008, Phantom Planet announced that they would be playing their last show on December 12th, 2008, at the Troubador in LA (the venue they played their very first all-ages show at back in 1994). The band has reiterated several times in several different places that they are NOT broken up - this is just an indefinite hiatus for them to pursue other interests. There is a Flickr set here with some photos from that last show, I'll just post that instead of re-posting every photo in it. ;)
Instead, have a few random pictures of Phantom Planet/Alex:
He performs in pools.
And this is fantastic: Phantom Planet will go to the homes of fans to put on an acoustic show for them. Only the best kinds of bands (and people) will give another entire show for free after they have given a show for pay. This post gives you a little more on that, plus some videos.
He's kind of a hipster, really.
He is also sometimes gorgeous. His glasses though...
His little thumbs up, ugh D:
While Phantom Planet (up until recently, of course) was Alex's main claim to fame, he had a few other projects on the side during the course of the band. One such project was blackblack, the band he started with then-girlfriend Diva Dompe and her sister Lola Dompe.
In blackblack, Alex adopted a psuedonym, if you will: Clark Schadelkopf. In German, the obscure last name means "skullhead" - this name fits nicely with Alex's YouTube channel name, skullheadandclark.
blackblack was known mostly for their outrageous stage costumes and outfits - this was for a music video for the song Sophia. I don't think Alex is in the video, but...really. They are neon butterfly worshippers or something.
One show they did in particular created a bit of a controversy - Alex, Diva and Lola dressed up as "shadows", but a few members of the audience believed this to be "blackface" and found it offensive. The band was defensive about this, and the very next night dressed up in all-white paint instead of all-black paint - this may or may not have made the situation worse. Overall, though, blackblack has been a pretty low-key band without much recognition outside of LA (and Japan).
They also covered themselves in fake blood.
Diva and Alex are also kind of cute.
The band was started in 2004, and (according to wiki, I have no confirmation) Alex left in 2007.
Alex has also recorded with Mark Ronson (and, according to his Twitter, is working with him again) on a cover of "Just" by Radiohead.
Click to viewThis is a live performance of "Just" at the Glastonbury festival in 2007, along with "California". Alex is like a monkey. And this (embedding is disabled) is the making of the video for "Just".
Alex is also working with Ryan Ross and Jon Walker on the debut record for their new band, The Young Veins. He plays the guitar solo in their song "Change" and is producing the record.
Along with The Young Veins, Alex has helped produce songs with The Like - which leads me to JJAMZ.
JJAMZ is made up of James Valentine (Maroon 5), Jason Boesel (Rilo Kiley/Conor Oberst), Alex Greenwald (Phantom Planet), Michael Runion (solo), and Z Berg (The Like). The name of their band comes from the letters of their first names, and they created the band as sort of an escape from their own individual bands. The vocals are split primarily between Alex and Z, and the band is something of a supergroup - all the members have been friends for years, and came together during a karaoke night.
"Get What You Want" by JJAMZ - this was the song that Ryan Ross posted on his former band's since-purged webblog, We're So Blogging.
Alex has also been a model and an actor, briefly. He modeled in several commercials for Gap, such as this one:
He also played bully Seth Devlin in the 2001 movie Donnie Darko, alongside Seth Rogen and star Jake Gyllenhaal:
This video contains ~spoilers though, in case you haven't seen the movie.
Alex is also a vegan! He was a vegetarian throughout childhood and his girlfriend in college dared him to go vegan in exchange for her to quit smoking - he won, and has stayed vegan ever since. And if you have no other reason to watch the video, Alex takes his shirt off a few seconds in. ;)
I'm sure some people are also interested in his love life, so I'll go ~briefly into that: Alex dated not-really-famous model Kelly McKee in 2001-2002, and then got together with Kirsten Dunst - that ended the same year. As I said somewhere up there, he dated and was in a band with Diva Dompe from 2004 to (maybe) 2007.
More recently, he dated model Agyness Deyn. Apparently they're not together anymore, but have remained friends:
Alex and Agyness with Ryan Ross, Alex's newest ladyfriend. Okay I'm just kidding, but really.
In conclusion: Alex is a busy little man and he is ridiculous.
And he is a pretty princess. With fishnets.
THE END
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8