Alexander Burke
Alexander Burke | |
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Born | 1983 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Education | Woodbridge High School, Columbia College Chicago, USC |
Alma mater | Columbia College Chicago, USC |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1997–present |
Labels |
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Website | alexanderburke |
Alexander Burke[1] (born 1983) is an American musician, songwriter, composer, music producer, television producer, writer and actor. From 2013 to 2016 he was the keyboard player for the band Save Ferris.
Early life
Alexander was born in Los Angeles and grew up in
Career
After graduating from Columbia College Alexander moved back to Los Angeles, where he studied at the University of Southern California’s film-scoring post-baccalaureate program. After graduation, he quickly found work in television (being hired as part of the house band for the television pilot for Robert Townsend’s talk show “Night of Townsend” on TBS) where he met Eban Schletter (the composer of “Sponge Bob Square Pants”) and Grant-Lee Phillips (who was also part of the house band) and that relationship led to Alexander playing in Phillips' band. These relationships lead to Alexander and Eban being asked to perform with, and open, for Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields' band Dead Man’s Bones. During this time, Alexander became friends with Monique Powell (the lead singer of the band Save Ferris) through his neighbor Abby Travis (the bass player for The Bangles) and ended up playing on records for both of them and later joining the band Save Ferris. Alexander was a member of Save Ferris when they opened for Gwen Stefani at Irvine Meadows[4] and for Mexico City's infamous Ska Festival.[5]
He has also done behind-the-scenes music work, such as being the
He co-wrote the songs "Back to the Start" for the Iron Man 3 soundtrack,[7] the song "Love You Like This" for the Jason Bateman movie The Gift, the song "Undercover" for the TV series New Girl, the theme song for the Broadway Video series 7 Minutes in Heaven, and the score for the 2017 documentary film Haunters: The Art of the Scare (as well as serving as its music supervisor).
He played keyboards on
Alexander is also an actor, improv coach with Killian Mchugh's Commercial Improv Class
Currently, Alexander is busy with his band Magnolia Memoir,[13] which he writes for and plays the keyboards along with Mela Lee who is the lead singer and co-writer. The video for their single “Odds and Ends” (from the album Pale Fire) has celebrity cameos from Will Forte, Doris Roberts, Fred Willard and Jorge Garcia. Magnolia Memoir has released four albums so far. Alexander is also scoring the Netflix TV series A Mortified Guide, composed two songs for the Sharon Stone film As I Wish and is co-writing (with children's book author Richard Fairgray) a children's book and animated short titled Sweet Penny and the Lion (with music for the short performed by Jill Sobule). He also played on and engineered Sobule's 2018 album Nostalgia Kills.
Burke's musical inspirations include Jon Brion, T. Bone Burnett, and Jonny Greenwood.
References
- ^ "Alexander Burke". AllMusic. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
- ^ Burke, Jonathan. "President - Laguna College of Art and Design". Laguna College of Art and Design. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
- ^ Bell, Drake. "Drake Bell on the Amanda Show". youtube.com. google. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
- ^ Stefani, Gwen (November 2016). "Gwen Stefani w/ You the Giant and Save Ferris". OC Register. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
- ^ Powell, Monique. "Save Ferris at Mexico City Ska Fest 2016". setlist.fm. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
- ^ Lee, Ben. "Ben Lee "Freedom"". discogs.com. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
- ^ Burke, Alex. "Back to the Start from Iron Man 3 soundtrack". youtube. google. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
- ^ Pierson, Kate (17 February 2015). "Guitars and Michrophones". Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone Magazine. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
- ^ Cyrus, Billy Ray. "Change my Mind". discogs. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
- ^ Warwick, Dionne. "Feels So Good album". All Music.
- ^ "Bublé Xmas Special 2017". NBC.com. NBC.
- ^ McHugh, Killian. "Killian McHugh's Commercial Improv Class". Killian's Workshop.
- ^ Lee, Mela. "Magnolia Memoir band". Magnolia Memoir.
External links
- Official website
- Alexander Burke at IMDb