John Grant

Born in 1968 in Buchanan, Michigan, and raised in Parker, Colorado, John Grant is a polyglot: in addition to English, he speaks fluent German, Russian, Spanish and Icelandic. In 1988 he moved to Germany to study languages. In 1994 he co-founded the Czars in Denver with Chris Pearson, an alternative rock band with which he released six albums in all, later arriving at Bella Union, the label co-founded by Simon Raymonde and Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins. When the band split in 2006, Grant left music behind.

For four years he worked in New York as a waiter at the Gramercy Tavern, a medical interpreter for Russian-speaking patients in hospital, a record-store clerk and a flight attendant. Those years were marked by struggles with alcohol, drugs and chronic anxiety. He kept writing songs, without any concrete prospects. A chance encounter with Midlake, the Texas folk-rock band, convinced him to return to the studio.

In 2010 Queen of Denmark was released by Bella Union, produced with Midlake: Mojo named it album of the year. In 2012, during a concert with Hercules and Love Affair at London’s Meltdown festival, Grant publicly revealed for the first time that he was HIV-positive. It was a moment that changed the perception of his work: the confessional frankness of the lyrics acquired a different weight.

His encounter with Birgir Þórarinsson of GusGus took Grant to Iceland, where he settled in 2013 and obtained citizenship in 2022. His second album, Pale Green Ghosts (2013), marked the shift towards electronics. From then on, each record moved the axis slightly: Grey Tickles, Black Pressure (2015), Love Is Magic (2018), Boy from Michigan (2021), through to The Art of the Lie, his sixth solo album, released in June 2024. Grant is one of the rare songwriters able to hold irony and confession inside the same song, with a baritone timbre that gives body to every word.