Biography
Edinburgh native Alex Gardner emerged with a striking combination of intense features, dance-pop production and deep, soulful singing that prompted comparisons to a teenage George Michael. Born in 1991, the singer-songwriter was raised in a household steeped in music, his mother working as a violinist while his brother performed in a heavy metal group. At ten he started composing his own material and quickly mastered piano, guitar, drums, clarinet and saxophone. A short-lived teenage modeling career that included shoots for Vogue Homme preceded his relocation to London in pursuit of a recording deal. An audition that caught the ear of Brian Higgins, the hitmaker behind Girls Aloud’s chart successes, earned Gardner an invitation to cut tracks at Higgins’s Xenomania studios. Following his signing to Universal/A&M Records he joined Paolo Nutini, Scouting For Girls and Pixie Lott on their respective UK tours and issued his debut single, “I’m Not Mad,” which climbed to No. 44 in 2010.