Alexander Greenwald is an American musician, actor, and more recently a record producer. He is best known as the lead singer of the California rock band Phantom Planet.

Life and career

In 1994, Greenwald formed Phantom Planet in his teens with four friends - guitarist Darren Robinson, bassist Sam Farrar, guitarist Jacques Brautbar, and ex-band member Jason Schwartzman.

In 2006, he collaborated with DJ Mark Ronson, to cover the Radiohead song, "Just". The cover appears on the compilation album Exit Music: Songs with Radio Heads, as well as the Mark Ronson album, Version. He appeared with Ronson at the 2007 Glastonbury Festival where he climbed up on to the lighting rig of the John Peel stage during the performance of "Just", and also sang "California". In 2010, he collaborated once again with Ronson on the new album "Record Collection", on which Greenwald shares writing credit on six out of the eleven tracks. He recently became a part of Ronson's new band, The Business Intl. He was a member of another Los Angeles band, blackblack, until 2007. At live shows, he is known for 1980s styled dance moves, which he got from watching David Byrne of the Talking Heads.

His band Phantom Planet is best known for producing the song "California", which was used as the theme song of the teen drama The O.C., which lasted four seasons.

Greenwald is a vegan and has appeared in at least two ads for PETA. He once told PETA his reasons for going vegan: "In college I stopped eating red meat on a bet with my girlfriend at the time. She bet she could stop smoking, and I bet that I could stop eating red meat. She started smoking again, so I won, which I'm always proud of.…I had been a vegetarian as a child for whatever reason. I guess kids sometimes follow their instincts…My friend dared me to go vegan as I was reading this book Fast Food Nation, which opened my eyes to a lot of cruelties.…Ever since then, I've been vegan and enjoyed it daily."

Greenwald has co-produced and appeared on ex - Panic! At The Disco members, Ryan Ross and Jon Walker's new band, The Young Veins debut record, Take A Vacation!.

He has also produced a few tracks on the band The Like's new album.

He is part of the group Phases, signed to Warner Bros. Records.

Greenwald is in a relationship with Brie Larson. On January 10, 2016 at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards, she thanked him during her acceptance speech for Best Actress in a Drama. She did the same on February 28, 2016 at the 88th Academy Awards, where she won the Oscar for Best Actress.

JJAMZ

JJAMZ is a band composed of James Valentine (Maroon 5), Jason Boesel (Rilo Kiley/Conor Oberst), Greenwald, Michael Runion (solo), and Z Berg (The Like). The group was started at karaoke night at Guys in Hollywood. The band name is an acronym using the first letter of each member's name. The group was means of escape from each member's respective bands at a time when things seemed hectic for each member. "JJAMZ started at an interesting time in all of our lives. We all needed some kind of escape from relationships or our other bands. It was a tumultuous time, and the lyrics just came out. It was like word vomit. I can't remember," said Z Berg, lead vocalist for the Like, in one of their first interviews as a band. The band played their first concert at the Echo Plex on January 27, 2009. The band released their first album, Suicide Pact, on July 10, 2012. It was released on Dangerbird.

Phases

Followed Valentine's departure from JJAMZ, the band changed its name to Phases. Signed to Warner Bros. Records, Phases is composed of Z Berg, Jason Boesel, Greenwald and Michael Runion.

Mark Ronson & The Business International

Greenwald is the executive producer and one of the musicians in The Business International. He has also helped write many of the songs. He is one of the lead singers in the song 'The Night Last Night' on the album Record Collection. He can also be seen in the music video for "The Bike Song".

Cameos

In addition to the commercials for The Gap and his appearance in Donnie Darko, Greenwald appeared in two music videos for the electronica band M83 - "Don't Save Us From the Flames" and "Teen Angst", the video for Uffie's "ADD SUV" and also in videos for Mark Ronson, including the video for "Just".

Discography

Solo

• Yo (2014)

With PHASES

• For Life (2015)

With JJAMZ

• Suicide Pact (2012)

With Phantom Planet

Main article: Phantom Planet discography

• Phantom Planet Is Missing (1998)
• Polaroid (1998)
• The Guest (2002)
• Negatives (2004)
• Negatives 2 (2004)
• Phantom Planet (2004)
• Raise the Dead (2008)

With Blackblack

• Blackblack EP 1
• Blackblack EP 2
• BlackBlack (2006)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]