Alexander Burnett (musician)

Attracted by guitar music and indie pop, Burnett formed his first band, The Spark, in 2004 with drummer David Hall.[2] After touring Australia for a year in 2006 the group signed to Ark Recordings in the UK and Ivy League records in Australia, and changed their name to Sparkadia.

Their debut album Postcards was recorded and produced by Ben Hillier (Blur, Depeche Mode) at Miloco Studios in London in 2007 and released in 2008. Nominated for Album of the Year in that year's J Awards, it achieved Gold sales in Australia. The hit single 'Jealousy' hit #79 in Triple J's Hottest 100. Sparkadia went on to tour internationally, playing at many of the European summer festivals including Glastonbury and T in the Park and opening for acts including Vampire Weekend, Death Cab for Cutie, Tegan and Sara, and Jimmy Eat World.[2] After an Australian tour in 2009 playing Big Day Out,[3] several of Alexander's Sparkadia bandmates went on to other projects.[4]

Alexander spent time in Berlin, Stockholm, New York City, and Los Angeles,[5] before moving to London in 2010. There he made the second Sparkadia album, The Great Impression, as a solo project, playing all the instruments, with Mark "Tieks" Tieku (Florence and the Machine) co-producing. Inspirations for the record ranged from Berlin-era David Bowie and Roy Orbison to Javanese Gamelan.[6] The album debuted at #8 on the ARIA charts[7] and placed in the top 50 for the following year,[8] also achieving Gold sales, with three singles placing in the Hottest 100. The single 'China' was a finalist in the 2011 Vanda and Young Songwriting Competition.[9] His tour dates in 2011 with the new members of Sparkadia included Splendour in the Grass, which also featured Coldplay and Kanye West.[10]

In 2011, Burnett went co-wrote "2 Hearts" on Digitalism's 2011 album I Love You, Dude.[11] The same year he co-wrote and produced the lead single 'Act Yr Age' on Bluejuice's album Company.[12] The following year he worked again with Bluejuice on their single 'SOS'[13] and co-wrote Hudson Taylor's breakthrough single 'Battles'.

In 2014 he co-wrote and produced George Maple's breakthrough hit 'Talk Talk'.[14] This was reworked by DJ Snake and released in 2016 as 'Talk', which hit #13 on Billboard's hot dance/electronic chart in the US. He also co-wrote Bluejuice's final single 'I'll Go Crazy'[15] and was a writer on Bliss n Eso's gold single 'Act Your Age,' which won APRA's 2014 Urban Work of the Year award.[16]

In 2015 he co-wrote Hayden James' 'Something About You' which hit No. 44 on Triple J's Hottest 100. He also wrote three tracks for Alison Wonderland as well as singles by Flight Facilities and Motez. In November of that year he was among the speakers at the Electronic Music Conference, along with Flume and Porter Robinson.[17] In 2016 he wrote with Japanese Wallpaper on 'Cocoon',[18] Hayden James' 'Just a Lover',[19] The Kaiser Chiefs' return single 'Hole in My Soul', and other songs with Joy, Paces, and Nicole Millar. 2017 saw collaborations with Rationale, Grades, Tieks with Chaka Khan, LDRU, BETSY, and Dan Sultan [20] on his album Killer.

At the start of 2018 he co-wrote and produced "Clumsy Love" from Gamilaraay singer-songwriter Thelma Plum's first release since 2014[21][22] The same year, his co-write with Dan Sultan, 'Hold It Together', received an APRA Song of the Year nomination.[23] He accumulated further writing and producing credits in 2018, with Elderbrook, Jack River, Mansionair, Graace, Japanese Wallpaper, Yates, and Muto.

Full article & discography at Antony & Cleopatra.

2014: Formation

Antony & Cleopatra
Antony & Cleopatra in Dalston, East London, 2018
Background information
Associated acts	Alexander Burnett Anita Blay Sparkadia Motez Riton Kah-lo Lancelot Jaded Black Caviar Jax Jones Tieks Nicky Night Time Moonboots James Hype Dreamtrak
Website	antonyandcleo.com

Producer and collaborator Mark-Anthony Tieku (AKA "Tieks") introduced Burnett and Anita Blay (AKA CocknBullKid) during a pop songwriting session in 2014.

Burnett and Blay subsequently formed a deep house duo called Antony & Cleopatra. They soon featured on three singles in 2014: Lancelot's "Givin' It Up", Beni's "Protect", and Sammy Bananas' "Money Time".[24][25][26]

Alexander has said that being brought on to write for Digitalism around 2011 was part of his motivation both as a songwriter and as an artist to transition away from Sparkadia and towards electronic music,[27] also citing "falling a bit out of love with the guitar".[28]

• Official Alexander Burnett website
• Alexander Burnett instagram
• Official Sparkadia website
• Official Antony & Cleopatra website