Alec Ounsworth (born December 1, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and frontman of

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (sometimes abbreviated to CYHSY) is the musical project of American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Alec Ounsworth, active since the early 2000s in and out of Philadelphia. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah have rel ...

. He is also a member of The Pelican Picnic and Flashy Python. His first solo album, '' Mo Beauty'' was released October 20, 2009, on

Anti- Records Anti- is an American record label founded in 1999 as a sister label to Epitaph Records. While Epitaph's focus has mostly been on punk rock, Anti-'s roster includes gospel (Mavis Staples), country (Merle Haggard), hip hop (Sage Francis, The Cou ...

History

Ounsworth was born in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

and grew up in

Mount Airy, Philadelphia Mount Airy is a neighborhood of Northwest Philadelphia in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. __TOC__ Geography Mount Airy is bounded on the northwest by the Cresheim Valley, which is part of Fairmount Park. Beyond this lies Chestnut Hill. On t ...

. Around his mid-teens, he started writing and recording music — a hobby that would stay near to him throughout his academic career at

Connecticut College Connecticut College (Conn College or Conn) is a private liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut. It is a residential, four-year undergraduate institution with nearly all of its approximately 1,815 students living on campus. The college w ...

. In college, he shared a dorm room with

Lee Sargent Lee Sargent is the former guitarist/backup vocalist for the indie rock band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. He attended college at Connecticut College along with the other members of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. He is also the twin brother of CYHSY bassis ...

during their first year. They would both graduate in 2000. Sargent, who had a special interest in Ounsworth's songs, contacted him in 2004 via

Friendster Friendster was a social network game based in Mountain View, California, founded by Jonathan Abrams and launched in March 2003.Eric Eldon, August 4, 2008.Friendster raises $20 million, nabs a Googler to be CEO VentureBeat. Retrieved December 4, 2 ...

about starting a band. After several contacts, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah was formed, and the band started playing live shows and recording demos. Prior to the success of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Ounsworth released several home demos of his work onto the internet, many of them being early versions of songs that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah would record. All ties between him and the files have been severed, as both flashypython.com and his MySpace page have been deleted. The files are still distributed among fans over the Internet.

Musical equipment

Ounsworth's collection of guitars includes two

Fender Telecaster The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it is the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful Les Paul had built a prototype solid bo ...

s, a

Fender Stratocaster The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed from 1952 into 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuously ...

, a

Gibson Hummingbird The Gibson Hummingbird is an acoustic guitar model/series produced by the Gibson Guitar Corporation. Unlike the other flat-top Gibson acoustics, the Hummingbird was Gibson's first square-shoulder dreadnought, similar to the dreadnoughts produce ...

, and a

Gibson SG The Gibson SG is a solid-body electric guitar model introduced by Gibson in 1961 as the Gibson Les Paul SG. It remains in production today in many variations of the initial design. The SG (where "SG" refers to Solid-Body Guitar) Standard is Gib ...

. He also has at least four acoustic guitars, two of which are made by Gibson. On April 4, 2007, he sported a Gibson

Flying V The Gibson Flying V is an electric guitar model introduced by Gibson in 1958. The Flying V offered a radical, "futuristic" body design, much like its siblings: the Explorer, which was released the same year, and the Moderne, which was designed ...

guitar on Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's appearance on ''

Late Night with Conan O'Brien ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien. NBC aired 2,725 episodes from September 13, 1993, to February 20, 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and music ...

''. He employs the

Vox AC30 The Vox AC30 is a guitar amplifier manufactured by Vox. It was introduced in 1958 to meet the growing demand for louder amplifiers. Characterised by its "jangly" high-end sound it has become widely recognized by British musicians and others, su ...

amp to produce the sound he desires. On his tours with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, he has played through a 4x10 Fender Hot Rod DeVille.

Personal life

On January 12, 2007, Ounsworth married Emily Jean Stock, who is the inspiration behind the song of the same name on the album '' Some Loud Thunder.'' In 2008, they had a daughter, Rosemary.

Discography

Solo albums

*2009: '' Mo Beauty''

with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

*2005: ''

'' *2007: '' Some Loud Thunder'' *2007: '' Live at Lollapalooza 2007: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah'' *2011: '' Hysterical'' *2014: Only Run *2017: The Tourist *2021: New Fragility

with Flashy Python

*2009: '' Skin and Bones''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ounsworth, Alec 1977 births Living people American folk guitarists American male guitarists American folk singers American rock guitarists American male singer-songwriters American rock singers American rock songwriters Connecticut College alumni Chestnut Hill Academy alumni Singer-songwriters from Pennsylvania Guitarists from Philadelphia 21st-century American singers 21st-century American guitarists 21st-century American male singers Anti- (record label) artists