Alex Kapranos

Alex Kapranos’s Mind’s Construction

Name

Alex Kapranos

Character is destiny. You are fascinating enough to be questionnaired by The Mind’s Construction. Starting with where and when you were born, could you briefly describe your life up to this point?

Born: Almondsbury, England, late 20th century.

Greek father, English mother. Summers spent in Greece as a child. Moved to Scotland aged eight. Loathed team sports, loved reading and cycling. Asthmatic and allergic to peanuts. Started writing music in early teens.

Went to school in Sunderland, Edinburgh, then Glasgow. Generally disliked it. Studied Divinity at Aberdeen, then English literature at Strathclyde.

Have worked as a chef, barman, music promoter, driver, welder and lecturer. 

There is no progress. Yet time relentlessly pursues you in one direction or another. If you were plotting your life’s trajectory on a graph, what would the line look like?

An outline of the Loch Ness Monster.

Keep that line in mind. Describe the zenith. Relate the nadir.

Zenith. Not reached it yet.

Nadir. Four years ago; abandoned, jobless and homeless. 

Consciousness is a mere ripple on the surface of the lake that is our mind. Tell me last dream you can remember having.

A swashbuckling adventure, jumping thousands of feet between pillars, sword-fighting with Satan as a dashing, cunning, but sporting foe.

Truth is felt by instinct, a process which saves time and trouble. Choose – instinctively – from these:

Satisfied Fool or Dissatisfied Socrates?

Always dissatisfied.

Skimmed Milk or Full Fat?

Full Fat.

Boys or Girls?

Either.

Standing Up or Sitting Down?

Standing Up.

Mum or Dad?

Dad.

Bookmarks or Folded Corners?

Folded Corners.

(If you had to be) Blind or Deaf?

Blind.

Poetry or prose?

Poetry.

Atheist or Believer?

Atheist.

Does the mind rule the body or the body rule the mind?

I dunno.

Animal, Mineral or Plant?

Plant.

There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face. What are the differences between your external appearance and your internal make-up?

English looks, but Greek temperament.