Alex Ebert

Alex Ebert is an American singer-songwriter. He is best known for being the lead singer and songwriter for the American bands Ima Robot and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Ebert was born in Los Angeles in 1978, the son of Michael Ebert, a psychotherapist and musicologist. His mother is an actress. His father would often take the family on long car trips through the desert. On one such trip, his mother shot footage of his father chanting in the desert, cradling Alex's baby sister Gabi, which would one day become a part of the video for the Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros song "Desert Song". His full birth name was "Alexander Michael Tahquitz Ebert". His father took one of his son's names, Tahquitz, from his favorite climbing rock. Alex later on discovered that the name means "demon" in a Native American language. His father has been a lifelong ambassador of music and influenced young Alexander by playing him such things as Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash. He also cites 60's R&B, Pavarotti, and Beethoven as influences, as well as his elementary school teacher, a woman from South Africa named Ruth. As a teenager he had a difficult and tumultuous relationship with his father. He enjoyed listening to hip-hop as a teenager, and originally intended to be a rapper.