Ezra Koenig

Ezra Koenig came to fame as the frontman of New York's Vampire Weekend, among the most well-bred and respectable of indie-rock bands. Koenig was born in New York to an upper-class family; he grew up on the Upper West Side before moving to New Jersey and attending the respected Glen Ridge High School. Here he first met Wes Miles, who'd become a longtime friend and musical collaborator. Koenig and Miles both went on to Columbia University with Koenig majoring in English literature. The two formed their first band together, the Sophisticuffs, before Miles went onto form Ra Ra Riot. Koenig fell in with the Dirty Projectors and toured briefly with them before starting his own band in 2006. Vampire Weekend was named after a film that Koenig made in freshman year, about Cape Cod residents who flee their town when vampires arrive; a song that originated in the movie, "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa," became one of the hits from the band's self-titled 2008 debut. It also led the band to become widely pegged as a prep-school take on world music. Their success would only grow over time; the sophomore album Contra (a loosely conceptual disc inspired by the situation in Nicaragua) debuted at Number One and went multi-platinum; 2013's Modern Vampires of the City repeated both those accomplishments and won a Grammy for Best Alternative Album. They also got the honor in 2012 of being named as one of the artists on Barack Obama's iPod. Vampire Weekend's fourth album is due for release at the end of 2018. Koenig began branching out with the launch of his radio show, Time Crisis with Ezra Koenig, which debuted on Apple Music's Beats 1 during July 2015; guests ranged from Alanis Morissette to Frito-Lay vice president Jennifer Saenz. Returning to his filmmaking roots, he also created an anime series "Neo Yokio" for Netflix; though praised for its surreal humor, the series was one of Koenig's few ventures that was not an immediate hit. More successful was his musical work outside the band; he appeared at the Oscars with Karen O. to play guitar on her nominated song "The Moon Song" and in 2016 he cowrote and coproduced the track "Hold Up" for Beyonce's smash album Lemonade. He also took time out that year to play a number of benefits for Bernie Sanders' campaign.