Alexander John "Xander" Turian (born June 6, 1991) is a Swedish rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and entrepreneur who is the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter and founder of Swedish rock band Our Untold Story. Along side his music career he has worked on several side projects ranging from co-founding a Communication and leadership coaching firm together with his father, John Hillstierna as well as starting his own investment firm XJT Invest which acts as a holding company to his music based ventures: XJT Music, Our Untold Story, Local Band Stuff.com (Turian&Bennour) and Cuprite Productions.

Early Life

Xander's parents met in the late 1980's in Stockholm, Sweden. They spent the first three years of his life living in the capitol city before his parents had a falling out and his mother took him back to England, where she was originally from.

Xander grew up in England in a small village outside of Milton Keynes. According to his teachers throughout the years, he was a very bright child, but did not seem to be able to focus properly in class, often disrupting the other children. This rebellious behaviour continued throughout Xander's childhood and increased through his teen years, getting him into several bouts of trouble.

At age eleven, in much need of his father to take the role as his primary male role model, Turian chose to leave his mother to go and live with him in Sweden. When he started high school he rediscovered his passion for music that had always dwindled in the back of his mind having come from two very musically talented parents. He took up playing the guitar again after not having played since his early classical lessons at the age of eight. Strumming on his half size classical Spanish acoustic guitar, he taught himself the basic chord structures and scales needed to play cover songs of his favourite bands. It was during these years that Xander also met friend and current OUS drummer, Oscar Magnuson.

Xander and Oscar started skate punk band The Upkeeps together with friends Jesse and Bixi on guitar and keyboard.

At the age of sixteen Xander left Sweden to return to England in the hope of re finding his passion for knowledge after so many years of mischief. He enrolled himself in Sixth form at Sharnbrook Upper School in Bedfordshire, took a triple B-tec National Diploma in Media Studies and A-levels in Music Tech and Business Studies. While attending Sharnbrook Turian played in several bands in an attempt to find his place and sound. These ranged from playing drums in metal band Stain of red to being the front man and lead singer for pop punk band Two sided story together with drummer Toby Leonard (of Forever can wait) which later became Kids Picked Last.

Xander finally moved back to Stockholm again when he was eighteen to do his military service (lumpen). When his service was complete he moved in to a flat in the southern outskirts of the city and regained contact with old friend Oscar. Together with Oscar on drums, Johan Weidenhaijn on bass guitar and Mamud Miyan playing lead guitar Xander started the band that he had been dreaming of his entire life. Our Untold Story was a project he had kept in his mind since the early days of rocking out in front of the mirror imagining he was in a filled arena playing for thousands of people. Xander had several songs written and ready to be turned into rock'n'roll masterpieces and had finally found himself amidst the perfect combination of musicians to do so.

"For me, it was a dream come true to have a group of such talented musicians around me, you know- I just want to play man, I love music. Music is my passion. And the feeling of exhilaration, the adrenaline that kicks in when I'm on stage is better than any drug I've ever taken. That natural high for me beats everything."

Career

Instruments

Xander has always played several instruments since a very young age. For his first birthday he received a child sized snare drum and a harmonica which he used to play every day. When Xander was eight he started taking guitar lessons and was given his first nylon string guitar. His first electric guitar was an Sigma Les Paul copy from the mid 70's which he saved up and purchased from his father and still uses during live shows and recording with Our Untold Story. His guitar arsenal also includes; a Les Paul copy made by Pearl, a red steel-string Landola country western original with the humming bird pick guard, a classic Yamaha nylon string acoustic and a pink and black bass guitar of unknown origin. Xander has also owned several drum kits of various brands and has an old piano that he inherited that he keeps in his living room.

He plays several other instruments and has been known to jump between instruments during band rehearsals.

"I feel that having an understanding for how each instrument within a band works helps to expand on your own creativity when writing songs and communicating with the other players".

Other media appearances

Ethan (film, 2013) - Soundtrack - Our Untold Story "Rosy", Xander Turian/Wade Radford "3am Boy"
Who the Hell are Our Untold Story!? (film, 2014) - Himself

References

External links

Our Untold Story official band website
Personal website
Xander J Turian fan page on Facebook
Xander Turian on Twitter
Xander Turian at the Internet Movie Data Base

Xanderturian