Gregg alexander interview lost stars

“Lost Stars,” a rousing song featured prominently in John Carney‘s music-centric indie Begin Again — my favorite film of 2014 — is one of the most talked about songs of the past year: In addition to cracking into the lists of iTunes’ top 10 most downloaded songs and Billboard‘s hot 100, it landed a best original song Critics’ Choice nomination and may well be on its way to an Oscar nom, as well.

But the people who performed the song in the film (Adam Levine and Keira Knightley) and on NBC’s The Voice (Levine and Matt McAndrew), while supremely gifted, did not actually write the song and are therefore not eligible to be nominated for it.

That people who did and are are Danielle Brisebois, Nick Lashley, Nick Southwood — and Grammy-winner Gregg Alexander, the reclusive former fr