Alex Feder

Alexander David Feder, also known by his pseudonyms Leonard Friend and Still A Great Night, is an American-born guitarist and music producer, born on November 20, 1983. In 2024, he became the live stand-in for Brad Delson in Linkin Park's live shows.

Feder has launched multiple solo projects and was part of The XYZ Affair from 2002 to 2009. He became known as a touring musician, performing for the likes of Enrique Iglesias, Miley Cyrus, and LP.

Early Life

Alex Feder was raised in Potomac, Maryland, born just outside Washington, D.C. He attended the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, a small private school which didn't have a lot of music opportunities, but began developing his skills on his own, learning to play guitar and drums in middle school and high school. His love of music began early in life: "The realization that I wanted to be a musician forever hit me swiftly and profoundly at the age of 13. Specifically, I was performing with my cover band at the Bar Mitzvah of a good friend, and as we ripped through the second chorus of “Machinehead” by Bush, I knew that that was it for me. I wanted that feeling for the rest of my life."

Feder was raised Jewish. He claims he actually became more religious once he went off to college and left his religious high school: "Interestingly, I became slightly more religious after graduating high school. I never kept Kosher at all while at [my high school], but when I got to college I felt disconnected from the Jewish community. All my friends are non-Jews. So I started keeping basic Kashrut so that I’d feel connected in some way."

Feder attended New York University studying Jazz Music Performance, beginning in 2001.

Career

The XYZ Affair

Alex Feder's first band was The XYZ Affair. The band formed in the second semester of his freshman year in 2002, featuring Feder on vocals and guitar, his friends Chris "Bones" Bonner (bass) and Sam Rockwell (drums), another friend from high school on second guitar, and Russ Maschmeyer, whom he met at NYU, on keyboards, saxophone, and guitar. Feder began the band after becoming "disillusioned with the indie scene. What first appealed to me about it was the fact that I had only been familiar with radio music, and then here was this world of NEW music that was different, creative, and way better than Limp Bizkit." The band began pumping out songs while at school, creating a buzz around campus as they slowly found their way into the indie scene of Brooklyn. They would rehearse at NYU's rehearsal space, and almost got banned multiple times by staff. The band's first EP, Good To Know (But Hard To Tell), was released in 2003.

The band's first full-length album was released in 2006, entitled A Few More Published Studies, released independently. The album spawned the single 'All My Friends,' for which the band filmed their first music video for. The video features former Nickelodeon stars Marc Summers ("Double Dare," "Unwrapped"), Jason Zimbler ("Clarissa Explains It All"), Danny Cooksey ("Salute Your Shorts," "Terminator 2"), Michael Maronna ('Pete & Pete," "40 Days and 40 Nights," "Slackers") and gained momentum of pop rock radio. Shortly after the song's video hit the Internet, the band began receiving attention not only from music fans but from the industry as well: “We got a call from an indie label the day our video was posted to the Internet as well as an e-mail from Columbia Records,” said Feder. The band also found themselves being promoted on Stereogum and Spin.com, the latter of which listed them as "Band of the Day" on July 24, 2007. The band's album was the highest selling album on INSOUND in June 2007, and the band played shows at New York City's Mercury Lounge and the DCists 6th Annual Unbuckled concert at DC9 in Washington, D.C. The band continued to play shows throughout the remainder of the year, even making it to Canada in November 2007.

After enjoying the new wave of discovery by the music industry, the band began working on a new EP between March and May of 2008, between east coast tour dates, with mixing by Britt Myers. After a summer of touring and multiple sessions in the studio, the band's second EP Trials was released on July 23, 2008, with 'Evening Life' being released as a single. The record was available via Myspace and Insound. In August, the band's debut album and new EP were made available on iTunes. The band also released a music video for 'Evening Life' around this time. In support of the record, the band continued to perform throughout the northeastern United States for the remainder of the year.

The XYZ Affair announced their breakup on December 22, 2009 in a post made to their website by Alex Feder. He wrote: "After 8 years together, The XYZ Affair has come to a somewhat strange end. I always figured we would go out with a big bang in some way or another. In truth, I somewhat assumed that our upcoming album might be that big bang: after a lot of years of work and making music together, I wanted this band to make an album that would either push us to the next level or serve as a proud swansong. However, as work on the album progressed, the band process changed. What used to be a steady process by set individuals had now become something more fluid, involving a revolving door of people. I have always put a lot of weight on The XYZ Affair as a BAND. The individual personalities of each band member makes us who we are. To continue calling this entity The XYZ Affair felt wrong on a variety of levels, so we have decided to move on." He also claimed that the record they were working on throughout the year would still be released, albeit under a new name and new project, and would be slightly delayed. A few years later, Alex spoke about the falling apart of The XYZ Affair while promoting his new project: "We were working on our second full-length. I think that was 2009… all of that year was just kind of taxing. We did a lot of touring. We did recordings that we weren’t super thrilled with. We lost our drummer. We had started working on this record, and the process just kind of imploded. Slowly but surely, I felt like it was just me working on it. I just got kind of burned out; I decided to just stop it. I wasn’t sure at first if I was going to go straight into a new project or if I actually wanted to find something else altogether to do with my life. I took a little time off, and I gave it some thought and decided to proceed as a solo artist."

Leonard Friend

Alex Feder moved from New York City to Los Angeles with his (now ex-)girlfriend shortly after the breakup of The XYZ Affair to further pursue his music career. He began producing music under the name Leonard Friend, releasing his first EP Lynyrd Frynd (a nod to classic rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd) in 2012. Influences on the record include LCD Soundsystem, Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, and Bruce Springsteen. Starting the project was a big step for Feder, who said, "I kind of feel a little bit like before I would collaborate with anyone else, I want to be more self-sufficient. When I first started making the record, I was really looking for a producer. I wanted to write my songs on guitar like I did with The XYZ Affair, and then have someone make a beat more or less. I tried my luck with that, and it just didn’t really work. I’ve spent the past couple of years figuring out how to do my own arranging in a totally different genre with a totally different musical palette, without the assistance of three other bandmates."

He released another EP, LXLF in 2013, with songs 'Every Woman' and 'Gatorade & Tylenol.' Feder also released a remix of Justin Timberlake's 'Suit & Tie' in 2013. The song 'Holograms' from the LXLF EP was featured on the soundtrack for 2014's "Dear White People." In 2015, he released another EP entitled +1.

as a Touring Musician

Alex Feder began working as a touring musician in 2011, playing guitar for Latin singer Enrique Iglesias beginning with his show in Puerto Rico on January 29, 2011 at the Coliseo José Miguel Agrelot, in San Juan, at the kick off of his Euphoria Tour. According to Alex, he landed the gig by "recommendation through a friend and I went through a couple rounds of auditions, was fortunate enough to get chosen!" He performed with Iglesias from 2011 to 2018.

After the gig with Enrique Iglesias, Feder joined the band of rock singer LP [Editor note: LP as in singer Laura Pergolizzi, not shorthand for Linkin Park] in 2018, performing guitar for her up until the COVID-19 pandemic. He also played a few gigs with Miley Cyrus during these years.

Still A Great Night

Alex Feder continued to create his own music while touring with other artists. Launched in October 2017 with an eponymous single 'Still A Great Night,' this project was considered his "one-man band." Feder said, "I write heartbreaking, lyrically dense songs with monstrously catchy hooks," when describing the music he was writing. He released another track that December, entitled 'Merry Christmas, Melania (Still A Great Christmas),' a spoken word track made in response to comments made about the holiday by then first-lady Melania Trump. In 2019, he released 'Still A Great Future' featuring LP. He wrote on Instagram: "LP was kind enough to write and sing the chorus as we sat together in a hotel room in Lima, Peru."

During the COVID-19 quarantine, Feder aimed to release a song for the project every few weeks. In 2020 and 2022, Feder released a handful of songs from the acoustic 'The Stray Cats Of Athens' to the eccentric 'My Time' and the tribal pop 'The Unimportant Things I Love.'

Linkin Park

In 2024, once the band reunited with new official members Emily Armstrong and Colin Brittain, Brad Delson announced he would no longer be performing with the band in a live setting, but remain as the band's guitarist in the studio. Mike said, "touring is actually not a good fit for Brad’s personality. It used to be, but as he’s gotten older, the noise, the chaos, the moving around from city to city - it’s not a thing [he enjoys].” Beginning with the From Zero World Tour, Alex Feder filled in for him in his absence.

Discography

The XYZ Affair

• Good To Know (But Hard To Tell) - EP (2003)
• A Few More Published Studies (2006)
• Trials - EP (2008)

Leonard Friend

• Lynyrd Frynd - EP (2012)
• LXLF - EP (2013)
• +1 - EP (2015)

Still A Great Night

• 'Still A Great Night' (2017)
• 'Merry Christmas, Melania (Still A Great Christmas)' (2017)
• 'Still A Great Future (Merry Christmas 2019)' (feat. LP) (2019)
• 'Love U the Maximum' (2020)
• 'The Stray Cats of Athens' (2020)
• 'My Time' (2020)
• 'Some Tragic Fate' (2020)
• 'I'm A Genius' (2020)
• 'Still a Great Life' (2022)
• 'I Never Learned To Ride A Bicycle' (2022)
• 'The Unimportant Things I Love' (2022)