Renars Kaupers was born on September 1 1974 in Jelgava, Latvia.
He is BrainStorm's vocalist and frontman, and is also known as Kaupix and Reynard Cowper, which is simply his name written in an English way. He looked the surname up in a dictionary. A century ago a man with this name lived in England. He invented something a steam engine.
He writes most of the group's songs, although the other members have composed a few songs too and the group sometimes writes the songs together. Everything can inspire Renars: from iron boards to ice cream! He is a strong and charismatic person who can really take his audience, and his characteristic way of dancing is already legendary. He loves to dance, since it makes him feel comfortable and means to him that the band is giving the best it can give. He feels BrainStorm is like a family, and live gigs are like good sex for them. They are positive people, and he dances to create harmony. He doesn't practise for it
Renars has a bachelor's degree in journalism, although he's never actually worked as a journalist. Besides his success with BrainStorm, he's been a DJ for Latvian Radio SWH, hosted Latvia's most popular TV quiz for years and has appeared as the main character in 'Vecas pagastmajas misterijas', a film by eminent Latvian director Janis Streichs.
He lives with his wife Agnese and their twin sons, Emils and Edgars, who were born in 1995. He's been called a 'kid who has kids'. He doesn't wear a weddingring because he always says that he doesn't like to wear rings; he's got one on his thumb, though. The family live in a block of flats in the new side of Riga, where houses aren't quite beautiful, but the rents are cheaper. The only negative side about the place are women who sell themselves in night time: Renars once had two prostitutes living on the first floor of his house. His neighborhood really is the 'sex area', with sex shops and cheap girls all around.
Once, some fans wrote declarations of love to him on the door of his house: 'We love you Renars (but not physically)', and there they also had hung up some balloons. Now the proprietor has changed the door, so we'll see what will happen to the new one... During leisure time the family go to the coast, as it's nicer there.
Agnese is a stylist for a fashion magazine. Renars and her are happy together, though it's hard for both of them to live when there are so many female fans. Renars has got used to kissing fans and giving autographs, as it's the life of an artist, but Agnese doesn't really like it and it's hard for her and the family when the phone rings almost all the time, and Renars is away often.