Frank Turner Interview

You have played in Leicester a few times but what do you think of this new venue?

It seems alright so far, I’ve been here for all of about and hour and a half, two hours but it seems nice. Its nice to have a big venue in Leicester, the Charlotte's closed now, I sort of have mixed feelings about that obviously - I’ve played there a million times but it was a terrible sounding room, so win some you lose some. But yes it has been good so far.

I have a lot of good friends that live in Leicester, it’s fun, I used to hang out here and go to FireBug all the time, about 5 years ago when it first opened and when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

You’ve had a single out recently and your EP came out at the start of the week, you’ve just toured America, so how would you some up your year?

It’s been a long year, it’s been a f**king great year but a long one. I’ve been on a proper lap of the world once, I’ve been backwards and forwards to America I think nine times this year, including the most retarded thing I’ve ever done which was when I was America on tour I had to fly back to London for one day and then fly back to America again, which was just.. after that I was just like ‘I never want to get on an aeroplane ever again’.

Anything special for that date?

Yeah it was the Kerrang! Awards. Which was really funny because they called up and said, ‘Do you want to come to the Kerrang! Awards?’ and I thought oh I’m going to be on tour in America so I’m not going to bother, and they went ‘Do you want to come to the Kerrang! awards?’ you know *wink wink* and I was like ‘oh right yeah ok fine yeah’ and they gave me one, so that was nice. Kind of ridiculous but Napalm Death won the same award last year! So this years been great, I’ve done an awful lot of shows in a lot of countries and had a good time so thumbs up.

You’ve got a new album coming out so what can be expected, new sound, old, a mix of writing?

I kind of feel the last record I did ’Poetry of the Deed’ was more of a rock album and it's great, but I feel like in the playing field of the music I make - it was more off to one side rather than bang in the middle. Like for this next one we’re going to shimmy back towards the middle a little bit more. I don’t know, in the past I’ve always had like other records and artists I was thinking about really hard when it came to a certain album whereas this time I’m just kind of thinking about me. Which either means that I’ve figured out what I do and this is going to be great and a defining statement of the music I make or I’ve disappeared up my own a**e. So only time will tell.

Have you got a favourite album of your three?

Its very hard to say because so much goes into them and so much time and place associated with them you know what I mean, it’s like choosing between your kids.

A favourite track?

Probably even harder because I like loud songs and quiet song and fast and slow songs and sad and happy songs so its hard to say. To be honest with you the answer to that question is almost certainly going to be ‘a new one’.

You come from Winchester, a small place, so what’s it like going all over the world and backing big bands?

It’s amazing, I pinch myself everyday wondering when there’s been a terrible mistake and I need to go home. This year in particular I’ve been to Australia and New Zealand for the first time which was amazing and I definitely want to go back there. It’s a real privilege getting to travel as much as I do and do what I do, I love it. It’s really funny as well everyone in America thinks I’m from Manchester because I go (in a muffled voice) “My name’s Frank Turner and I’m from Winchester”. And I’m like no, no, like the rifle, so I’m teaching the world where Winchester is, putting it on the map!

Growing up there was it a good place for the music scene?

Yeah there was a small town kind of music scene y’know, it wasn’t stunning. It’s a beautiful city and a very peaceful place and I very much enjoy going back there, I love it. But my music happed more for me in London, I was fifteen-ish when I just started getting on the train every weekend and going to gigs in London, going to squat parties and stuff. Just discovering punk rock and anarchism and all that sort of stuff.

You’ve been working with members from Dive Dive since 2006 and they are supporting you tonight, what’s it like arranging songs with them and performing?

Great, they’re old friends and amazing musicians, its fantastic. It’s really funny, I’ll write the songs and do the basic of the arranging but they’re kind of all better musicians then me. I kind of go ‘I sort of want it to go (sings a tune) sort of thing’ and they’ll go (sings a better tune) on the piano and I go ‘yes…yes er that’s exactly what I meant’ it’s cool. We’ve travelled a lot of road together in the last few years, they’re really good guys.

Do you always come up with the lyrics and they help with the music or is it a mix?

Musically I do the song as in the chord structure and melody but sometimes I will have a guitar part for Ben (Lloyd) to play over the top of it and sometimes he’ll come up with one himself. The bulk of it is my baby, I’m the dictator.

Apart from your punk rock background, what else apart from the music inspires you in the world?

Lots of things, I like people that play with words. I don’t read masses of poetry but I sort of know what I like. So I read a lot of Phillip Larkin, W.H. Auden, T.S. Elliot, G. K. Chesterton people like that... Jack Kerouac and The Beat poets, Joseph Heller. I spend an awful lot of time thinking about words and order they might go in. I like reading other people who are good at that.

Your style as well is to come up with small stories within each song, so do you come up with the lyrics first and then the music or the other way around?

It depends, each song is different and the best songs are when they arrive together. That to me is when you can tell you’ve got something really cooking and going along is when you get the words and music together. But sometimes it will be where I’ll have a set of words that I’ve had for years and can’t find a place for them and then I’ll come up with a new melody one day and try those words out and go ‘oh f**cking hell that works!” or vice versa y’know so really depends from song to song.

As time goes on, you’re working your way through more and more albums and a crazy amount of shows each year then there are shows like x-factor, what do you think about that when artists get the easy road into the industry?

They do, but they get the easy road to somewhere that I don’t want to go to particularly. I don’t really want to get screamed at in ASDA. The thing is, it is easy to get worked up about x-factor and Simon Cowell but I think it’s a waste of time because you’re not gonna change it, Simon Cowell doesn’t give a s**t and at the end of the day I actually think that what they’re doing is just such a different thing to what I’m doing and trying to do I think I’d rather save my…keep my powder dry to get angry about something worth getting angry about rather than just a bunch of cruise ship singers on TV.

Some artists as well rely a lot on their imagery like Lady GaGa and the outfits she’s wearing.

This is true, I think there is a place in the world for the pop star in the purer sense of the word, and I do think Lady GaGa is quite kind of subversive with it... well not even that, but she f**king does it properly! I’d rather look at Lady GaGa than f**king Pixie Lott. I’ve got a grudging respect for Lady GaGa in a way y’know? For me I remember when I was a kid, this had so much impact on me on so many levels, I kind of started getting into punk rock when I was a little bit dubious about the whole kind of Mohawks and safety pins and multi coloured hair thing, it just seemed kind of naff to me. It seemed to me that it was just as much concentrating on image as any kind of boy band. I thought ‘do I really have to dress like a t**t to listen to this music?’.

Then I remember the first time I ever saw a photo of Black Flag and it’s this particular photo by…the famous photographer…I can’t remember. Anyway it was of them standing in a car park, just four guys in jeans and t-shirts with short normal hair but they’ve got this look on their faces which is just like ‘do not f**k with us’. I remember seeing that and thinking ‘ooo I want to like that band they look alright!’ and now I’ve got a Black Flag tattoo so y’know! It’s an image in itself in a way but its something about that anti-image thing that I really like and still subscribe to.

What was that photographers name! it’s gonna bug me for the rest of the day!

(Editor's Note - The photographer was most likely Glen E. Friedman, who was famous for working with punk bands of that era)

As a kid, did you ever expect to be where you doing what you are doing and be who you are today?

Careers wise, hoped might be a better word. Also I’m not sure I would’ve thought I’d be doing it in this particular musical guise if you like, because I grew up listening to punk hardcore metal and I think even just seven years ago if you’d told me I was going to be playing folk and country music I would’ve been slightly confused. As a person? F**k knows. You get that whole kind of ‘oh you’ve changed man’ and it’s well obviously! I’ve just spent seven years on tour being in a different town everyday, going from being 21 to 28 I’d be a complete weirdo if I hadn’t changed in that period of time! I’ve enjoyed the process and I’ve seen an awful lot of things and done and learnt so much and if I was the same person I was seven years ago I’d be an idiot.

To date, what is your most memorable performance?

There’s many too choose from, I think playing Wembley Stadium is up there.

Ben Lloyd of Dive Dive walks into the room.

Frank: What is the name of the photographer who took all the famous hardcore photos in the early ‘80‘s? Fish eye lens, black and white, Bad Brains, Minor Threat…it’s on the tip of my brain!

Ben: No idea. Ed Harcourt might know. Google is your friend.

Anyway, Wembley get a vote, I mean we played a show in Toronto that was equally as memorable for me because it was just 400 people going nuts in a club 5,000 miles away from where I live so either or really.

Do you ever get a chance to see you favourite artists perform?

Ben: Can I answer that? I always miss my favourite bands because we’re always on tour, that’s how it goes.

Frank: It quite often does although luckily enough the day after this tour Godspeed You! Black Emperor are playing in London and they’re one of my favourite bands and I’m really excited about the fact that I get to see them again. I’ve seen every London show they’ve ever played to date and they’ve reformed and doing another one and I’m going to be there, yes!

Are their any mainstream bands that you are into?

I don’t really know what’s in the charts or really what constitutes mainstream. I mean Elton John constitutes mainstream I would say and I love Elton John, I love Queen and ABBA that kind of thing. What I like and don’t like in music isn’t really defined by where it comes from its just about whether it sounds good when it comes out of the stereo.

Do you always plan being as busy as you have been this year, or will you ever want to take a break?

At the moment I’m happy being this busy, I can imagine as I get older I’ll probably want to slow down a little bit but then again you never know Henry Rollins hasn’t slowed down yet …well he’s slowed down a little.

Ben: Not doing three shows a day is he?

What other ambitions have you yet to achieve?

Lots and lots and lots, I want to play more shows go to more countries and meet more people. I’d like to write better music.

Ben: That would be good!

Frank: Yeah, I’m trying to write a book at the moment and its taking my a retardedly long time. There’s always a million different things, I’m kind of a hyperactive person, I’m always thinking of things that I could be doing to keep myself busy. I don’t like being bored.

What’s the book about?

Tour diaries and stuff, it just takes a long time write them up. My driving force in life is the knowledge that I wake up in the morning going f**k we’re going to die in not that long and s**t we should all do absolutely everything all the time because there are more things that humans can do that you could fit into a thousand lifetimes. So y’know s**t, s**t get on with it!

- Interview by Jodie Totman

Official Website - http://frank-turner.com/blog/

Thank to Frank & Ben, and Anthea at Press Counsel PR