A Free Man

“When I was just a skinny lad on holiday by the sea,
I met a girl in a Rancid shirt, and a tape she gave to me
With the Black Flag First Four Years and the Minor Threat Discography,
And punk rock saved my life.”

-Frank Turner - “Back In The Day”

London based singer-songwriter Frank Turner’s came to some prominence as the singer for London based punk band “Million Dead” in the early Noughties. His solo debut “Sleep Is For The Week” was released at the beginning of last year to a fair bit of critical acclaim, including a much coveted spot in the chrisdellavedova.com Top 10 of 2007. His sophomore effort “Love Ire & Song” is due out at the end of March. Frank was kind enough to sit down on the virtual couch for a Great Interview Week chat.

AFM: Punk rock saved your life, but you’ve kind of left it behind in your solo work in favor of a “folk”-ier sound. What changed for you between the break up of Million Dead and “Sleep is for the Week”?

FT: Well, first off I think punk is an ethos as well as a style and on that level I still consider what I do to be “punk” on some level. Anyways. After the end of Million Dead I was very pissed off, sick of being in a band environment, but didn’t want to stop touring or making music. Plus I didn’t have a job or anywhere to live, so turning to acoustic music made sense on a lot of levels: I could do it on my own, stay on the road and earn enough cash to get by. The next 18 months really battered me into shape, msuically and personally. “Sleep…” is kind of a testament to that time period, in a way.

AFM: These days, you are sort of a musical lone wolf. But, if you had to put together a band and could have any artist, living or dead, who would you sign up:

FT: I should mention that I have an occasional backing band, consisting of members of Oxford’s Dive Dive and Ciara Haidar. But fantasy wise:

Vocals: Joe Cocker
Lead guitar: J Mascis
Rhythm guitar: Neil Young
Bass: Karl Alvarez (descendents)
Horns: not a big fan of horns, but maybe Coltrane
Drums: Taylor Hawkins
And I’d play tambourine.

AFM: What up and coming British artist or group is not getting the attention they deserve?

FT: Kid Harpoon, Jay Jay Pistolet, Blah Blah Blah, Joe Fox, Mozzy Green… I could go on for days.

AFM: According to that factual standard for the Noughties, Wikipedia, “Frank Turner is a musician born in Bahrain, educated at Eton College and studied History at the London School of Economics.” That’s quite the start in life, where did things go awry for such a promising young man?

FT: Haha, my parents still want to know. Um, I got into punk rock and anarchism as a reaction to my circumstances, being a state primary school kid who landed in the public school system on a scholarship. I reacted very strongly against my surroundings and got into protest music, style and everything else. But I think that looking back now, once the dust has settled, that a love of music underpinned it all. My politics were very much informed by what I was listening to. So basically, Iron Maiden ruined everything.

AFM: I got “Sleep Is For The Week” right around the time I found out I was going to be a father. Your song “Father’s Day” is a poignant, and in my experience accurate, picture of the father-teenage son relationship. The father-son thing starts out well, but at some point it all becomes very biological, doesn’t it - all alpha male head battering. That song has kind of haunted me since. How’s your relationship with your Dad these days?

FT: Awful, to be perfectly honest. My family has been in melt-down for a few years now.

AFM: What is the first song that you remember dancing to alone in your bedroom?

FT: I’m not really a dancer, heh. I remember being totally, utterly blown away by Iron Maiden’s “Killers”, the first cassette album I bought with my own cash. I just got lost in how heavy it was to me then.

AFM: There seems to be kind of a new folk movement going on these days especially in the States, with acts like Conor Oberst’s Bright Eyes, Sufjan Stevens, Devendra Banhart, Iron and Wine, and so on. Are you a part of that scene? Is there even a scene to be seen? How did your first trip over to the States go last year?

FT: I’m very wary of the word scene, but am arguably part of one. Not the one you mention though; a whole bunch of people have come from Nambucca and that kind of thing to make good music, Kid Harpoon, Jamie T, The Holloways, Sam Getcape and so on. I don’t think folk music ever went away, it just wasn’t fashionable for a while, and it won’t be again someday… I don’t really care. America is fun, incidentally. I write from California.

AFM: From what guitarist (living or dead) would you most like a lesson?

FT: Either Neil Young or Fred Frith.

AFM: I was reading The Sun today (guilty pleasure) and there was one of their typically solar rants about “Booze Britain”. Feral gangs of yoofs and what have you. In a lot of your songs there is an underlying theme of excess and regret. “But all I found was a packet of broken cigarettes and a sinking sense of shame”, for example (great line, by the way). Are drugs and booze a lyrical muse or a source of malaise?

Both, in the sense that a lot of my music is about failure and regret, to be perfectly honest. It’s well known that I’m partial to a little recreational intoxication, and it’s something I haven’t made my mind up about yet - some days it’s something I’m protective of (my right to get fucked up etc.) and some days it brings me down. Depends what I’m drinking, haha..

AFM: “Sleep Is For The Week” was one of my favorite British records of 2007. Your new one is coming out in March. What should we expect from the new record? Punky? Funky? Folky?

FT: Haha, probably not funky, I’m way too white. I don’t think that stylistically it’s too far away from “Sleep”, just better songwriting, better production, a clearer vision of what I’m trying to say and do. I’m immensely proud of the new album, I think it’s superior to its predecessor.. but then album 3 will, I believe, be better yet. Which is a nice place to be, creatively.

AFM: Bonus Question - James Brown, James Taylor or James?

FT: James Brown should win on a technicality, but my personal taste draws me to James. Hm. Good question.

Frank gets partial credit. The correct answer, of course, is James Brown. Frank Turner’s new record “Love Ire & Song” is available for pre-order from Banquet Records. “Sleep is for the Week” is available in the UK from Banquet Records or Amazon. I’m not sure about U.S. distributors, but has Turner’s 2006 EP “Campfire Punkrock”.

I’ll leave you with the video for “Photosynthesis” from Turner’s new album. You have got to like this:

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