Interview: Frank Turner
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Frank Turner
After spending the last 18 months performing gigs as a solo artist, the ex-Million Dead frontman is back on the road. This time though he’s got his own backing band in the form of fellow musicians (and friends) Dive Dive. On the opening night of his current UK tour, Neu! Magazine met up the incredibly lovely Frank Turner at Leeds’ Joseph’s Well to discuss an array of all things Frank related. “I tend to talk a lot” says Frank pre-interview, and do you know what? He wasn’t kidding - for a solid 20 minutes he barely came up for air.
You were the frontman in Million Dead until you guys called it a day in 2005. Why the change in sound and style from punk to folk?
As Million Dead went on, it was partly that... [ponders] I think if you’re making a kind of music and playing it all the time then, unless you’re a bit weird, you’re naturally going to listen to other stuff. No one can be in a hardcore band all day and then get on the bus and listen to hardcore. When I was a kid I was into Counting Crows and Johnny Cash and little bits and pieces but I didn't really know much folk and country. Then I discovered that actually country and folk alike really appealed to me and that I really liked them. An element of it was a reaction to Million Dead who didn’t break up in the best of atmospheres, shall we say, and I didn’t really want to go out and play music that sounded exactly like Million Dead straight away again, or possibly ever. I think I’m getting old for it, for screaming at people. Screaming is fun but I’ve played in hardcore bands for ten years.
Did you feel that it was time to progress?
Well you reach a point where you want something new. Part of it as well was basically that I didn’t want to stop touring but I didn’t fancy putting a band together, because of band politics in how it had finished with Million Dead. So as I didn’t want to stop touring I did a few acoustic sets around the country to get a bit of income and have a good time. It just spiralled out of control and all of a sudden I had an EP coming out. It wasn’t a totally calculated move. It rapidly became apparent that it was what I wanted to do; it felt as though I'd really found a niche for myself.
Personally, I think that your voice suits this style of music more.
Cool. Thank you. That’s good to hear. Yeah, it just seemed to press all my buttons basically, so why not. It was a bit of a relief in some senses - I could have formed another band that sounded just like Million Dead and we would have been signed to a major like that.
Did you just want to 'find yourself'?
Well it’s dishonest. If it’s not what you want to do then you’re just fucking ripping people off, and not least yourself. I’d just spent the last six months being in a band and I’d become really unhappy with it. I didn’t fancy doing that anymore.
It’s the start of your tour tonight – how are you feeling?
I’m a little bit nervous; it’s the first time I’ve been on stage with a band since Million Dead broke up. Although we actually ended up doing a last minute warm up show last Saturday – literally we got asked to do it 20 hours before the show. But it’s an odd feeling; it drudges up some old memories – some of which are good; some of which are bad. But generally speaking I’m happy about it because having said everything I said about a song having a soul, with songs I’ve always envisaged them having this extra layer and on the recordings they've had that extra layer. So it’s nice to be able to present people with the songs as they sound in my head in their finished version. But I always want to be able to tour on my own, you know, I want to keep doing that at times.
Do you actually prefer being a solo artist or do you miss some of the camaraderie of a band? You've got Dive Dive accompanying you a lot, and they're your friends anyway, but in some senses you're still 'by yourself'...
Yeah, yeah, I know what you're saying. There are aspects that you totally miss; one of the big things for me especially is Ben, who was the drummer in Million Dead. I'd been playing in bands with him from being ten years old so it feels kind of wrong being on tour without him. I choose to tour on my own for the past 18 months, mostly taking the train, and nobody was forcing me into it. I'm glad I did it, it taught me a lot and I think it made me a lot stronger as a person but damn it sucked! A lot of the time, fucking hell, there where days when it was like 'fuck this for a game of soldiers, I'm going home', and 'I swear to god I'll never pick up an instrument again if I can just go home'. So, yeah you do miss that kind of gang aspect but then again this is the thing with Million Dead in that it was essentially what broke down, in that it ceased to be a gang and that's the thing with a band that when it's good it's great and when it's bad it's fucking awful.
In that environment everything can get totally exaggerated....
Yeah, totally. I guess that's just what touring does really; it just exaggerates everyday normal life.
You're off to America next month. Have you played there before?
We did three gigs in the States with Million Dead and that's the only time I've been to America in my life so I'm really, really excited about it. I'm touring with some awesome musicians; Jonah Matranga who's been in Far, Gratitude and New End Original and who's a legend as far as I'm concerned - we did a split together, and now we’re doing a couple of shows; and Josh English as well who was in Six Going On Seven. It's just nice that we're going to do a proper tour and not just flying in, doing a festival and fucking off again. We're going to be on the fucking road! We're driving from Texas through to Washington.
I'm going to quote something off your myspace now…
Holy cow.
…"It's possible to write simple acoustic music without sounding like James Blunt". What are your thoughts on that commercial acoustic based stuff that's around at the moment?
Erm, well, all the singer-songwriter stuff – the estate agent music, coffee table music, you know, there’s nothing... [ponders] at the end of the day, first of all if that's what other people want to do then that's their business and if that's what other people want to listen to then that's their business too. I think that I've wasted an awful lot of my life so far being angry at music I don't like and at it being successful and it's just a fucking total waste of time and energy doing that. Whatever. It's just that for me it has no appeal – for me – as personally it seems very dishonest. These good looking, blue eyed, chiselled, designer stubble guys - if we're talking about the guys - none of the lyrical content, none of the emotional stuff in it seems honest. It's the difference between Britney Spears and Tori Amos.
I went to see Jim Bryson play, a friend of mine recommended going to see him, and that was one of my turning points on getting folk. He stood on a cardboard box in the middle of the room and everyone was sat on the floor around him - about 40 people - and he just fuck-ing blew us all away for an hour and a half. Just him and his guitar and everyone was in awe, and that compared with watching fucking Damien Rice or whatever do his thing, they're just not comparable to me. So, if I can, I do find that because of my background and because of the kind of people – such as those into Million Dead - I find that I spend a lot of my time persuading people that this is a valid style of music. When I toured with The Automatic last year as well, they have quite a young audience, but these are kids that are into that flush of being into rock music and believing it and they need to be presented with something that, as far as their teenage identity goes, is something they're not into and then they are into.
Why do you think folk has derogatory connotations?
I know exactly why; there is a folk old garden in this country who are all cunts, the people who run some of the folk festivals in this country, I can't name names because I'll get into trouble on this - I've done that too many times in my life, but I've heard very influential people from the folk community say things like "I don't like the drums", "I don't like music with drums in", and it's just kind of like ‘wwhhhaa?? what?’ it just doesn't make any sense at all. There are a lot of people who have a very insular, defensive attitude to folk music because, it's a vicious circle, they're socially maligned or frowned upon and they return the favour by being really pretentious about their type of music. They basically frown on young singers and songwriters who don't do lots of traditional numbers or whatever. That just pisses me off; I mean the way that Chris T-T has been treated by the folk community is just monstrous to my mind because I think that he's just the best folk singer that this country has produced in 50 years. Even fucking Billy Bragg still has to prove himself to that community and it's he's the only reason that anybody still cares about folk music. Anyway, raarrggh.
You cover a whole spectrum - drugs, relationships, politics - in your songs. Do you find you write autobiographically?
Yeah, totally. I mean it's the old cliché but it's true you can only really write about what you know. For me, it's quite subtle but there's a very definite line between public and private and a lot of people don't see that and presume that I'm completely bearing my soul in my lyrics. With a lot of the subject matter on the album all that I really want to say about it is that since Million Dead started breaking up, which was quite a long time before we actually did, I had a pretty rough year with that, my personal life and with my family life. I had a shit 18 months basically. To a larger extent the album neatly captures 18 months of my life and I like that autographical angle to it. A lot of people want to ask questions about, I'm not saying that you are, but a lot of people want to ask questions about the details of something to do with the girls, or my dad or drugs or something like that. To be honest I've kind of put out as much as I'm going to put out. I really don't want to sit here talking about drug abuse and stuff. It's not something I encourage, put it that way.
Do you feel that through your songwriting you're trying to educate people?
I was certainly trying to do that with Million Dead but I'm not sure. I'm weary of the idea of telling people what to do or think, I think you're striking dodgy territory very quickly, so.
And finally, where can I get an 'I Am The Real Frank Turner' T-shirt as featured in the 'Vital Signs' video?
In there [points towards venue] in a minute.... and they'll be online soon. I need to go and set up the stall now!
Donna Dobson
Frank Turner Official Site
Frank Turner Myspace
Buy Frank Turner CDs | Buy Frank Turner mp3s | Buy Frank Turner Tickets | Buy Frank Turner Merch
After spending the last 18 months performing gigs as a solo artist, the ex-Million Dead frontman is back on the road. This time though he’s got his own backing band in the form of fellow musicians (and friends) Dive Dive. On the opening night of his current UK tour, Neu! Magazine met up the incredibly lovely Frank Turner at Leeds’ Joseph’s Well to discuss an array of all things Frank related. “I tend to talk a lot” says Frank pre-interview, and do you know what? He wasn’t kidding - for a solid 20 minutes he barely came up for air.
You were the frontman in Million Dead until you guys called it a day in 2005. Why the change in sound and style from punk to folk?
As Million Dead went on, it was partly that... [ponders] I think if you’re making a kind of music and playing it all the time then, unless you’re a bit weird, you’re naturally going to listen to other stuff. No one can be in a hardcore band all day and then get on the bus and listen to hardcore. When I was a kid I was into Counting Crows and Johnny Cash and little bits and pieces but I didn't really know much folk and country. Then I discovered that actually country and folk alike really appealed to me and that I really liked them. An element of it was a reaction to Million Dead who didn’t break up in the best of atmospheres, shall we say, and I didn’t really want to go out and play music that sounded exactly like Million Dead straight away again, or possibly ever. I think I’m getting old for it, for screaming at people. Screaming is fun but I’ve played in hardcore bands for ten years.
Did you feel that it was time to progress?
Well you reach a point where you want something new. Part of it as well was basically that I didn’t want to stop touring but I didn’t fancy putting a band together, because of band politics in how it had finished with Million Dead. So as I didn’t want to stop touring I did a few acoustic sets around the country to get a bit of income and have a good time. It just spiralled out of control and all of a sudden I had an EP coming out. It wasn’t a totally calculated move. It rapidly became apparent that it was what I wanted to do; it felt as though I'd really found a niche for myself.
Personally, I think that your voice suits this style of music more.
Cool. Thank you. That’s good to hear. Yeah, it just seemed to press all my buttons basically, so why not. It was a bit of a relief in some senses - I could have formed another band that sounded just like Million Dead and we would have been signed to a major like that.
Did you just want to 'find yourself'?
Well it’s dishonest. If it’s not what you want to do then you’re just fucking ripping people off, and not least yourself. I’d just spent the last six months being in a band and I’d become really unhappy with it. I didn’t fancy doing that anymore.
It’s the start of your tour tonight – how are you feeling?
I’m a little bit nervous; it’s the first time I’ve been on stage with a band since Million Dead broke up. Although we actually ended up doing a last minute warm up show last Saturday – literally we got asked to do it 20 hours before the show. But it’s an odd feeling; it drudges up some old memories – some of which are good; some of which are bad. But generally speaking I’m happy about it because having said everything I said about a song having a soul, with songs I’ve always envisaged them having this extra layer and on the recordings they've had that extra layer. So it’s nice to be able to present people with the songs as they sound in my head in their finished version. But I always want to be able to tour on my own, you know, I want to keep doing that at times.
Do you actually prefer being a solo artist or do you miss some of the camaraderie of a band? You've got Dive Dive accompanying you a lot, and they're your friends anyway, but in some senses you're still 'by yourself'...
Yeah, yeah, I know what you're saying. There are aspects that you totally miss; one of the big things for me especially is Ben, who was the drummer in Million Dead. I'd been playing in bands with him from being ten years old so it feels kind of wrong being on tour without him. I choose to tour on my own for the past 18 months, mostly taking the train, and nobody was forcing me into it. I'm glad I did it, it taught me a lot and I think it made me a lot stronger as a person but damn it sucked! A lot of the time, fucking hell, there where days when it was like 'fuck this for a game of soldiers, I'm going home', and 'I swear to god I'll never pick up an instrument again if I can just go home'. So, yeah you do miss that kind of gang aspect but then again this is the thing with Million Dead in that it was essentially what broke down, in that it ceased to be a gang and that's the thing with a band that when it's good it's great and when it's bad it's fucking awful.
In that environment everything can get totally exaggerated....
Yeah, totally. I guess that's just what touring does really; it just exaggerates everyday normal life.
You're off to America next month. Have you played there before?
We did three gigs in the States with Million Dead and that's the only time I've been to America in my life so I'm really, really excited about it. I'm touring with some awesome musicians; Jonah Matranga who's been in Far, Gratitude and New End Original and who's a legend as far as I'm concerned - we did a split together, and now we’re doing a couple of shows; and Josh English as well who was in Six Going On Seven. It's just nice that we're going to do a proper tour and not just flying in, doing a festival and fucking off again. We're going to be on the fucking road! We're driving from Texas through to Washington.
I'm going to quote something off your myspace now…
Holy cow.
…"It's possible to write simple acoustic music without sounding like James Blunt". What are your thoughts on that commercial acoustic based stuff that's around at the moment?
Erm, well, all the singer-songwriter stuff – the estate agent music, coffee table music, you know, there’s nothing... [ponders] at the end of the day, first of all if that's what other people want to do then that's their business and if that's what other people want to listen to then that's their business too. I think that I've wasted an awful lot of my life so far being angry at music I don't like and at it being successful and it's just a fucking total waste of time and energy doing that. Whatever. It's just that for me it has no appeal – for me – as personally it seems very dishonest. These good looking, blue eyed, chiselled, designer stubble guys - if we're talking about the guys - none of the lyrical content, none of the emotional stuff in it seems honest. It's the difference between Britney Spears and Tori Amos.
I went to see Jim Bryson play, a friend of mine recommended going to see him, and that was one of my turning points on getting folk. He stood on a cardboard box in the middle of the room and everyone was sat on the floor around him - about 40 people - and he just fuck-ing blew us all away for an hour and a half. Just him and his guitar and everyone was in awe, and that compared with watching fucking Damien Rice or whatever do his thing, they're just not comparable to me. So, if I can, I do find that because of my background and because of the kind of people – such as those into Million Dead - I find that I spend a lot of my time persuading people that this is a valid style of music. When I toured with The Automatic last year as well, they have quite a young audience, but these are kids that are into that flush of being into rock music and believing it and they need to be presented with something that, as far as their teenage identity goes, is something they're not into and then they are into.
Why do you think folk has derogatory connotations?
I know exactly why; there is a folk old garden in this country who are all cunts, the people who run some of the folk festivals in this country, I can't name names because I'll get into trouble on this - I've done that too many times in my life, but I've heard very influential people from the folk community say things like "I don't like the drums", "I don't like music with drums in", and it's just kind of like ‘wwhhhaa?? what?’ it just doesn't make any sense at all. There are a lot of people who have a very insular, defensive attitude to folk music because, it's a vicious circle, they're socially maligned or frowned upon and they return the favour by being really pretentious about their type of music. They basically frown on young singers and songwriters who don't do lots of traditional numbers or whatever. That just pisses me off; I mean the way that Chris T-T has been treated by the folk community is just monstrous to my mind because I think that he's just the best folk singer that this country has produced in 50 years. Even fucking Billy Bragg still has to prove himself to that community and it's he's the only reason that anybody still cares about folk music. Anyway, raarrggh.
You cover a whole spectrum - drugs, relationships, politics - in your songs. Do you find you write autobiographically?
Yeah, totally. I mean it's the old cliché but it's true you can only really write about what you know. For me, it's quite subtle but there's a very definite line between public and private and a lot of people don't see that and presume that I'm completely bearing my soul in my lyrics. With a lot of the subject matter on the album all that I really want to say about it is that since Million Dead started breaking up, which was quite a long time before we actually did, I had a pretty rough year with that, my personal life and with my family life. I had a shit 18 months basically. To a larger extent the album neatly captures 18 months of my life and I like that autographical angle to it. A lot of people want to ask questions about, I'm not saying that you are, but a lot of people want to ask questions about the details of something to do with the girls, or my dad or drugs or something like that. To be honest I've kind of put out as much as I'm going to put out. I really don't want to sit here talking about drug abuse and stuff. It's not something I encourage, put it that way.
Do you feel that through your songwriting you're trying to educate people?
I was certainly trying to do that with Million Dead but I'm not sure. I'm weary of the idea of telling people what to do or think, I think you're striking dodgy territory very quickly, so.
And finally, where can I get an 'I Am The Real Frank Turner' T-shirt as featured in the 'Vital Signs' video?
In there [points towards venue] in a minute.... and they'll be online soon. I need to go and set up the stall now!
Donna Dobson
Frank Turner Official Site
Frank Turner Myspace
Buy Frank Turner CDs | Buy Frank Turner mp3s | Buy Frank Turner Tickets | Buy Frank Turner Merch
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