22 | September 11, 2014 | cambridge-news.co.uk | Cambridge News
Music
Frank Turner:
“I’d love to be totally punk and say I don’t care” Frank Turner doesn’t pull his punches. But, ELLA WALKER discovers, even folk-punksters feel doubt occasionally
“I
FEEL quite liberated in a way right now. The new material that I’m writing is much more. . .” there’s a significant pause. “Optimistic, shall we say.” This is something of a breakthrough for Frank Turner, a man notorious for scuffing about on the edges, strewn with tattoos and railing against the establishment. Apart from that time he opened the Olympic Ceremony for Danny Boyle, of course. He tours fiendishly, writes constantly and drives himself into the ground trying to make every show better than the last, building on a legacy of gigs in pubs, squats, fans’ living rooms and our very own Portland Arms, where he’s played “more times than I care to remember”. Turner is committed, genuine, outspoken, damningly honest even when it’s detrimental to his media image – although he isn’t too fussed about that anyway – and a talented, sweat-slicked performer with a cult following. But optimistic? Hmm. Starting out in post-hardcore band Million Dead, after a brief stint touring with school outfit Kneejerk, he was, and still is, a bit of a metal head. However, with five studio albums under his belt, including England Keep My Bones which charted at number 12 and earned him “sell-out” slurs, Turner’s taking folk-punk with an acoustic edge almost mainstream. Hence why he’s playing Cambridge Corn Exchange on his next visit to the city, not old homing coops, the Junction and the Portland. But do not expect a hallowed living room after party of old, it ain’t happening: “Ha, ha, no is the honest answer because with the kind of shows that we do these days, apart from the fact I’m 32 rather than 22, I’m going to
throw everything I’ve got into the gig, and then I’m going to sleep a well-earned sleep.” Optimistic and sensible? What is going on?! The fact is, the angsty Frank Turner who spat out track Thatcher F****d The Kids, has rather mellowed of late, particularly since those early booze and drug fuelled Million Dead days. He switched to a straight-edge persuasion (no drink, drugs or cigarettes), went vegetarian and goes to bed on time. Of course though, the unavoidable biographical nubbin that still most overshadows his music is that he went to Eton at the same time as Prince William. . . “It does for certain types of people,” he concedes levelly, clearly bored of the scrutiny. “I long ago learned, both in my social and public life, that if somebody’s really that narrow that they’re going to judge me on what my parents did for a living, then I’m not really interested in engaging with them. “I’ll get on with my life thanks and just try to treat everybody equally and hope against hope that these other people will too.” Obviously that’s easier said than done, and in many instances has been made more problematic by Turner’s knack for making ill-advised political outbursts. In 2012 the Guardian printed a quote in which he called himself right-wing. So began the hate mail and death threats. “It wasn’t a particularly pleasant period of time,” he admits with a sigh. “I’d love to be totally punk and say I don’t care and it doesn’t matter, but it was pretty goring. But that’s in the past now.” A self-confessed libertarian, these days he’s more thoughtful, but no less vocal. Talking swiftly and brightly, he veers towards self-deprecation
Editor: Paul Kirkley Writer: Ella Walker Email: ella.walker@cambridge-news.co.uk
with a morose twist but there are flashes of laughter and he’s incredibly likeable, even though many of his answers make you feel like you’re getting a telling off. Take his next album. A big part of this tour is the fact he and his band, The Sleeping Souls, are playing some new unrecorded material in preparation for heading straight into the studio after the last show. “I have mixed feelings about road testing material but I do think you can learn something by playing them in front of an audience that you don’t get just playing them in a rehearsal or recording studio.” When asked how different it’s going to be to 2013’s Tape Deck Heart though, I get the schooldays blush caused by exasperating a teacher. “Well it’s going to be different, otherwise there’d be no point,” he says bluntly. “It amazes me that every time I do something people go, ‘it’s different to the last thing he did’, in an accusatory voice as if that was a mistake in some way. “[They say] ‘Ah man, you’ve changed.’ I go, well yeah! That’s the point. Who wants to spend all that time on the road, travelling around the world and not change?” And he has. From his early acoustic protest writings on EP Campfire Punkrock and the folkier Love, Ire & Song, to today’s Tape Deck Heart, but that doesn’t mean he’s always entirely happy with what
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