Frank Turner

Frankie says relax

Spacedisasters,crushesand Taylor Swift – Frank Turner guides NME through his new LP

ME finds a

Ngrinning Frank Turner in the sun-dappled beer garden of the Monarch pub in Camden, north London. He’s got every right to be cheerful ahead of the release of his sixth album, ‘Positive Songs For Negative People’ – out August 7 and produced by Butch Walker (Weezer, The Wombats, Taylor Swift). “‘Tape Deck Heart’ was a downer record; it was a record about failure and heartbreak,” he says of his last, altogether gloomier LP. “This is a record about standing up again once you’ve fallen down, coming out of the tornado shelter once the town has been destroyed and starting to rebuild.” Here’s Frank’s track-by-track guide to its stand-out songs.

The Angel Islington

“We start off back on the banks of the muddy Thames, with the fisher king [character from ‘Tape Deck Heart’] feeling sorry for himself, but this time, rather than wanting to throw himself in the river and die, he’s going ‘Fuck it, I’m going to do something else with my life.’ It’s sort of a love song as well, about a situation where I fell for a girl who turned out not to be straight. I felt like an idiot, but I’m not bitter!”

Get Better

“I wrote it after listening to ‘One Night Stand! Live At The Harlem Square Club’ by Sam Cooke. There was a moment when I was wondering national TV. What I heard that really threw me for a loop was that she didn’t die when the rocket exploded, she died when the capsule hit the water, two minutes and 45 seconds later. I wanted the end to be sung by an American woman to be Christa. The record label were suggesting some of the more famous people that Butch has worked with, like, fucking Taylor Swift. No contact was ever made but they were like, ‘Let’s ask Taylor’. It was like, ‘That’s a fucking rubbish idea’. In the end Esmé Patterson, who is signed to Xtra Mile, sang it.”

“THERE WAS A MOMENT WHEN I WAS WONDERING IF I WAS GOING TO MAKE A WHITE SOUL RECORD”

whether I was going to make a white soul record. I didn’t, which is probably for the best! It’s optimistic, unashamed, heart on your sleeve. It’s not saying ‘Don’t worry, be happy’, but ‘Worry, the world is awful, but fight back’.”

Mittens

“In thrift shops you can often buy used postcards, which are a fascinating snapshot of someone’s life; there’s this beautiful, selfcontained short story. I got into them when I was sort of seeing someone but it didn’t work out; I sent her a postcard and she didn’t write back, which I thought was poor form.”

Josephine

“I was staying at my sister’s house in Lancaster and I had this dream about the name Josephine being whispered in my ear. I thought I didn’t know anyone called Josephine until the song was finished when my friend Jo, or Josie, went ‘Um, hello?’ My favourite lyric on the record is on this song: ‘You come as a car crash/I’ll go as James Dean’.”

Silent Key

“The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster of 1986 is something I have vague memories of. Christa McAuliffe was a high school teacher who was put on board to engage children with the space programme and then proceeded to die on Song For Josh

“Josh Burdette was the security guy at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC. He was a staple of the American punk scene. When he died, Green Day had his picture up behind them in stadiums. He and I were very good friends. When I played Wembley [Arena in 2012] he did security for me, which was just an excuse for me to hang out with my buddy. He took his own life the next year – nobody saw it coming at all. The song was recorded in front of his crowd in his venue. His family and all the 9:30 crew were there.” ▪ LEONIE COOPER

►Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls play this year’s INmusic festival, Croatia. Joining him in Zagreb from June 22-24 are FFS, La Roux and Placebo. Buy tickets at inmusicfestival.com/en