Turn The Page

Last year was enormous for Frank Turner. The 31-year-old musician performed at the opening ceremony of the Olympic games, sold out Wembley Arena and had Billy Bragg play as his support act. Despite his meteoric rise to fame, the English singer-songwriter, who cut his teeth in the London punk scene, tries to remain grounded. There's the show-and-tell performance he recently gave for his five-year-old nephew's class, writing songs in his bedroom and his self-referential, often self-loathing lyrics, which constantly keep him in check.

On Four Simple Words, a track from his upcoming album Tape Deck Heart, Turner lays his ethos on the line for the world to see, as he sings “I want bands who have to work for their keep/Drive a thousand miles and play the show with no sleep/Sleeping on the floor of a stranger's place/Hungry just to do it all again the next day. Forget about your bitching and remember that you're blessed/Punk is for the kids who never fit in with the rest.” “It's inspired by the many stereotypically un-punk things that have happened in my career,” he reflects. “The music that I make isn't and has never been strictly punk rock, but punk was the foundation stone of my world view and my taste in music when I was a teenager. It's surprising and nice to discover now, however many years on, that I still feel so strongly about it and view the world through a punk rock pair of spectacles. That song is a love song, a reminder that whatever else happens or wherever I may go, that that's my scene, my tribe.”

Tape Deck Heart has been described by Turner as his darkest and most revealing record to date. From personal politics to openly discussing failed relationships, his scars are bare and open. “Tell Tale Signs in particular was a tough one to get down,” he says. “It was deliberate, partly because that's where my head is right now and that's what I wanted to write about, but also I have this theory that one of the reasons why bands quite often get less interesting as they go along is that they get too guarded about what they are saying and who might hear it and how many people are going to be listening. When you start out and you're writing songs in your bedroom you don't have any of those considerations, you just write from your heart and it's much more direct and honest. So without wanting to be too calculated about it, I figured the best thing I could do for this record was try and write as if I was in my bedroom and no one gave a shit and no one was going to listen. That way I could be honest and unguarded.”

Turner, whose bare-bones lyrics are now public property, acknowledges the accountability has made him a better songwriter. “Having written in this way, now I feel quite exposed on a person level, but I think that's actually a good thing. It means I've said something real and meaningful and something un-retractable, which for me is the point of art,” he says.

For all his honesty, there still remains an element of caution, as Turner refuses to be drawn on song specifics. He also admits that while the characters mentioned in his songs aren't fictitious, their names have been altered, most notably that of Amy. A character that has appeared in many guises on his last few records – including as a barmaid, a horoscope reader and childhood friend – this time plays the role of a heartbreaking former lover and muse for much of the album. “Amy is someone who has sprung up in songs before,” says a guarded Turner, for the first time in the interview. “I should add that that's not her real name.”

Lyrically, Turner has pushed himself outside of his comfort zone and while he may have safeguarded himself with aliases, there was no hiding anything from producer Rich Costey, who recorded the album. “At the start of the process I wasn't really sure what was going to go down. It was a mystery to me. I've never worked with a producer of Rich Costey's level before, so I was open to suggestion and new ideas,” he says, of the producer that has worked with Muse, Franz Ferdinand and Jane's Addiction. “Rich was just pushing all of us, me and the guys in the band, to dig as deep as possible and dig out the best we could. There was one song, Tell Tale Sign, where he made me do 42 vocal takes on it. Usually I'd just do five and we'd pick the best verse and the best chorus and there you go, you've got a vocal take; but he had this theory that I had something deeper inside me that I could pull out and bring to the song, which I hadn't yet done. It was very frustrating for a while and I got quite pissed off, but the final result was the vocal take was way better than it would have otherwise been. It was that idea of not accepting anything less than perfect for an answer on any aspect of the recording.” 

The strive for perfection has seen Turner recently form a partnership with Interscope Records, making him labelmates with 50 Cent, The Black Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga. “I did a few records with Epitaph and it was fantastic and I have not a bad word to say about working with them,” he says of leaving the California-based punk label, “but the option arrived this time to work with somebody new and look further afield. The guys at Interscope made a great pitch. They essentially gave me a marketing plan that meant I didn't have to change anything about how I do my business or compromise anything artistically. So it was a no-brainer for me.”

The tour for Turner's previous album, 2011's England Keep My Bones, included 307 shows in 23 countries. While the album won't be out until late-April, Turner won't be compromising his meticulous touring ethic either, excited to begin the promotional jaunt in Australia with a setlist drawn from each of his five albums. “We'll be playing new stuff, but at the same time the record won't be out yet. I go to gigs and I hate it when bands only play songs off the new record. You've got to mix it up and play the old stuff as well. Try and keep everyone happy,” he laughs.

Frank Turner will be playing the following dates:

Thursday 28 March - Bluesfest, Byron Bay NSW
Sunday 31 March - Panthers, Newcastle NSW
Monday 1 April - Big Top Luna Park, Sydney NSW
Tuesday 2 April - Festival Hall, Melbourne VIC