Thursday 29 September 2011


"Balancing plaintive melodies, heartfelt lyrics and rousing fist-in-the-air punk rock."- BBC


Picture not taken by me


After a busy few months of writing and recording tracks in a North London studio, Frank Turner emerges with a brand new album, 'England Keep My Bones'. An inspirational artist in his own right, Frank has worked hard to get to where he is now since his very first solo appearance at Reading/Leeds Festival back in 2008.  Having now travelled the world, playing sold out shows packed full of adoring fans hooked on his every
word, the folk-rock troubadour that is Frank Turner is beginning to reach the dizzying heights of worldwide recognition and acclaim 

I myself have been a fan of Frank for sometime nowso when the opportunity to interview the man himself cropped up I jumped at the chance and sent over an interview to see what I could find out about all things Frank Turner.



How the devil are you? Looking forward to the rest of this year? Looks like we have a heat wave coming this week.

I'm good thanks. Getting my teeth into this here US tour, which is a good thing. I love touring here.



Right lets get straight to it. Tell me about your latest album...

It's called "England Keep My Bones" and I'm very proud of it. It was written on the road, as per usual. The Sleeping Souls played on the record again, but I feel like this time we meshed much better as a unit. I think it sounds more like "me" (for whatever that's worth) than anything I've done before.

Whats all this I hear about a hardcore band that you are forming? Fancy giving me the low down?

I have a plan to a kind of side project sometime next year, when I have some time. I want to do something super aggressive again, very chaotic and unpleasant, haha. But it'll be a short-lived thing, and I'm not 100% sure when I'll actually have the time just yet.

How has life been since becoming a solo artist?

Good thanks. Busy.

Recently you played at the Roadmender in Northampton (my hometown) How did it go? Any complaints?

That was an amazing show actually, we had a great time. It was a warm-up for the Reading & Leeds festivals, but I have to say that it was an awesome night in and of itself. Good crowd. I played there in 2003 with Million Dead, my old band, and it was weird but cool coming back through again. Your perception of the size of rooms changes over time, shall we say.

Long Live The Queen, was in aid of Cancer research and you have supported many other fundraising events, is this something you try to do every year?

When I can, sure. My job involves a pretty relentless cycle of self-promotion, and it's refreshing to work hard to promote something else, something much more worthwhile every now and again. Small steps to making the world a better place. Or something.

I read recently that you are or were at the time going to be starring in a short film? Could you tell me a little about this?

Actually a guy made a short film about me and what I do. It's on my YouTube channel. I think it's very cool. http://tiny.cc/orr7n

The Road will always be one of my favourite songs of yours. I remember seeing you last year and when the intro to this song came on my heart just skipped. My face lit up. For all my readers who don't really know your music yet, can you tell me what influenced this song?


I wrote that song in a hotel room in Italy in the middle of a pretty brutal run through the continent with my friend Chris T-T. We were driving vast distances to play to not many people, but it just felt good to be moving regardless. It's meant to sound like a love song, but directed at a mode of existence rather than a person.

This year you played Reading & Leeds festival which I believe you have done a few times now. What is it like playing such a big festival?

It was great. With no disrespect to Leeds, I grew up going to Reading Festival, so it has a very special place in my heart. It's also fucking huge, which doesn't hurt. Playing the main stage was a big deal for me, and on top of that we got to play on the punk stage as the secret guests as well, so all my buttons were pushed, it was great.

Can you tell me your greatest moment to date?

I find it hard to pick any one individual moment or event. I'm lucky to live a life that's big on dream fulfilment right now, haha. In a way the thing I'm happiest and proudest about is that I'm making a successful living as a travelling musician, which is what I wanted to do, and what I said I'd do, since I was a little kid. I wasn't joking. I'm proud of that fact and I hope I get to do this for a long while yet.

The future. Excited?

Haha, for some reason that question feels very existential to me. There are things coming up I'm excited about, things are going great in the USA in particular, I'm excited about writing new songs and that kind of thing. But the future is a blank slate, it can go either way, and I'm always keen on enjoying the moment, because things can go either way. We'll see, I guess.




You can pre-order England Keep My Bones


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Itunes
Play.com
HMV.com
Banquet



 I Still Believe by EpitaphTours 

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