Frank Turner interview
In an extended version of the interview from the HUCK#023 feature, we talk to the folk-punk singer about scenes, politics and protest.
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It's been five years, 27 countries and over 900 shows since Frank Turner picked up his guitar and hit the road on a one-man mission to broaden minds with his unique blend of folk-punk.
Last year, this former Million Dead frontman was picked up by the prestigious indie label Epitaph after he caught the ear of Bad Religion guitarist and label founder Brett Gurewitz. Now, after a string of well-attended festival appearances, the post-hardcore troubadour is gathering towards critical mass.
HUCK caught up with this former Eton schoolboy to talk scenes, politics and protest.
HUCK: Your current success has hinged very much in that scene that you grew up with as lead singer of Million Dead. Do you feel like you stand alone in the UK in that you sit somewhere between the folk scene and your hardcore roots?
Frank Turner: I hope so. The idea of scenes has always made me feel slightly uncomfortable. They always struck me as a really crap reason to like a band, because they’re friends with other bands or they’re from a certain town or something. […] It’s kind of like something that I take great pride in is that at some of my shows you’d get people who wouldn’t be at other shows coming together. […] I’ve toured with metal bands, toured with punk bands and all that kind of thing and I love it when you see old folky types standing next to 15-year-old kids with Mohawks. […] I think that’s cool.
And did you initially find that transition quite hard coming from Million Dead? Did you encounter resistance from people asking why you were picking up an acoustic guitar?
Well, I think there were some people who were not convinced at first shall we say, including a lot of my friends which is fair enough. I wouldn’t necessarily call it all small-minded. I mean I made different music from what I did in Million Dead and it’s perfectly legitimate to like that and not like what I do now. One of the things about it was that I was trying out a style that was new to me. It’s not like I was returning to my roots by switching to playing acoustic or anything like that, I mean I grew up listening to Metallica and Black Flag so it was kind of scary. […] I went form playing to 500 people at a show with Million Dead to about four people on the first show. It doesn’t matter how well adjusted one thinks one is, that’s kind bruising for your ego, you know? At the time, I sustained myself through some kind of ridiculously over the top level of self-belief, and looking back at it now, I can see everyone else’s point like ‘what on earth was I doing?’ But at the time, it felt like it made sense.
What was the real impetus for making quite a leap from one thing to another?
I think that one of the things is that Million Dead ended in not a particularly nice way. We are all pretty well adjusted with one another now but, at the immediate time of our break-up, there was a lot of bad blood going on which is a shame. […] That and the fact that playing in and touring with hardcore bands for about seven or eight years, I just felt bored with that style and it seemed like I needed to try something new. Whether you want to describe that as getting older or a shift in taste, over the last couple of years Million Dead existed, I’d spend my time sitting in the back of the van listening to records by Johnny Cash or Springsteen, rather than listening to Refused, At the Drive-in or any hardcore band.
It's just frustrating when people go ‘you’re a political singer’ and then assume a whole kind of set of beliefs
When you first embarked on solo song writing, were you quite conscious about writing your songs for a diverse audience? Who did you look to for inspiration?
To answer the first part of that question, I didn’t then and I never really have written songs for anyone other than myself. In my opinion, if you wanted a textbook definition of what selling out is, it’s writing songs for anyone other than yourself, whether that’s the fans or the record label or your girlfriend. To be artistically honest, you write for yourself, but it wasn’t like I sat down and thought let’s write some successful music. That was the music I wanted to hear myself playing. I had a lot of different inspirations at the time. When I first started doing this, I was on this massive Neil Young trip. I’m a fan of song writing do you know what I mean? I think Madness write songs as much as Abba write songs, and I think it’s possible to define the kind of skeleton of song writing beneath both those bands. That’s what I wanted to do as well.
How do you feel when people liken you to someone like Billy Bragg, following in that tradition of storytelling using those punk and folk roots?
I think that’s great. At the risk of sounding like I’m protesting too much, I’m definitely a Billy Bragg fan. I can’t say I was that into Billy Bragg until I started doing what I’m doing now – until after the first couple of shows when everyone told me I’m like Billy Bragg so I went and bought a load of Billy Bragg records. I really like Billy’s music. I’m lucky enough to count him as a friend these days as well but I think every artist has one other artist that they’re constantly compared to. […] So I’m not gonna lose too much sleep over it. You used the word tradition there and that’s really important to me in that I know I come at it from a slightly different angle but I’m interested in the idea of musical tradition. I actually think we’re starting to enter a phase now as rock ‘n’ roll is reaching a point where its an entire human life time since it began. Rock ‘n’ roll is developing it’s own tradition and I actually think that’s a really interesting and exciting thing to be a part of.
You studied politics and you’re quite pro-active with certain organisations that you believe in. Is it important for you to use your platform as an artist to express your political beliefs? Or would you prefer to keep music and politics separate?
At the end of the day, I’m a musician and want to be considered as a musician. I have a lot of political opinions; for the most part I think they’re separate. I have got a platform. I have X number of people who read my blog […] which gives me a kind of position from which I can spread the word about stuff to a degree. But I never want to get into that position of being overshadowed by my politics which I think is something that happened to Billy Bragg for a while. I think that’s a shame because he’s actually an excellent songwriter. He’s a better songwriter than he is a politician actually. The other thing I find extremely frustrating is that within the world of music and within the arts generally, people talk about being political, and they use that word to mean one certain type of politics. But if ‘oh you’re political, you’ll be into the Socialist Workers party.' I’m like, ‘absolutely fucking not, I think they’re cretins.’ I’m a libertarian - I believe in the freedom and dignity of the individual. I do have political views and I have a belief about the problem with states and governments, but it's just frustrating when people go ‘you’re a political singer’ and then assume a whole kind of set of beliefs that they think I should subscribe to.
What would you say is your ultimate goal for your music?
I would say I have two goals in music. One of which is that it would please me enormously if I could continue making music and it could be my living for the rest of my life. It has to be said that statistically the odds are against me, but it would be amazing if I could achieve that. Secondly, I just want to write the best songs that I can, I constantly feel that I haven’t yet written the best songs that I could write and that gives me the impetus to keep going.
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Frank Turner interview (text) by Andrea Kurland is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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