Frank Turner (Interview and Gig)

Currently Listening to: Frank Turner (The Road)

So using the power that is prescribed to us as members of XpressionFM we managed to garner an interview with Frank Turner on the day of his Exeter Gig in the Lemon Grove (25th October). For those philistines who aren't aware of who Frank Turner is, he's a Folk Punk artist, who's recently released his third album 'Poetry for the Deed'. This has received much critical acclaim, with NME rating it 8/10, and Zane Lowe playing a couple of live tracks on his show. Below is a few of the questions that we put to him.

"How do you feel being in a band like Million Dead (Punk Rock Band) has influenced your musical direction?"

"I was very angry and depressed about my old band breaking up, and I just didn't want to be in a band anymore, but I wanted to keep touring, so I kept just playing shows on my own. One of the interesting things was that, particularly the first album that I did I was in such pains to not sound like Million Dead, I musically held back more than I should have done. In fact it sounds a little restrained to my ears now. Enough time has now passed that I've put that whole thing to bed now, so I'm fine to have more heavier songs on a record without worrying about it."

"You've stayed with your label Xtra Mile recordings, despite an opportunity to change, do you think that this gives you the scope to create the music you want, without worrying about the commercial aspects of the music industry?"

"Yeah I guess, it's one of the great things I have about the job I have and the position I'm in. It wasn't my sole motivation for not changing labels, it was also because I believe in loyalty as a value! I turned down furiously huge amounts of money. There was actually one label, who, after I hung up the phone having turned down a deal, and I thought "This could be the moment I spend the rest of my life regretting!" But, I'm really happy with my label setup right now."

"Even before this tour has finished you are already have another, much bigger tour, in the pipeline for March, playing really big venues, such as the 02 academies around the country. Is this something that you've really strived towards?"

"I'm quite intimidated by it in a way! Even this tour is out of my comfort zone (In a wonderful way!), but I'm not really used to touring at this level. It's great though, I mean obviously quite daunting looking at some of the capacities, but we've sold quite a lot of tickets for it already, which blows my mind! I'm looking forward to it, but it's a challenge to make sure that you put on a good show, and try to connect with an audience and engage with them all at the same time. We'll see whether I can pull it off or not!"

The Full Interview will be online on www.xpressionfm.com/podcasts in the near future, so be sure to check it out if you want to find out gems, such as Frank Turner's favourite newspaper!


The Gig

So to a sell out crowd (700) on the evening of 25th October, Frank Turner and company performed to an excited room. Following two support acts, firstly 'Beans on Toast', who seemed slightly obsessed with drug addiction and Tescos, and a fantastic American Band called 'Fake Problems', Frank came on with his band to an amazing reception. And my, did the hits flow, the lyrics to "The Road" and "Long Live the Queen", were echoed back at Frank by an upbeat crowd.

The lesser known songs tunes of the new album got a healthy reception too, especially "Try this at home", where he declared that "There's no such thing as rock stars, there's just people who play music, and some of them are just like us and some of them are dicks." Check out the podcast page, to find out more about the inspiration to that lyric). It was great to hear tracks of his two ep's as well, especially 'Nashville Tennesse' off of Campfire Punkrock.

Incidentally, never go to a Frank Turner gig hoping to hear "Thatcher f***ed the Kids", as he doesn't play it anymore, as he doesn't agree with many of the lyrics in it. So a word of advice, don't be that dick who keeps shouting out "Thatcher, Thatcher!!", because it'll just piss Frank off! One down point on the evening was his new track "Sons of Liberty", which proclaims the need for the government to leave everyone alone. It split the room somewhat between those who felt like smashing the system, and those slightly less bothered about the whole thing.

After the customary fake ending, Frank ended with "Reasons not to be an idiot", and "Photosynthesis", with the latter seeing all of the members of both supports coming on stage and playing with him. It was a great end to a fantastic performance, heightened by how genuinely grateful Frank Turner was to all the people who had turned up to see him play live.

As previously mentioned, he is doing a tour in March, so if you're near any of those dates, be sure to check it out on his website. And a final plug, check out the full interview on our website.

Adios, and Long live the Queen.