Interview: Frank Turner
If 1,500+ words is too much to read, then you can read the edited-for-word-count interview here. Otherwise, here’s the full thing. This was done right after the American elections and before his 2000th show, so all his plans for that show have already happened. I was a little rusty after not having interviewed anyone for months, but I knew going into this that Frank is an easy, friendly person to interview, so that calmed my nerves. I also had a mishap with the phone number (dialing an international number is a fantastic way to discover you can’t make international calls from your phone unless you pay an extra $5 per month). If you ever get the chance to interview or simply talk with him, I encourage you to do so.
Frank: Hi, how’re you doing? Sorry I missed you earlier. I’ve got interviews coming out of my ass.
Lisa Mrock: It’s fine. It’s completely fine. The publication I write is called Chicago Innerview. It’s an online magazine. Just gonna ask you some questions and it should take around fifteen-
Frank: Give me two seconds just to say goodbye to the last people that were interviewing me and I will be right with you.
LM: Sounds good.
Frank: Cool. [says goodbye to other interviewers] Hello, right. I’m with you. Chicago.
LM: Alright. First question. Your 2000th show is coming up, so first of all congratulations.
FT: Thank you.
LM: What sort of special plans do you have in store for that?
FT: It’s mad to put it this way – a thousand shows ago – when we did our thousandth show, I wasn’t planning to make a big deal about it, but when it came along, if nothing else, it’s an excuse for a party because it’s a different kind of show, so we did that. We’re doing it again this year. I’m playing a show at Nottingham Rock City, which is my favorite venue in the world. We’re going to be documenting the show for some form of release in the future, I haven’t quite lined that out yet. The most exciting thing about it to me is that the first support for the evening, I’ve got a band called The Tailors. The Tailors were a London country band in the early 2000s... they were my favorite band back then, and they were a big part of the reason why I started playing acoustic-based music, and I got them to reunite for the show, and I’m actually playing guitar in the band, so I’m very excited about that.
LM: It’s been about a year and a half since Positive Songs For Negative People was released, and looking back on the album, were there certain ideas you wanted to do but weren’t able to?
FT: Not really with that particular album. The whole vibe of Positive Songs was me essentially telling everybody else in my sort of world and organization to piss off because I had a very, very, very clear idea of what I wanted that record to be. I was very fired up. You know, sometimes to go to make a record and you’re not entirely sure of how it’s going to come out when you come out the studio. I sort of felt like I knew what that record sounded like 6 months before we got anywhere near a studio, and I was on a real stubborn mission to make it that, which I’ve succeeded in doing. Looking back on it, I think there are parts of it that could be done differently... but for that individual record, that was sort of what it was supposed to be. It was my very sort of defiant like, “this is me, this is what I do, and everyone else fuck off,” kind of record. And it was successful as such.
LM: It’s also been a year and a half since your book The Road Beneath My Feet came out and I was wondering if it’s made you want to be more earnest in keeping a tour diary?
FT: No, not really. The thing about it is I didn’t actually keep a journal from which I constructed the book from. Particularly, I went back and remembered stuff... my previously infallible memory of shows was starting to fray at the edges and there were things I could no longer remember, so I wanted to set stuff down while the ideas were still in my head. It was fun to do and it was cool. People have asked whether I’m going to do another book because that one finished in 2012. I’m not sure I’d do another one in the same vein, simple because that book is about how you get from playing basements and bars to playing in an arena show or whatever, so I don’t think then a book about kind of continuing to exist at that certain level in the industry is quite as interesting. Having said that, it’s certainly given me a taste for the business of writing books. It was a lot harder than I expected it to be, but it was commensurately rewarding, and I really enjoyed the process of finishing it. I’ve been really thinking about writing another book, but just maybe about something different.
LM: As of recent you’ve spoken out about the American elections. You tend to stay away from politics. What made you want to speak out about them?
FT: Part of the reason why I tend to shy away from politics is I don’t think musicians are particularly well-qualified to comment on it, and I don’t think the medium in which they work, which for the most part are song and social media, are conducive to intelligent comment. But the American elections struck me as very important. I have very strong feelings about it, and it struck me as reason enough to break myself from a post embargo momentarily. Hopefully the piece I wrote and put out there was respectful of the fact that I’m not American, and it’s not directly my business to pass comment on who anyone should vote for. It seemed important to me. Things didn’t go the way I was hoping they would go, but it has not dimmed my passion for America as a country, and I’ve been gladdened to see the level of reasonable defiance coming from much of my American friends.
Me: I read what you wrote and it definitely was respectful, you hit the nail on the head.
FT: Good to know.
LM: And then America dropped the ball.
FT: [laughs]
LM: You’ve written a lot of songs about other people, but I’m wondering, has anyone ever written a song about you?
FT: Yes, although not always in a way I’ve particularly appreciated. There’s a couple of people who’ve sort of name-dropped me in songs. I know that the guys in Bowling For Soup keep name-dropping me in songs, but they’re lovely. They’ve always done it in a lovely, friendly kind of way, and that’s fine. There’s been one or two. Somebody wrote a slightly barbed political song about me. I don’t think anyone really noticed, so life went on.
LM: Where’s a place you haven’t played yet that you’d absolutely love to play?
FT: The short answer to that is anywhere I haven’t played. I’m trying to get to all 50 states. One of the fortunes I have in this life is I get to go to different places, different parts of the world, through the medium of being a musician, which always strikes me as sort of hilariously unlikely but also wonderful. Top of my list right now is South America. I’m very keen to get there and we are working on something right now.
LM: If you could write a song about a certain food item or kind of food, or just a place you like to eat at, what would it be?
FT: Buffalo wings. We don’t have buffalo wings in the U.K. It’s just not a thing. It’s a source of enormous sadness for me because whenever I go to America I’m in B-Dubs so we can breathe in. I’m a big fan.
LM: What’s something people assume about you that isn’t true, and something they wouldn’t or don’t assume that actually is true?
FT: I’m not trying to dodge the question, but the nature of what I do for a living is that, even to the small degree I am, being a public figure means people assume until the fucking cows come home every aspect about me and about my life. I’ve read such hilarious bullshit about myself online in all different directions over the years, and you have to learn to ignore it, really. I’ve seen mad claims about me personally, politically, whatever else, all of which were bullocks, and you just have to hold onto the fact that the people who matter are gonna know who you are. I’ve seen a lot of silly shit. Off the top of my head, one of the silliest ones is somebody at one point thought I was Alex Turner’s uncle, which is annoying to me because I’m not fucking old. People assume lots of things... I communicate through my music.
LM: I think collectively the world’s been looking forward to 2017 since about June, but what are you looking forward to most next year? What does 2017 have in store for you?
FT: Well, like anybody in my shoes I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire... and I’m looking forward to see which of those come to fruition. I’m not just working on a new record for myself, I’ve got various side projects... I think the most concrete thing I’m looking forward to next year is the tour that we’re doing in January and February because it’s gonna be my biggest American tour to date. I’ve spent a lot of time and energy slogging around the States in the last two years, and it’s really exciting to see that start to pay off. We’re doing our first headlining arena show outside the U.K. in Boston in February and stuff like that. It’s very exciting for me.










