Our discussion with

I first learned about Frank Turner a little over a year ago, since then I there hasn't been a week that goes by that I don't go through my Frank Turner playlist at least 2 or 3 times. Frank Turner is a SYFFAL favorite and writes songs with a passion and beauty that strikes a particular chord with me. When I first learned of Frank I immediately started touting his work to anyone who would listen, making quite a few converts along the way including SYFFAL contributor Joel Frieders,who comes in at the end of my interview with a few questions of his own.

SYFFAL: Walk us through your history from bands like kneejerk and million dead, and how did you make the transition from punk/post punk to a more folk punk sound?

Frank Turner: I grew up with metal and hardcore, played in a bunch of shitty bands from about the age of 13. The first "serious" band I was in (in the sense that we played shows, toured and (self) released records) was called Kneejerk, we were a three-piece playing techy hardcore. Actually we were the only three people at my school who knew what hardcore was, so we formed a band.

After that broke up when we left school, the drummer and I were in a band called Million Dead. MD actually got signed, toured, released two albums and built up what magazines refer to as a "cult following", playing angular posthardcore type stuff. That came to an end 4 years later in acrimony, and I decided I needed to do something different with my life, my tastes had moved on, I was wary of being tied to anyone else for the time being.. It all just kind of made sense for me to try playing some acoustic music. Once I did, I felt like I'd found my niche, and I remain pretty happy about where I am musically. The end.

SYFFAL: A lot of your songs talk about your disenfranchisement with the left, hippies, and the tenants of the punk scene. Why do you feel that these movements do not translate well as the members of each group age?

Frank Turner: I'm not sure I'm entirely disillusioned with punk as such, it's still something I'm very attached to. Hippies, well, that was never my bag, but then it's not my business either. I was a teenage leftist, sure, and that's something I'm very much not any more. Um, I'm wary of being insulting about other people's political opinions, so be clear that this is me talking only about me here, but.. My attachment to leftism was very adolescent in tone. "Let's make the world a better place by giving people free stuff and fighting the pigs, man!" As you get older you realize that someone already thought of that, tried it, and it's essentially bullshit.

Life, politics, economics, are all infinitely more complicated than that. So that's my reasoning. Punk, incidentally, is a youth movement, and rightly so; punk was never about old farts in leather jackets on documentaries complaining that things aren't like they were in 1977 - of course they're fucking not, and they shouldn't be. Punk is about the young and the angry tearing up the rules, and I love it.

SYFFAL: In the song "I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous" you mention Justin, the last great romantic poet and the only one who will ever really make it. Did he make it? and if so what is his last name so we can check out his work?

Frank Turner: Justin went under the name Jay Jay Pistolet and wrote some of the most achingly beatiful songs I've ever heard. I'm very sorry to say he hung up the towel on making music last year. I think you can still find some stuff on myspace though. Shows what I know, ha!

SYFFAL: Who are your influences? I hear a lot of billy bragg, as well as, and this might sound weird a bit of old school early career Billy Joel? are these correct assumptions?

Frank Turner: Bragg, sure, although I'd point out that I didn't really come across his stuff until people started saying I sounded like him! When I started playing solo, I just kinda wanted to be Neil Young, with a side-helping of Josh Rouse. Since then I'd add Springsteen, Dylan, Loudon Wainwright...Anything really, that has good songwriting and good lyrics, as I see it.

SYFFAL: Is it true you went to school with prince william? and if so is he as dreamy in real life? also do you think he will grow up to look like john travolta? they have very similiar chins.

Frank Turner: Haha, yeah I was briefly in a French class with the guy. Um, he seemed a little dull to me, truth be told, but then I suppose he has to be - every time he farts it's in the tabloids, so he can hardly drop acid and run down the street naked now. Hadn't thought about his chin before, I'll have to have another look.

SYFFAL: A lot of your songs hit an emotional chord with me, the passion in them is undeniable, how do you get through songs like "Long Live the Queen" and "The Ballad of Me and My Friends" without your voice cracking from the emotion. When I try to sing along or sing them in the shower my voice breaks everytime? Also does this mean i am a pussy or just a terrible singer?

Frank Turner: Haha, neither my friend, just a gentle soul. Uh, there's a level on which one has to take a step back when performing a song like Queen, I can't live through that every time I sing it. Having said that, there are days when it's harder than others to sing in front of a crowd who never knew Lex. The ballad, well, for me that's a defiant song, a Fuck you song, so it's easy to sing.

SYFFAL: If you could fight one public figure, to the death, steal cage, no holds barred who would it be and why? Also what would your Mortal Kombat style finishing move be?

Frank Turner: I'd say Tony Blair. I know he's not our prime minister any more, but the damage that the fucking oily used-car-salesman muthafucker did to my country may never be repaired, and I want to break his oleaginous fucking teeth. Fact.

SYFFAL: Any plans to release something similiar to "The First Three Years" again?

Frank Turner: Yeah we've been talking about doing "the next three years" sometime next year. We shall see. Only if it ends up being something that's value for money.

At this point SYFFAL's Joel Frieders takes the reigns.

SYFFAL: The first time I heard your music I tried to describe you in regards to other artists I'm familiar with as well as some colorful language. please comment on my assessment:

If Ben Folds ate meat, drank whiskey, had friends, had a kick ass accent and wasn't afraid to tilt his head back and pour out his motherfucking heart to a room of people who arent good enough to even get spat on with his spittle.

Comments?

Frank Turner: Haha, I'll take it, very complimentary. Two quibbles - everyone's good enough to be spat on (except Blair, hehe), and I don't have an accent, you guys do!

SYFFAL: What is your favorite performance memory? and it cannot include sexual favors in return for services rendered.

Frank Turner: There are too many to mention really. My favourite shows range from playing at Reading Festival this year to a shitload of people, through to playing a house show in Philadelphia last summer that was off the scale. I shared a stage with Rambling Jack Elliot not so long ago. I'm lucky in that.

SYFFAL: What is your main songwriting guitar? Can I touch it?

Frank Turner: My main guitar is a custom build, made for me by Patrick Eggle (www.eggle.co.uk), partly built from an English Walnut tree that grew in the valley where I was raised. So it's pretty fucking special, and it plays and sounds something awesome as well. You can touch it, even play me a song if you like.

SYFFAL: On songs like "Photosynthesis", how do you know when a song is going to contain the excess elements like violin, bar crowd, etc.?

Frank Turner: I hear them in my head, and then I try and make that sound get caught on tape. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It worked well with that song I think.

SYFFAL: Can you arrange a "24 Shows in 24 Hours" type thing in Chicago? I make no promises about not stalking you, or booing you when you stop. Why did you have to stop?

Frank Turner: You know, I'd really rather never, ever play 24 shows in 24 hours ever again. That was a worthwhile project, but fucking hell, it sucked for quite a lot of it. Worth doing, but that's all. Ha.