Interview by Tom Remp

Frank Turner is an English Singer/songwriter who's catchy brand of music has captured the hearts of thousands. Initially the vocalist of Million Dead, Turner has embarked on a solo career that has lifted him to new heights. Student at Large was afforded the opportunity to talk to Frank, and we appreciate his candid and down to earth attitude. As an aside, we are also very jealous of anyone who gets to party with Fat Mike from NOFX. 

SAL: Frank, we could give you the regular interview questions that you’ve always gotten. But we don’t want to make you sit through something mundane, we want to get to know you as if we were having a pint together. So why not start off with a story? Any story will do, something interesting that's happened in your life. In fact, I had a teacher once who would let us shout out years and he’d say whether it was a good year or bad and what he was doing around then. So, how about 2003? 

Turner: Haha, good opener. 2003, well, I was in Million Dead back then, that was the year we released our first album, when things really began to happen for us as a band, we did our first headline tour of the UK as well and sold it out. It was an exciting time. I was also in a pretty destructive relationship at the time as well. I remember, after we headlined a sold out garage in London (one of my favourite venues), I had a massive fight with my girlfriend and then ended up loading the gear back to the rehearsal space on my own. Oh the memories.

SAL: Do you feel like you’ve travelled enough, or "seen the world" or has it been a bunch of airports with little exploring? 

Turner: I don't really think about what I do in those terms. I feel the need to keep moving, and I enjoy seeing those bits of the world that I get to see. There's not much time for sightseeing in my days, too much work to do, but then I have seen some cool stuff. The world is bigger and more fascinating than any of our imaginations, so I'm happy to keep seeing little corners of it.

SAL: I heard sting once went undercover and busked a street corner just to see who would notice. Have you done that, and did people notice?

Turner: No, that strikes me as being a little egocentric - it's essentially an experiment to test your own notoriety. I don't really give a shit whether anyone would notice or not.(SAL: Egocentric? Sting? Never!)

SAL: How often do you write songs and scrap them before you get to one you like, and do you grow to be bored with your older material?

Turner: My songwriting is pretty good at self-editorial (I like to think, haha) - if a song reaches the point where it's actually finished and I play it out to people, then I'm usually pretty happy with it. Stuff that gets scrapped is killed off a lot earlier in the process. I guess sometimes older material gets a little wearying, but then if you're playing it to a room of people singing it back it's difficult to complain, and sometimes it can actually be really interesting coming back to old songs and seeing them with fresh eyes.

SAL: What are the top three most listened to songs on your iPod?

Turner: (Just checking...) "Virtute The Cat Explains Her Departure" by the Weakerthans; "Sticks & Stones" by Jamie T; "The Modern Leper" by Frightened Rabbit.

SAL:What kinds of things are you going to be doing in the next 3 months and why are you excited about it?

Turner: Touring, touring and touring. But some great roads to travel - the USA is my favourite place to tour, and we're here for the next six weeks or so; then Europe and the Wembley show, which should be awesome; and then back to Canada and further afield. I never tire of it.

SAL:Where do you see yourself in two years?

Turner: Hopefully still a professional travelling musician. Hopefully a better songwriter.

SAL: Your music is very political, is there any current issues that are pissing you off which might make it to a future album?

Turner: There are lots of things that piss me off happening right now - in particular the total ignorance of or disregard for those parts of our constitution that are worth defending (equality before the law, trial by jury, free press and so on). I'm wary of putting too much direct politics into my music actually, because I don't want to be divisive in what I do. Music is a uniting force, t its best.

SAL: Who is your biggest inspiration? 

Turner: Henry Rollins and Bruce Springsteen.

SAL: If you could cover any song by anyone, which would you choose?

Turner: I cover songs all the time; most recently I've been knocking out some Townes Van Zandt tunes. I love playing other people's songs.

SAL: What did you want to be when you grew up?

Turner: A musician, for the most part. I remember wanting to be a paleontologist at one point, because dinosaurs are fucking cool, but then rock'n'roll took over and I never looked back.

SAL: What’s the craziest thing a fan has ever done for you?

Turner:There's a guy in Canada who has my face tattooed on his leg, which is a bit odd. But for the most part the people who like my music and come to my shows are sweethearts - people give me trinkets, bake cookies, name their cats after me or whatever, I think it's delightful and I'm humbled by it all.

SAL: Have you ever found that you had fans in surprising places, if so where?
The internet is a wonderful thing for making the world a smaller place. I've had emails from most corners of this world. I even got one from Greenland once, haha, that was pretty cool.

SAL: If you had to give any advice to young musicians trying to get big, what would it be?
Turner:Work your fucking arse off and expect nothing in return except for the love of music. And you might be pleasantly surprised.

SAL: How do you feel about Internet piracy and the fact that many people listening to your music have not paid for it?

Turner: The business model that the music industry works on is changing completely at the moment; we're in a state of flux. At the end of it all, things may be better, they may be worse (personally I'm actually pretty optimistic about it). But for the time being there's a mismatch between the way music is supposed to be funded, and the way people want to pay for it. That leads to a lot of decent, hard-working people getting screwed, which is something that pisses me off. But yeah, in the long term, things could well be better for everyone, musicians and music lovers alike.

SAL: If you could write a song in any language apart from English which would you choose?

Turner: French, and I have already done so. It wasn't very good.

SAL: If you could play a benefit concert in any country to benefit any cause where/what would you choose?

Turner: That's an interesting question actually. I think it'd be good to do some anti-Communist stuff in places like China or Cuba, if we're talking politics; if we're talking charities, well, there are many to choose from. I have a sort of historical attachment to the Breast Cancer Campaign.

SAL: If you had unlimited money to produce a music video what would it be like?

Turner: Uhm, well, as much as it's fun to think about shooting something at a mansion with thongs and piles of cash and all the rest of it, it might be more fun to make a video of me giving away the cash to people who actually need it. Ha!

SAL: Now you are becoming very well known in the U.K and indeed around the world who is the craziest celebrity you’ve ever met, and what is your craziest rock-star party story.

Turner: I'm a little uncomfortable about the word "celebrity" - the people who are best described as such are the kind of reality TV people, who are pretty worthless in my eyes. I've met a bunch of people who are famous for their skills, but I respect them first, and for the most part they're friends now as well. I would say that partying with Fat Mike from NOFX is always a blast, that guy knows how to cause some mayhem.

Check out Frank Turner's music, tour dates, and information on his website.