Rik Sharma caught up with local singer-songwriter Frank Turner at his homecoming gig in Winchester.

Introduce yourself.

My name is Frank Turner, I come from Winchester, and it’s nice to be home!

How’s the tour been going so far?

Really, really good. I’ve never headlined at this level before, supported many times, but never headlined at these venues.  It’s a bit surreal, but it’s great and the shows have been selling out. It’s always a bit nerve-racking when you book a round of shows, that are the next rung up, because you think “nobody’s gonna come!” You lie awake at night, wondering whether anyone will buy tickets. This time round, everybody bought all the tickets! We’ve now got another tour on sale, in March, which I’m lying awake wondering about! But this one was ok!

What’s the biggest tour venue been?

Nottingham Rock City. But tomorrow, London Shepherd’s Bush will be bigger, by 100 extra people. I will be counting them, every one. For me, the type of venues that you headline is the most tangible measure of one’s success, radio play and record sales are a little bit academic to me; it’s just I’ve seen a lot of my heroes headline Shepherd’s Bush.  To be doing the same thing myself... and to have it sell out two months in advance, was like... “OK then!”

Were you happy with your new album?

Yeah, I am. It was a strange one this time around; there’s always a limbo, a couple of months when you’ve finished it, and you’ve got it, and no-one else does.  But this time it dawned on me that there was an awful lot more people waiting to hear the new album this time round than any previous records I’ve released, whether with Million Dead or solo, or whatever. And this period of time became quite stressful... I just kept going “the mix is wrong!”, “the songs aren’t right!” The bottom line is, I did the best I could at the time, I’m happy that I did that, I’m happy with the songs, I think they’re great. Some things worked better than others, but as an overall body of work, I’m really pleased with it, and people seem to like it!

That brings me onto my next question... signing to Epitaph; how did that come about?

It was pretty old fashioned. They came across my stuff, we were doing well in the UK, and looking for a label outside of the UK. I got a phone call from Brett [Gurewitz, founder of Epitaph, member of seminal punk band Bad Religion], and he was like “Hi, do you want to sign for my label?”, and I was like “yeah” [laughs]. We talked to them, they asked us what we wanted, we told them, they said “OK”. And we were like... “hmm... this is too easy”. It was great. We were talking to a lot of different labels, quite big labels, and the one thing they were adamant about was that we’d leave Xtra Mile, and go with them, for the World. And I was like... “Well... I don’t wanna do that”. They’ve done an amazing job, and continue to do an amazing job, and loyalty is important.  So we told that to Brett, and he was “Yeah, that’s cool”. It was like... “Well... that’s easy”.

Is that how the tour supporting the Offspring in America came about, with Epitaph?

They were involved, certainly. In the end, the band picked the supports, so they came down and said that they were fans! Which was really weird. But they were super nice guys, Noodles and Dexer and all that. Very nice people.

Eleven months ago, you played the Winchester Tower Arts Centre, and now you’re playing the Guildhall. What’s happened in between?

[Laughs] They told us when we got here today, apparently tonight is going to be the biggest indoor gig in the history of Winchester! Which as a home town show, is pretty fucking cool right there.

[The guitarist from Frank’s backing band pipes up: ‘That’s not true. King Alfred rocked!’]
Frank: Pretty sure he only pulled 750. Pretty sure King Alfred pulled 750. I think... my perception of it is probably slightly different to most peoples, and I wish I could see it from outside. It seems almost like we’ve hit the mainstream, or started to. Which is really odd. Because I didn’t grow up listening to mainstream music. Just being on ASDA playlists...

And some of the music on Match of the Day.

Yeah! Match of the Day.. it’s like.. “Really?”. But it’s been cool, it’s been fucking great. It’s just a bit weird. But it’s felt natural. It hasn’t been, suddenly “some guy in a suit has written out a massive cheque and I’m on the cover of the NME”. The NME has still never written an article about me, so... Well, I don’t know. I think it’s because people do like my music, rather than feel like they should. It seems like there’s an awful lot of bands who are popular because people feel they should be into them. And I think, or like to tell myself, that’s not the case with me.

What was it like playing the Radio 1 tent at Reading? How many people were in there?

I think it’s around 15,000 people when it’s full. And it was pretty full. That kind of ballpark. It was pretty cool. Reading was a festival I went to when I was a kid. That’s a lot of people. I’ll tell you one thing that was funny... we were on after Lethal Bizzle both days. Which was a challenge, that guy knows how to get a crowd jumping.  Particularly in Leeds, I made the mistake of watching his set from the side of the stage.  I was like.... “Oh. I’ve got to go on and play some country music now”. But it was definitely a career highlight.
“Q. Why can’t Stevie Wonder see his family?
A. Because he’s married...”

What are you doing now? In March you’ve got that tour with Chuck Ragan...

99% yes. That’s what I want, and he said yes. But his booking agent’s being a bit odd. Hopefully it’s not going to ruin anything. Immediately after this, I’m going back to the States on Saturday, to do the ‘Revival Tour’ with Chuck Ragan, which is going to be great. Then we’ve got a European tour with the band, a couple weeks off for Christmas, then back in the States with the Bronx. Then in Europe again, then March tour, then Europe again, then Australia.

I know with all the touring there’ll be no time to record, but any plans for new material?

I’m always writing new stuff. I really like the idea of doing an album of traditional songs, Old English songs. I think that would be nice to do. But particularly with Epitaph, there’s a lot more world to tour around, before I can rest on my laurels and start thinking about the next record.

On this tour you’ve been playing ‘Smiling at Strangers on Trains’, is that anything to do with the re-release of the Million Dead CD?

Not particularly... I think it’s more just... when I started doing solo stuff, I was a little bit touchy about it, and didn’t want to constantly be under the shadow of something I used to do. But with the way things have gone recently, it’s not really a problem anymore. So I feel more comfortable with my history. It’s nice! We were a good band, who wrote good songs, so it’s nice to be able to play that song. And people want to hear it. I’m not sure it’s going to become a set staple. Every tour I’m always going to play... ‘The Ballad of me and my Friends’ and stuff like that, which is fine, but it’s nice both for my benefit and the audiences’ benefit to play something individual. So it was good to bring that one out of the bag.

What are your guilty pleasures?

I don’t like feeling guilty about music that I like. People think I’m being ironic when I’m covering ABBA and Queen, but I love ABBA and Queen! I’m not ashamed of that. There is some pretty terrible pop punk in my record collection from when I was young and foolish. Guilty pleasures in life? I drink too much. I like misbehaving when I’m drunk. There’s a guilty pleasure right there!

If you had to stop, for whatever reason, making music, what would you do?

[The band guitarist; ‘Would you be a Tory councillor?’]

No. I’d cry for a bit. I’d love to be a history teacher. I think that would be a fun thing to do. I studied history at University.

In ‘Photosynthesis’ you say, “You deserve every hour of those sleepless nights, that you waste, wondering when you’re gonna die”. What do you fear then?

I’ll tell you. There’s a new song I’m writing at the moment, tentatively entitled ‘Night Terrors’, about what I’m afraid of. I guess, I’m afraid of staying still, getting stuck doing something I don’t like. I’m afraid of wasting my life. Getting slightly psychoanalytical about it, my dad worked a job he didn’t like very much, but he made a lot of money doing it. And I’ve always thought that was a poor option. I don’t want to make that kind of choice.

 Last thing... you’ve got to tell a joke.

What do Hitler and Gordon Brown have in common? Nothing. Hitler got voted into power.
Either that one, or my favourite joke of recently – why can’t Stevie Wonder see his friends? Because he’s married!

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