Interview: Frank Turner talks supporting Bruce Springsteen at BST, mental health and ‘FTHC’

Punk musician Frank Turner has been on a musical journey for many years and having released his ninth album last year, he’s in no way slowing down. With a loyal fan base as well as managing to accumulate new fans each show, he had the chance to open the stage today for Bruce Springsteen’s headline show. I stopped by for a chat with him about mental health, his tattoos and his new album FTHC. 

Hey Frank, thanks for taking the time out today to chat. How are you? 

I’m good, all a bit of an emotional rollercoaster today I’ll be honest with you but good. You?

I’m well thank you. Did you as a young Hampshire boy ever think you’d be on a stage at Hyde Park supporting Bruce Springsteen?

No, not as a boy from anywhere really. I was just chatting with someone about this. I grew up listening to initially metal, then punk and then hardcore punk. By the time I was 21 I knew everything about New York hardcore and I’d never listened to a Bob Dylan song, you know what I mean? I had this weird upside down journey through music. I knew who Bruce Springsteen was but I was probably rude about him at certain points because I’d never heard a lick of his music and he had blue jeans and the American flag and I was like ‘f**k that guy’ in a snotty teenage way. I’m old enough now to know that he’s doing something a lot more complex with the imagery of Americana and his record covers than I understood as a pissed off teenager. I got introduced to his music in my early 20’s, more of the acoustic records like ‘Nebraska’, ‘Devils and Dust’ and then got into the rest of it…and now I’ve got ‘Born To Run’ written on my stomach. *Frank lifts up his shirt to show me the words in tattoo form*. 

When you teased the audience with the mention of a Springsteen tattoo, I was curious as to what it was.

It’s for high paying customers only! I have become an enormous fan but it was a comparatively late blooming for me. However I didn’t think I’d be playing on the same stage as Bruce Springsteen. I must admit, about five years ago there was an interview with him in Vanity Fair in which he said that he listened to my music and I went *Frank imitates nervous and excited reaction* and I tattooed the article words on my neck. When this gig came through I really did lose it. 

You played a great set today. I think your stage presence sets you apart as an artist on stage, would you say that element came to you from the start of your career or was it a longer process? 

F**k no. It’s funny, I do think there are some people who arrive fully as artists from the start. If you look at the first (Bob) Dylan records or even Mindthreat who were just like ‘we’re here’! I’ve always been comforted by Henry Rollins, I’m a fan of his writing and his work generally but he talks often about how hard he had to work to make himself what he is and I really empathise with that because I couldn’t sing, I couldn’t play, everything I achieved in this life has been slow and steady wins the race *laughs*. As I said, this is solo show 2788 and that doesn’t include bands I was in when I was younger; that’s a lot of gigs. It would be quite something if I didn’t have some aptitude for it. It’s funny that the stage presence and performance are the less discussed aspects of being a touring musician. Everyone talks about musicianship and songwriting. To me, they are three separate skills, musicianship, songwriting and performance. Three distinct skill groups. In the punk world, it’s almost a dirty little secret that performance is a thing. You’re not supposed to care. A certain point or a certain age into being a touring musician, you twig that one band is really good and another not so much and what is it they’re doing different? On record I love them both but this one is better live. You do start paying attention to the people like Bruce Springsteen, Freddie Mercury, Nina Simone. It’s about projection and ownership. The first time we did an arena headline show which was eleven years ago now, in the run up to it, I thought I was going to have to change something but I was really lucky in the few months leading up to it I did a tour in America opening up for The Dropkick Murphy’s and I realised no I don’t. What I have to do is to project in a slightly different way. You have to talk slower because the people at the back have a slight echo but you got there because of doing a certain thing so do it with confidence. 

Outside of music, you talk with a lot of grace about mental health which helps a lot of young men. 

I hope so. I’m not sure how good at that I am, I try *laughs*. It’s interesting you mention that because at one point, I got asked to be an ambassador for Calm, the mental health campaign. I said yes and I got really good at talking the talk. I had all my lines, the hardest thing to do is reach out in the first instance, no shame in it and then my girlfriend at the time, now my wife, pointed out that I wasn’t walking the walk at all. I wasn’t in therapy, I was bottling it all up. At that point, I started doing therapy and now I’m in a place where it is really liberating to talk about. I was embarrassed about it, I think most people are but to stand in front of 50,000 people like we just did and say ‘this songs about anxiety which is a problem for me’ is empowering in a way, it’s kind of cool. If that then goes on to de-stigmatise conversation, I’m really pleased about that. 

Do you feel like you’re more of a well rounded human since the last album, ‘FTHC’, because you delved into a lot of stuff? 

*Frank laughs during the question*. I laugh because I don’t know anyone who would describe me as a well rounded human! I think there would be some hesitation from a lot of my nearest and dearest *laughs*. Certainly more though. I think having worked some stuff out, allowed me to discuss it through my art. 

I say that because during previous tours without getting too frank, it was drug fuelled and more of a hectic lifestyle. 

It definitely was. Just going back to (Henry) Rollins, I love him but if you look at mid period Rollins, at a certain point the only thing he did was tour, tour, tour and that was what I wanted to be but at a point you realise it’s a really one dimensional way of living. Actually, to be a decent artist and writer, you need a slightly more well rounded experience. Also it’s a cliche because it’s true but it’s as if you’re running away from something and I gave it a good go but it still caught up with me. 

Would you say you’ve got a song on the ‘FTHC’ album that you’re proudest of? I know ‘A Wave Across A Bay’ is a song dedicated to your friend you lost to suicide for example. 

Yeah, it’s funny. That’s probably the obvious choice. There’s a bit of a thing that every time you finish a song, they either land or they don’t land. That’s overly simplistic but my favourite songs aren’t always my most successful songs. They’re the ones that I go ‘I had an aim when I started writing that song and I achieved that’. I do think ‘A Wave Across A Bay’ is one of the better songs I’ve ever written. I set out to do a thing within three and a half minutes and I achieved that. We did actually have a long session about what we were going to play today. Nine albums is a lot to pick from but that song was the one missing from the set today for me but there was other things to play.  When we do a headline show, we try and make sure there’s a coverage of all the albums but I’m only going to do this show once in my life so let’s make sure we’re going to kill the audience *laughs*. I don’t need to be precious about which songs come from which album but I think it went well. 

Having done nearly 3000 shows, is there still a bucket list venue for you to play? 

Well, yes but there’s bucket list countries for me. I’ve never done South America or Japan and I have irons in the fire on both counts. Saying that, anywhere I haven’t been I want to go, anywhere I’ve been once I want to go again. I’ve been all around the world because I play guitar and that’s such a ludicrous privilege. I’m so appreciative of it and I’m looking forward to hopefully continuing it. 

Frank Turner’s album ‘FTHC’ is available now. Buy a copy of the album at Amazon.co.uk.

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