FRANK TURNER BY BRITTANY MOSELEY
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rank Turner really likes The Mountain Goats. The indie band—and brainchild of John Darnielle—have been around since before Turner was playing in Million Dead, but recently provided a bit of inspiration while he was writing his new album, Positive Songs For Negative People, which will be available August 7 via Interscope Records.
“They have a song called ‘This Year,’ and the refrain is, ‘I am going to make it through this year if it kills me,’” Turner recalls. “That’s the vibe I wanted for this record. It’s almost like defiance in the face of disaster. It’s the idea of shaking your fists at God and going, ‘Yeah, that’s all you fucking got? You’re gonna have to do better than that to kill me!’” Anyone who’s heard Turner’s past five albums will recognize that punk rock attitude: equal parts stubborn, brash, and rebellious. But things are different this time around. After the darkness that surrounded Tape Deck Heart—a breakup album told from the point of view of the perpetrator, i.e. Turner—Positive Songs for Negative People is, overall, an uplifting album about persevering even when things have turned to shit. Turner had his share of rough patches in 2013 and 2014: health issues—a back injury led to canceled festival dates and a break from playing guitar live—the loss of a close friend, and his first bit of negative press. After all that, he still managed to create an album that defies the assumption that sadness leads to giving up. Of course, this is still Frank Turner. He’s never been one to shy away from sharing his feelings and failings in his music. And although the word “positive” is in the album title, so is the word “negative.” In the case of Turner, you can’t have one without the other. “I’m not a fan of self-help books or ‘don’t worry, be happy.’ I’ve always been more of a Radiohead fan,” he says, laughing. “I’ve always
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enjoyed sad music more than happy music. I don’t want to go into it, but I’ve had my ups and downs with depression and that kind of thing. I’m not sure my friends would describe me as a happy-go-lucky person. I think that if one is a pessimist, one is likely to be pleasantly surprised in life, or more likely to be pleasantly surprised, so it’s a winning strategy.”
The strategy works quite well on Positive Songs for Negative People. As its title implies, the album is a study in contrasts. It’s about striving to see the good in situations even when you’re the kind of person who’s more apt to do the opposite. Songs like “Get Better,” “The Next Storm,” and “Glorious You” illustrate this the best, acting as the album’s mission statement. The choruses are inspiring and just itching to be sung at a raucous sold-out show. “Out of Breath” is a two minute punk song made of piss and vinegar with Turner taunting all of his detractors, “Somewhere down the road, well, there’s a ditch and there’s a hole that marks a spot where you will lie when you are cold.” It might not seem like a particularly warm song, but the fact that Turner is able to look at his critics and somewhat cheekily say, “So what?” is pretty impressive when you consider the backlash he received from some journalists as he became more popular. “Just before Tape Deck Heart came out, I had some journalists in the U.K. who suddenly didn’t like me,” Turner recalls. “Starting to work with a major label obviously annoyed some predictable people in the punk scene. It was a difficult patch in my life, and over time, I learned how to deal with that kind of thing. I came through the other side of the emotional tunnel I was dealing with, and also learned how to be a public figure, which is something you don’t get lessons in; you learn on the job.” Turner keeps the pace moving with “The Opening Act of Spring” and
“Love Forty Down,” pairing upbeat melodies with lyrics that take a critical look at his own shortcomings. However, there is still a lesson to be learned, self-improvements to be made. “I’m long in the tooth, but I’m ready for the truth,” he sings on “Love Forty Down.”
Then there are tracks like “Mittens” and “Song for Josh.” At first listen, they sound like two of the most heartbreaking songs Turner has written—and he’s written a lot of sad songs. While Turner doesn’t deny their sadness, he sees them differently. “‘Mittens’ is more of a song about saying, ‘I deserve better than this,’ and learning to revalue myself a little bit. It’s about someone who didn’t give a fuck about me, but it’s also about realizing that and moving on from it. Similarly ‘Song for Josh’ is about a very sad time in my life. It’s about losing a close friend of mine.” Turner wrote the song for his friend Josh Burdette, who was head of security at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. Burdette committed suicide in 2013. “My response to the suicide, [to] that event, is to try to find a way of dealing with it better next time around, having a long look at it,” Turner says. “To me, there is a positive ember in those coals.” Turner is currently playing a string of dates overseas, but will head to the U.S. for a headlining tour in September. So far, his slightly sunnier outlook—both in regards to his life and new album—is still intact. “Usually, quickly after mastering a record, I start to poke holes in it and start to figure out what’s wrong with it, and I haven’t really started doing that yet with this album,” he says, somewhat surprised. “This feels like an overview of what I’ve been doing since my debut record in a way. It feels very definitive to me.”
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