Frank Turner on his ‘radically different’ next album and whether he’ll be writing about Donald Trump

Expect a huge change from Turner in the future

Frank Turner has revealed that he has ‘a mountain of new material’ for his next album, but may be writing even more in the wake of Donald Trump’s shock election win.

While Turner released his sixth album ‘Positive Songs For Negative People’ back in 2015, now the ‘I Still Believe’ punk-folk troubadour is looking to return to the studio after his upcoming tour and the release of his new film. However, he says he has yet more material to write after being inspired by the state of the world after Trump became President Elect.

“I’ve got a mountain of new material at the moment but I have two reservations about it,” Turner told NME. “The first being that I feel ‘Positive Songs…’ felt like a sort of conclusionary statement. It wasn’t written that way, but looking back on it feels like that’s me wrapping up a certain era of my songwriting.

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“Another way of saying it is I feel like I have the opportunity to go somewhere new and somewhere different at this point, so I’m thinking about doing something reasonably radically different next time round, but we’ll see. And of course, [since Trump won the election] I’ve been thinking about trying to react to the world as it is in 2016 perhaps a bit more openly in my art.

Read more: Drugs, drink, depression, self-destruction – the full Frank Turner NME interview

Turner continued: “I’ve been burned for the idea of discussing politics through music. Partly as time passes by, I’m old enough to owe a degree of that to my own naivety – but partly a lot of that was due to being misunderstood either accidentally or wilfully by a lot of people who spend their days wanting to shout at people they disagree with. It seemed to me that it was neither musically nor politically valid.

“I have to say the last week in particular has been tickling me a little bit creatively, but I don’t know – it’s too early to say. I also think that reacting to what is a reasonably calamitous world event with going ‘I’m going to write an album!’ seems a little bit self-involved. I guess we’ll see how it pans out.”

When asked if he think reactions to Trump and Brexit could inspire a new generation and wave of great, politically-charged music, Turner replied: “I think it could do. I mean, that’s not particularly something that I want to go around celebrating. You don’t want to be saying ‘I hope everything’s shit so that we get some good records’ – and actually music doesn’t matter half as much as the social and economic safety of the minorities.

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“I’m not saying that people are saying this, but going ‘Isn’t it great Donald Trump has been elected that means I’m going to get a new angry punk album’, it’s like get over yourself. Who knows, the 1980’s were a fruitful time so we shall see.”

This week, Turner also announced a new movie. ‘Get Better – A Film About Frank Turner’ was directed by friend Ben Morse, and follows Frank Turner and his band The Sleeping Souls for a year on the road, but the band swiftly came off the road – and Frank came off the rails before recovery.

The new documentary will be in UK cinemas for one night only on 13 December, with a screening and Live Q&A with Turner taking place in London’s Leicester Square. . Tickets go on sale from 21 November and available here.

Meanwhile, Frank Turner’s remaining UK tour dates are below.

Salisbury, City Hall (18)
Liverpool, O2 Academy (21)
Carlisle, Sands Centre (22)
Doncaster, Doncaster Dome (23)
Coventry, Empire (25)
Cardiff, University Great Hall (26)
Oxford, New Theatre (27)
Exeter, Great Hall (28)
Reading, Hexagon (30)
Leeds, University Refectory (December 1)
Aberdeen, Garage (2)
Edinburgh, Usher Hall (3)
Scunthorpe, Baths Hall (5)
Warrington, Parr Hall (6)
Newcastle Upon Tyne, Northumbria University (7)
Nottingham, Rock City (9)
Bexhill, De La Warr Pavilion (10)
Norwich, Uea (11)
Guilford, G Live (12)
Portsmouth, Guildhall (14)

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