Frank Turner

Frank Turner is a UK punk and folk singer-songwriter from Manama, United Kingdom. Born in 1981, he works in acoustic rock, folk, folk punk, punk and singer-songwriter styles. He is also associated with Record Buying Public, Million Dead, Mïngle Härde, Kneejerk and Eating Before Swimming.

Career

Turner first appears as the vocalist of the post-hardcore band Million Dead before moving into a largely acoustic solo career after the band splits in 2005. He starts playing solo acoustic shows before Million Dead ends, initially as a sideline to the band, using them to present his own songs and stripped-back versions of covers and Million Dead material.

His first official solo performance takes place at the first Small Town America all-dayer at 93 Feet East on 18 September 2004. In early 2006 he records the Campfire Punkrock EP in Oxford with Dive Dive as backing band on three tracks. The EP is released in limited quantities through Xtra Mile Recordings, sells out quickly and is re-pressed. Later in 2006 he appears in a split 12-inch with Jonah Matranga, released in the US on Welcome Home Records and in the UK on Xtra Mile Recordings.

He performs on BBC Radio 1’s Lamacq Live on 18 September 2006, the programme’s final broadcast, and debuts two songs from Sleep Is For The Week. His debut album, Sleep Is For The Week, is recorded in Oxford with Dive Dive and includes a live version of “The Ballad Of Me And My Friends” with audience vocals from a sold-out show at the London Barfly. His second album, Love, Ire and Song, follows in 2008, and his third full-length album, Poetry Of The Deed, is released in 2009 with singles including “The Road”, “Try This At Home” and “Isabel”.

Albums and releases

During touring for Poetry Of The Deed, Turner and his then-unnamed backing band record the EP Rock & Roll. The band later takes the name The Sleeping Souls, a line taken from “I Am Disappeared”; the group comprises Nigel Powell, Ben LLoyd, Tarant Anderson and Matt Nasir. His fourth studio album, England Keep My Bones, is recorded over twenty days in January 2011 with producer Tristan Ivemy and released in June 2011 on Xtra Mile Recordings in the UK and Epitaph Records worldwide. The title comes from The Life and Death of King John by William Shakespeare, and Turner describes the album as being largely concerned with mortality and Englishness. The single “Peggy Sang the Blues” precedes it.

He records his fifth studio album in Burbank, California, in October 2012 with producer Rich Costey. Tape Deck Heart is later issued in 2013, with the single “Recovery” and an extended edition that includes extra songs. Around this period, free material distributed through shows includes Good Hangs, which contains the unreleased song “Tattoos” and the Mïngle Härde track “Casual Threats From Weekend Hardmen”, and the free download single “Four Simple Words” with the B-side “Cowboy Chords”.

His later studio albums include Positive Songs for Negative People in 2015 and Be More Kind in 2018. Other releases listed include The First Three Years, The Second Three Years and The Third Three Years, as well as the live and session releases Take to the Road: Live 2009, iTunes Festival: London 2010, Daytrotter Session, Last Minutes and Lost Evenings, Songbook, No Man’s Land, West Coast vs. Wessex and Buddies II: Still Buddies.

Style and output

Turner is known for combining punk roots with acoustic performance and folk songwriting. His recorded work includes studio albums, EPs, split releases, rarities compilations and live sessions, issued through labels including Xtra Mile Recordings, Epitaph Records, Welcome Home Records and Interscope Records in the US for Tape Deck Heart.