A world ‘gone mad’
Veteran British musician feels it’s time for some good old political songwriting
Frank Turner has heard the theory.
When Donald Trump was elected U.S. president back in November, there was a school of thought that his ascendancy might, if nothing else, kick-start a new era of politically minded protest music not unlike the 1980s elections of Margaret Thatcher did in Britain, or Ronald Reagan in the U.S.
This may be true, but the British singer-songwriter doesn’t seem to be in the mood to look for silver linings in the foreboding clouds these days.
“There was a bit of a whiff of that, kind of like: ‘ Well at least if Trump gets elected there will be some cool punk bands’ before the election, which struck me as an enormously self-satisfied way of approaching the situation,” Turner says.
His stance seems to be that he would be fine in a world without a fresh wave of cool punk music if it also meant a world without a Trump presidency.
That said, like many artists, Turner’s political outrage has been reawakened as of late. So much so that an album he has already written — which he refers to as a concept album about “obscure women in history” — has been temporarily shelved in favour of a new collection of songs that address what he sees as a world “gone mad.”
“Having spent a couple of albums quite consciously shying away from contemporary, socialpolitical comment, the things that are happening on the world stage right now — if I can say this without sounding pretentious — they are demanding comment of me,” Turner says. “I feel like I have to say my piece about what’s going on. I’ve immediately started writing a whole other record. My aim is to have a record out by the end of the year so we’ll see how that goes.”
It’s not as if Turner’s reputation as a fiery social commentator really faded, even after he consciously stepped away from overtly political songwriting. Part of this might be because of his musical background in post-hardcore punk, where he led the politically charged Million Dead. As a solo artist he has fallen into what has been loosely defined as folk-punk, straddling two genres both known for social commentary. His first EP, released in 2006, was called Campfire Punkrock and included a song called Thatcher F--ked Up the Kids.
Beyond that, his politics have come under a good deal of scrutiny from punk purists and the political left in Britain in the past five years. In 2012, a writer for the Guardian printed a number of quotes from the singer from previous years where, among other things, he defined himself as “pretty right wing.” (He quickly clarified, saying he was not a Tory, conservative or a Republican, nor does he consider himself right wing. He’s just not “a leftist.”)
But even without that unwanted attention — which he now says was during “an extremely unpleasant time in my life” — Turner says he had become wary in general about the hubris of thinking “rock and roll is going to change the world.”
“I don’t think we are going to smash the system by recording three-and-a-half-minute-long songs with power chords in them,” he says.
“I think that art as a form of commentary is interesting and useful and important. But the other thing that, over the years, I’ve been wary of — and this is a big part of the reason I didn’t stray into (the political) for a few years — is that I think preaching to the converted is extremely boring.
“There’s a certain type of grandstanding where somebody gets up and makes what is prima facie a brave statement in front a room full of people who they know agree with them already that is quite repellent. So I had a lot of reservations and caveats surrounding the idea of politics in music.”
Which may be part of the reason both 2013’s Tape Deck Heart, which included a number of melancholy songs about romantic turmoil, and 2015’s anthemic Positive Songs for Negative People, seemed to find the artist looking inward. The transition did nothing to dull the visceral impact of Turner’s live shows, which have increasingly grown to be sweaty communal celebrations in the Springsteen vein.