An End In Sight

I'm in the lounge at Alex's studio in Brooklyn. Tonight is our last night here, and we're mixing the last song (of 13) for the album. I'm pretty knackered right now, and I'm sure that Alex is feeling a lot more drained, given that the work has been mostly his for the last week or so, since we finished recording vocals. It's shaping up to be a long night, but it'll be a relief to get everything finished. From here I fly back to London tomorrow, and we hit the mastering suite next week to finish the album completely. It now looks like it'll be released internationally on September 7th (although that's not 100% just yet).

It's almost impossible to look objectively at a large body of work for which you are largely or wholly responsible, even with the benefit of a few years' hindsight (first Million Dead album being a case in point - I've been listening recently given the imminent re-release and still can't make my mind up). Given that this record isn't even technically finished yet, it's massively hubristic of me to start pontificating about it right now. I'm way too close. But here goes nothing, fuck it. I had a moment the other day of wondering whether I've headed in the right direction after "Love Ire & Song", of thinking that I should have been more radical, or maybe less, or whatever. Sometimes the new stuff doesn't sound good enough to me, but then I remember I've been listening to it non-stop for 2 months now, in various stages of completion. And then every now and again I'm blessed with a moment of distance, a moment of being able to hear things afresh, and then I feel pretty good. You can only ever try your best, at the end of the day, and this record like all the others is just that - the best I can do right now.

When things go well for you, it's easy to lose some perspective - whether it's deciding that you're great because you have songs on the radio, or deciding that you suck for the exact same reasons. All that said, I'm feeling pretty confident, as I sit hot and sweating in a windowless room, going a little stir crazy, exhausted and still a little jetlagged, and hungry (mm, I should get some food after this), and I think I can say it's a good album, and I hope I can say it's my best yet - because that, after all, is my aim here. The countdown starts here for the day when everyone can hear it and judge for themselves. Fingers crossed.

In other news: I am officially hotter than Alisha Dixon, The Saturdays and NDubz now, apparently. I'm sorry to say I'm not 100% sure who they are (is NDubz the guy with the woolly hat?), but hey, I still win. HA!

The World Turned Upside Down

Two developments to share with y'all, both of which are awesome and mental in equal measure. First of all, I can finally announce that I shall indeed be playing at this year's Reading & Leeds Festivals. I'm on the Radio One / NME Stage, Saturday in Leeds and Sunday in Reading. I'm super happy about this fact, it's my favourite festival and the shows there the last two years have been nothing short of amazing, so I have high hopes for this year too.

Secondly, the Manchester Academy show in October (16th) is now totally sold out. That slightly blows my mind - we haven't even finished the new album yet, let alone started promoting it properly. This is the most tickets I've ever sold in Manchester, haha... I remember getting 60 people in for the Night & Day show a few years back and feeling like we'd done well. How times change. A bunch of the other shows on the tour are also, insanely, not far off.

The new album is sounding killer, incidentally. About half mixed now.

Something Old, Something New

I write from the back of the control room in Alex's studio in Brooklyn. We just finished recording the album. The last song was "Dan's Song", a guitar and vocals number, which we hammered out pretty fast (first takes all the way!), and which features my first ever harmonica solo. I'm feeling relieved as hell to have everything down at last. Next week is mixing, we still have a way to go before the record is done, but essentially, if I got hit by a bus tomorrow, the album would still come out.

In other news, the good folks at Xtra Mile Recordings are, as some people already know, re-releasing the first Million Dead album, "A Song To Ruin", as a deluxe edition with some bonus tracks and a DVD. The reason we all decided to do this is that you can't currently get hold of it for love or money, and despite all the water under the bridge, we're all still damn proud of what we achieved with that band and that album in particular. There's more details on the Xtra Mile website - safe to say, that for now you can pre-order a copy, which will come with a super-limited edition MD tour poster from 2004 as well. Get shopping.

Now, for my first beer in fucking weeks. To the bar!

Brooklyn Bound

So, I made it to New York. I've been here a bunch of times before, but never really had that much time to investigate the place. I won't this week either - it's going to be pretty full on recording mode for the next 5 days or so - but next week is mixing week, which will basically involve Alex being a wizz-kid behind the desk and me nodding approvingly at the imperceptible shit he's doing with the hi-hat (or something). So I'm looking forward to exploring. Speaking of such things, anyone reading this who lives in NYC or the surrounding environs, please email me (frank@frank-turner.com) with the subject line "NYC". We have much to discuss.

Casting an eye back to the old UK, this morning I've discovered something slightly flabbergasting. The sales for the October UK tour are doing, um, very well. The Manchester show (October 16th @ The Academy) has less than 150 tickets left. Some of the others are close too. So I guess what I'm saying is, if you're planning on coming down, I'd recommend buying a ticket sooner rather than later.

That was a fun paragraph to write, for sure. Ha! In other news, I'm listening pretty much exclusively to Crazy Arm right now. Check them out.

End Of Phase One

I'll keep this one brief, because it's 3 am. We've finished phase one of the recording process. The days here started long and got longer as we realized the scale of what we were trying to achieve in such a short space of time. The last few days have been burn-out territory, but we just nailed the last guitar part and now we're off to get some kip. Tomorrow I fly to NYC with Alex. For those asking, the reason we're doing this in two studios is that, surprisingly, this is the cheapest way to do it; now that the band stuff is all down on tape, Alex and I are retiring to his studio in Brooklyn to finish off my vocals and guitar parts. I'm hoping we're going to get some sleep on the plane. I feel good though, everything is as it should be. My aim has always been to make the best record I can at any given time, and on top of that to try and beat my previous efforts. I'm pretty damn sure I'm succeeding on both counts right now. Good night.

PS I beat Tarrant at table football, just once. Ha!

Studio Update #2

I sit at the table in the studio, absolutely stuffed to bursting. This is the first time I've been to residential studio, and I have to say that we're being looked after pretty damn well. Home cooked food every day is a luxury that is rare for me. And cheesecake? Man oh man. Time to work on a slow one.

Day 1 was spent with the tedious but necessary business of setting everything up and getting sounds. Because we're trying to record as much live as we can, that meant setting everything up at once. Alex and his assistant Dean beavered away with microphones, while I discovered, rather to my displeasure, that I fucking suck at table football. I'm well acquainted with the fact that I'm terrible at sport generally, but discovering that I'm also rubbish at a pub game was... gutting. It was even worse to discover that, for some unfathomable reason, Tarrant is really good at it. What?

Day 2, we started tracking. We have 5 days here, so we're pretty up against it time-wise, if we want to get all 12 of the songs I want on the album nailed. Thankfully a month of rehearsals, plus the fact that we're all totally boss musicians (haha), has paid off, and we motored through 5 songs in one day. This morning we got back into the fray and thusfar we've polished off another 3. Good going. We're recording to tape, which is new for me. It's quite scary when, every once in a while, Alex starts editing, which basically involves cutting the tape up with a de-magnetized razor blade. I get slightly edgy when I see him slashing through our recordings. Needless to say he know what he's doing.

It's all sounding great so far. I'm really pleased with the general vibe - this won't be the most precise of records, playing wise, but it has soul, which is something I feel a lot of records lack these days. It feels like we're making a worthwhile album. And I have been ever so slightly improving at table football. Victory will be mine.

The White Heat of Technology

Today is, on reflection, pretty momentous. Today I, with my vital team of musicians (Matt, Nigel, Ben , Tarrant) and Alex Newport, embark on the recording of album #3. We're in Norfolk right now, at a residential studio, where we'll be laying down the instrumentation for the record this week. At the weekend Alex and I will fly to New York to continue working on the vocals and the mix. The record will be done by the month's end. The schedule is tight, but then we've been rehearsing like crazy for the last month, and Alex has been through everything with a toothcomb already, and I'd say we're as prepared as we're ever going to be. Fingers crossed, this is going to live up to my ambitions: to be the best record that I've made in my life. Fingers crossed.

To recap: we've been holed up in a little rehearsal room that Tarrant (bass, vans) built just outside of Oxford. Due to the fact that the extreme soundproofing meant no one can hear you scream from the outside world, it was nicknamed the Austrian Dungeon. Songs written in hotels, trains, buses and bedrooms came blinking into the light week by week, as the superlative motherfuckers that I play with (hey, there's a band name...) helped me arrange the songs into proper monstrous beasts. After three weeks of toil, we played our little residency of shows in Oxford town, night by night tightening up and getting a better feel for the songs. Then last week, Alex dropped by for some more rehearsals; we thought we were pretty much there, but he really drove us to up our game and iron out any problems. I've never worked with an outside producer before (i.e. not Ben Lloyd), and I must admit I was a little wary, but thusfar it's been a great experience.

So here we are. Right now people are fiddling with tape machines (analogue album this one, for the geeks out there) and setting up microphones. The studio is beautiful, in some barns on a farm in the arse-end of nowhere. It feels like it's time.

To stop talking about myself for a minute here, two quick things, while I have your attention. On the journey up to the studio I was reminded all over again how much I love the Dawn Chorus, and thought I should remind you lot in turn. Secondly, Future Of The Left continue to the best band in the fucking universe. Their new album is available for pre-order right now, and it is the absolute shit. They're also on tour this month.

Those two should tide you guys over until this album is done. Incidentally, for people asking, it'll be out in September. Enjoy.

From The Ashes

As many of you know, Nambucca, my favourite pub / spiritual home (delete according to how tired and emotional I'm feeling) burned down just before Christmas last year. It was all pretty heartbreaking, not least for the people who lost all their possessions in the fire. But, unsurprisingly, the team of good people who made that place what it was have not rested in the meantime. There's a new pub opening in Kentish Town - The Flowerpot - that is basically carrying on the spirit of the old place. They're having a week of stuff happening for their opening (check their site for details) and as part of it I'm going to play a solo set there on Wednesday May 6th. It's free entry, but it's also first come first served and it's not the biggest place in the world, so get down early. I'm playing for 9ish. See you there.