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theageoftheunderstatement · 2 years

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Alex Turner’s Interview with Rumore Magazine, October Issue 2022

Written by Stefania Ianne, translated by PaoloMasia4 on Twitter

I stand before Alex Turner, smartly casual, in a hotel suite in East London. The place has a retro charm, is filled with memorabilia, and, in the context of a city full of contradictions, is positioned in the midst of the tenements that characterize a historically working-class neighborhood. This is the first time I've interviewed Alex, and even though the Arctic Monkeys are at the height of their career, it's comforting to discover him full of enthusiasm for his work, focused on his musical world, a guy who hasn't lost his northern identity - the Sheffield accent still shines through in his cadence - or his sense of humor. Nor has he lost the little boy still in him or, at first glance, himself, despite the fame he has achieved (fellow citizen Jarvis Cocker is the obvious comparison: both achieved success previously unimaginable for someone from that city). I am summoned for the interview somewhat cryptically, like "be ready for that day, you can't talk to anyone about it until we tell you." The Arctic Monkeys have been preparing a new record in great secrecy, and by mid July very few of us know about it. The title is not even known. No one knows that the band is rehearsing for the tour within walking distance of the hotel where I meet Alex. I get my third day of interviews: only a couple of journalists each morning, so it doesn't get too nervous.

The Car, the record at that time still secret, is being announced now as I write these words, at the end of August. The only new notes, those of I Ain't Quite Where I Think I Am, could be heard at a concert in Istanbul a few days ago. Fans either suspected something, or prayed for something to happen, and eventually someone must have spoken, rumors must have circulated until they became deafening, so the band broke the silence. The album comes out on October 21, all the songs were written by Alex and produced by James Ford. On only a couple of tracks the credits are shared: with Jamie Cook for Sculptures Of Anything Goes, and with Tom Rowley, Sheffield musician and longtime friend, for Jet Skies On the Moat and Mr. Schwartz.

Just before the interview, they show me a preview of the cover image and video for the first single, directed by Alex himself, There'd Better Be A Mirrorball. This is the only information released by management. It is not much, but they allow us to listen to the record in full. The working title? Suffolk Punch. Of course, it was recorded half in Suffolk, on a historic estate, and half at La Frette, a studio near Paris where the Arctic Monkeys had completed Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino, also frequented by such sacred monsters as Nick Cave and Marianne Faithfull. The Car has a retro feel to it, even the video has a flou effect. Alex appears as Alain Delon. The music has funky overtones and is imbued with a cinematic vein; much irony in the words, unexpected orchestral arrangement, the guitars scratching in the few moments when they surface. Is it perhaps a result of maturity? Trying to solve the puzzle that seems to be building Alex's personality is challenging.

From what transpires in online interviews he always has a sardonic expression on his face, as if he studies his interlocutors with a hint of skepticism. This is how he looks at me as I set up two microphones on the coffee table, asking him if he minds, terrified that the first one will act up. It's not a problem, he tells me of hearing about a reporter who compromised an interview with Altman because of a problem with the recorder. 'Imagine', he tells me, 'Robert Altman.' And so we start with the interview, quietly, with a bit of small talk to break the ice. As he answers my questions Alex seems almost possessed by what might be called an ocean of words. His answers are always precise and to the point, though I manage to wring at least a couple of spontaneous smiles out of him. Alex chooses his words carefully, you get the impression you can hear him thinking, often seeming to get lost in his thoughts, trying to put into words and stem the maze of ideas, thoughts and sounds that populates his mind. As we begin, Alex seems fascinated by the locked windows overlooking the tenements: 'it's all very English,' he tells me. 'It's locked but if you can still get out on the balcony you don't disturb the neighbors.'

Yes, perhaps they mean: don't do anything obscene! It's typically London, the juxtaposition between the luxury hotel and the surrounding tenements.

That's right, and then within walking distance you have a park, a huge outdoor space where you have a chance to create a mental space that can make you forget you're in the city. I started to appreciate parks recently, I used to underestimate them. But actually all that space, all those trees, give you the feeling that you can reset everything. Apparently it's the color, the green, that has this great calming power.

I read that all the greenery in London is due to William Morris, a Victorian design genius. Today not everyone remembers his struggle to take parks out of the clutches of speculators who wanted to build everywhere. Sorry I'm digressing. Let's talk about you instead.

If we must!

Your new record is ready, at this very moment it has not yet been announced, there is a lot of secrecy. Do you feel ready? How do you feel about the new songs?

It is very strange for me, the main feeling is that it is finally happening, and I am very slowly losing control, I am letting go. I feel like I’ve been working on this for an infinite amount of time, and now we’re almost ready to play on a stage again, we’re trying to figure out how to play these new songs live, and it’s only now that I'm starting to talk about them with other people that I’m realizing that I can understand them more deeply, I’m learning them. In a general sense I am very positive, but it is very difficult to let go.

I know you are a perfectionist, you work a lot on your lyrics and music, you write and rewrite, it is never good the first time. Do you fit into this description? And how much does your immediate musical instinct count when you compose?

It is true that I am constantly rewriting and modifying the initial idea several times, but although the process is long and laborious, at first instinct is essential to preserve the original idea. Instinct guides me when I have to decide whether to rewrite a part or it tells me not to be too cerebral, not to overthink it.

You have to try to find a balance between the two components.

Yes, but maybe it is not possible to do that, you can only try. At the same time I like the idea of doing something that can be completed within a week. A project, something you can experiment on.

And have you ever done that?

No, although.... no, I don't think so. Maybe there is some song among all the ones recorded in the last 15 years that somehow came instinctively, no famous songs though.

I don't think there is a mathematical formula for creating hits. You guys have never limited yourselves to the formula that brought you success, you have never repeated yourselves, you are constantly evolving. It seems to me that this is something natural, not forced. You started very young and are still growing as a band. And is your audience growing with you?

That remains to be seen. I guess I'm reluctant at the thought of having to admit that I’m growing up (he laughs, nda). But I guess sooner or later I will be forced to accept it. It may even be fun as an idea. There’s a lot of irony in the new record, there’s an unserious element to it, I like to think that our records communicate the idea of maturation but I hope that doesn’t mean we’ve become difficult to listen to. Maybe this process of evolution, this maturation, is helping me understand when I need to listen to my instincts. It’s helping me understand when I’ve created tunes in more to my mood of the moment, allowing me to explore. If it didn’t, we would probably go back. But even if I wanted to do that, even if I wanted to make a record that sounds like the ones we were making ten years ago, I don’t think I could. And even if sometimes, maybe on a free afternoon, I tried, I perceive the same invariable trajectory in me: after the initial excitement, due to the fact that I’m reminded of that period of my life, the excitement fades very quickly, like a soap bubble, and all that’s left is a guitar riff that sounds like a caricature, an imitation. After that there is nothing else, nothing left to work on, nothing left to process. Whereas the sound we create in the moment speaks to me, conveys something, fills me with possibilities.

It is a familiar feeling that you describe, but if it helps I can assure you that your last two records, although musically more complex than your beginnings, are still enjoyable. Let's talk about rock'n'roll instead. Are you still a rock band? What does it mean to be a rock band in the second decade of the 21st century?

Yes, there is no doubt about it. I'm half serious right now.

I was wondering how you would respond because certainly many people consider you a typical rock band, and perhaps consider Tranquility Base & Casino, your previous record...

... a mistake!

I would say more of a fluke, a temporary detour. Many are probably hoping with the new record to finally have the real Arctic Monkeys. For me, however, it is an evolution, and after listening to The Car it seems to me, as you said, that there is no turning back.

I definitely haven't found a way back yet. You see, I've spent the last few weeks rehearsing with the band, we are preparing for new concerts, and I can assure you that when we play together live we are definitely a rock band. So on the one hand there's definitely this live power, and on the other hand there's what I want to do on the records.

Are you editing the songs from a live perspective? How are you integrating them into the rest of the set?

I think they're going to work, we're rehearsing two songs. This question was discussed on the previous record, we were wondering how we could integrate the new songs into the set list. At first it was difficult to transpose the songs for the stage.... I say stage like you're doing a damn Broadway show (laughs, nda).

Why not?

Yes, indeed. That would be a surprise. I was saying, at the end of the tour of the last record, after going through that whole process, we realized that the songs we were playing live had leveled out, had equalized, and had integrated harmoniously into the show. Because when you go through the filter of the live show, especially if you’ve been doing it for such a long period of your life, 15 years or something, you can't play I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor the same way you did when you were a 17-year-old novice anymore: the vocals don’t sound the same anymore, and my arms would get tired doing the song that way. But really you don’t even notice the change, you don’t wake up one morning and say ‘we’re going to play it that way now,’ although maybe in some cases the choice is conscious. It is a gradual process. In the end, however, the songs have a life of their own after the record is released, they continue to evolve over time with millimeter adjustments. In short, it happens with all songs, and as it happened with the songs on the previous record, the same will naturally happen with the new songs.

You are preparing for the new tour, I know you are starting with some festivals around the world before releasing the record. What will you do with the new songs, will you still keep them secret or will you start playing some of them?

Maybe we will try to play a couple of them, but for the most part we will play old songs.

Matt Helders, your drummer, had announced more than a year ago that you were busy with the beginning stages of writing a new album. Did you start working on it at that time then?

Maybe the year before, in fact the first song I wrote for this album was probably in 2018, it was summer. I'm talking about the very first musical ideas.

So they are not the result of the pandemic.

Not entirely, no. I think the pandemic period mostly gave me time to think thoughtfully, I allowed myself a moment of reflection, but the composition of the pieces was well underway by the time... (pauses to think about it, nda).

Everything stopped.

Yes, exactly.

It seems to me that all the creative people spent the pandemic writing and composing, and quite a few records are coming out now because many people preferred to wait until things normalized a little bit. In your case, how did it go? Did the forced hiatus or the distance between the various band members affect the final result?

We have actually been living in distant places for a long time. But when we get together we stay together. This time it was not possible to meet up until last summer, when we started playing together in the middle of the English countryside, in Butley Priory, in Suffolk. Almost all the parts of the band were recorded there, I then recorded my vocal parts and some overdubs in France, in La Frette, but I had been working on the composition much earlier. I think that long break gave us time to experiment and explore all the possibilities and then realize that maybe it would be better to go back to the initial idea, however, it left us more time to figure out what was the most natural path.

And where did the concept of The Car come from? How did the car become the dominant theme of the record?

Yes, this time it is the car, in the previous disk the moon... The decision to give that title came from a couple of considerations: first of all, I realized that the automobile recurred in the lyrics, but more importantly there was this image, which then became the cover of the record. It’s a photograph taken by Matt, our drummer. When I saw it we are talking about a few years ago, I had a very strong feeling that it would become the cover of one of our albums. And The Car was the perfect title for the photograph as well. I saw a lot of things in that image, an expression of Matt’s creativity as well. I can’t say why such a thing moves us or affects us in such a special way, but that one affected me so much, and I don’t think it’s because I know Matt. And from a technical point of view it is perfect, Matt is very talented and photography is an art that he has been exploring over the last ten years. I think he’s very good at it, and that image conveys something deep to me. Somehow I see Matt in that picture.

So it was the image that inspired the record, the initial starting point?

I think so, in some ways it was. If you already have an idea of the way you are going to present something visually you feel better, you feel freer because you got what you wanted in the initial stages instead of reducing to the last minute. For example in the case of the previous record I found myself right up to the last minute trying to improvise cardboard models for the record cover. But probably getting something concluded in itself in the early stages of the record gave me the freedom to explore that concept.

Speaking of the visual part of the project the first video clip you directed, that was your first experience as a director, wasn't it? How did it go? I must say that your music and the whole record are very cinematic. And the video is very melancholic.

Yes, I spent most of the sessions, last summer, with the camera in my hand.

Is that the same camera that we see in the video for Four Out Of Five?

It's very similar, that was a Bolex and it belonged to the cinematographer who shot the video. I don't have a Bolex but mine is a 16 mm as well. To get back to your question, I have to say that in a way I spent a lot of time thinking about the songs before I got into sessions with the band. It is not as simple as I am about to describe it.... Or maybe it is as simple as that, I don’t know. But thinking back on it now, after working on the songs, after continuing to write and rewrite, chiseling until the last minute, until it was time to go into the studio, as soon as we started the sessions I picked up the video camera and started filming everybody. Then they all left and I went to La Frette to work on the music again, to record parts. But the time with the group I feel like I spent most of it with the camera in my hand. And it's not because I had just recently become interested in video; in fact, it’s been quite a while since I started using Super 8. It probably became one of my obsessions. And I didn’t start filming with any specific intention, it just seemed like a natural thing to do the moment we all saw each other again, I started filming everyday trivialities, us leaving a room, things like that. And then it all turned into something else again, the video clip of the song.

You seem to be fascinated with analog technology. Maybe because digital sound gives the impression of flattening the music a bit? How do you approach technology, are you looking for a somewhat retro sound? Or are you fascinated by the environment in which you record, its history? What is your reason for returning to La Frette?

As far as La Frette is concerned, certainly I am fascinated by the place. They have a nice set up but it's not about the technology they provide that you return there, it's mostly about the place, the people and the vibe it gives off. If we talk about instrumentation, when I record solo, yes, I am very attracted to the analog format.

When you start composing from a piano or an acoustic guitar for example?

Yes yes, or bass guitar, although actually it is the drums that is the instrument that helps me the most. I like to sit at the drums and think about the words, which may sound strange. But sometimes the distraction triggered by randomly playing the instrument, or the sound of the tape rewinding in the tape machine ... I feel that in the moment you wait for the tape to rewind, in that very important little analog time window, you can process it. At the same time when we composed the string parts we used a midi controller, a Midi Grid, and spent a lot of time on the computer. At one point in the past I said to myself that everything should absolutely be analog, but today I realize that things have changed. I’m definitely not analog when it comes to editing video. I haven’t yet gotten tangled up with cutting and pasting reels, although I really like the idea.

I guess technology gives us the freedom to choose the technique or medium that allows us to focus on the process in order to achieve the desired effect.

Yes, I think it does. And as far as the flatness of digital sound compared to analog sound, I think it all depends on the instrumentation and who processes the sound. Some people produce incredible sounds on the computer.

And how do you listen to the music you like?

Let’s say I've been taking a break, but now that we're going back to traveling I think I'll be able to carve out the space and time to put my headphones on and listen to some music digitally. When I'm at home I listen to records.

It seems to me that The Car continues the discourse of Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino. The sound on the surface seems controlled, measured, restrained, and at the same time there are orchestral arrangements that seem to go in an opposite direction. Were there specific musical or cinematic influences in that regard? There is something that brings to mind 70′ TV series on the one hand, and on the other hand there is an almost Beatlesque classicism.

Yes, of course. I’ve definitely brought up David Axelrod in the past, I've often talked about his influence on my music, and it shines through here as well. As far as classics go, there’s a Nat King Cole song, Where Did Everybody Go, that seems perfect for film, even though I don’t think it’s part of any soundtrack, and it has this element of theatricality, of drama, literally, that I really like, I think in addition to echoing in the lyrics this thing also comes through in our sound. The idea is kind of to have a narrator who is aware of his own role, aware of the fact that he is on a record. Take the movie ‘8 e mezzo’ by Fellini, that movie is about a director looking for inspiration, and a theme for the movie he has to make. That idea has always fascinated me. Actually the film is not really about that, it’s a bit of an excuse that allows Fellini to explore other ideas. I think there is a little bit of that in our album, though.

So you're telling me that this idea of ‘record within a record,’ this Fellinian element, implies the presence of an external narrator's point? Or is it actually a personal record?

I think it's a little bit of both.

Or maybe you prefer to leave it to the interpretation of the listener?

I think it has to be that way, there is no choice. But at the same time I’m not trying to hide: you can be in tune with your emotions and what you’re trying to express without the record necessarily becoming a diary. Yes, a record can be both, you can separate yourself from your idea. The presence of a narrative voice probably allows you to reveal yourself more than you imagine. It is possible.

And to what extent do you think success, being famous, is changing you? In what ways do you try to protect yourself and your friends - the band was born from a group of very close friends, right? - from the more toxic consequences of notoriety?

I think the fact that we are such close friends, in a way we are family, helps me cope with everything.

It is a relationship that has remained unchanged over time, therefore.

Yes I think so, without a doubt, and not only that: it gives me the confidence, the security and the encouragement I need to grow artistically, creatively.

Even though you live mostly in the United States, are you still in touch with your place of origin, Sheffield? I know that during the worst phase of the pandemic you were very active raising funds to help small venues like the Leadmill. I guess you know that it is in danger of closing permanently; it must have been a very important place for the city.

I haven't been to Sheffield for a long time, but I'm going back there just in these days, I'm looking forward to it. I had heard about the Leadmill, yes. Absolutely yes, it was a key place, we saw an endless number of bands there as teenagers. It was the first place I crowdsurfed, as a spectator or maybe even from the stage.

#interview #translation #arctic monkeys #alex turner #the car era #rumore magazine 2022 #saving the full text here because i love this interview a lot #his thoughts about songwriting and performing in all the recent interviews are enjoyable to read #and i love how he talked about finding the balance between following the instinct and constantly rewriting here #also it's the first interview where he talked about the name and cover of the new album in detail #and the fact that he had the feeling that matt's photo would become the cover of one of their albums a few years ago is lovely

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