Alex Turner (musician)

Alexander David Turner (born 6 January 1986) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is well known as the frontman and principal songwriter of the rock band Arctic Monkeys, with whom he has released seven albums. He has also recorded with his side project involving Miles Kane, as the Last Shadow Puppets and also as a solo artist.

When Turner was 17, he and three friends formed Arctic Monkeys in their native Sheffield. Their debut album, ''Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not'' (2006), became the fastest-selling debut album in British history and was ranked at No. 30 on ''Rolling Stone'' list of the greatest debut albums of all time, with the single "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" becoming a UK number-one hit. The band's subsequent studio albums, ''Favourite Worst Nightmare'' (2007), ''Humbug'' (2009), '' Suck It and See'' (2011), '' AM'' (2013), ''Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino'' (2018) and ''The Car'' (2022), have experimented with desert rock, indie pop, R&B, and lounge music. Arctic Monkeys headlined Glastonbury Festival in both 2007 and 2013, Reading and Leeds Festivals in 2014 and 2022, and performed during the 2012 London Summer Olympics opening ceremony.

As the co-frontmen of The Last Shadow Puppets, Turner and Miles Kane have released two orchestral pop albums: ''The Age of the Understatement'' (2008) and ''Everything You've Come to Expect'' (2016). Turner also provided an acoustic soundtrack for the feature film '' Submarine'' (2010), and co-wrote and co-produced Alexandra Savior's debut album ''Belladonna of Sadness'' (2017).

Turner's lyricism, ranging from kitchen sink realism to surrealist wordplay, has been widely praised throughout the music industry and the public. All but one of his nine studio albums have topped the UK Albums Chart. He has won seven Brit Awards, an Ivor Novello Award, and a Mercury Prize (he has been nominated six times).

Biography

Early life

Alexander David Turner was born in Sheffield on 6 January 1986, the only child of secondary school teachers Penny (''née'' Druce) and David Turner. He was raised in Sheffield's High Green suburb. He has said that his parents came from "very different backgrounds"; his mother, from Amersham, Buckinghamshire, taught German and was "fascinated by language". His father, a Sheffield native, taught music and physics. Turner's parents were both music fans and his earliest musical memories involve the Beatles and the Beach Boys. During car journeys, his mother played music by Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, and the Eagles. His father was a fan of jazz and swing music, particularly Frank Sinatra, and had played the saxophone, trumpet, and piano in big bands. Turner himself was taught some scales on the family keyboard by his father and took professional piano lessons until he was eight years old.

From the age of five, Turner grew up alongside neighbour Matt Helders; they attended primary school, secondary school, and college together. At their primary school graduation ceremony, Turner and Helders joined some other friends in a mimed performance of Oasis' "Morning Glory"Helders played the role of Liam Gallagher while Turner pretended to play the bass guitar, using a tennis racket as his instrument. The two met Andy Nicholson in secondary school, and the three friends bonded over their shared enjoyment of rappers such as Dr. Dre, the Wu-Tang Clan, Outkast, and Roots Manuva. They spent their time playing basketball, skateboarding, riding BMXs, and "making crap hip-hop" beats using Turner's father's Cubase system. Turner and his friends became interested in rock music following the breakthrough of the Strokes in 2001. His father let him borrow a school guitar to learn a "couple of chords" when Turner was 15 and, for Christmas that year, his parents bought him an electric guitar.

Turner was educated at Stocksbridge High School from 1997 to 2002. His form teacher, Mark Coleman, characterised him as a "bright" and "popular" student who excelled at sports rather than music. His English and drama teacher, Simon Baker, remembered him as a clever pupil who was "quite reserved" and "a little bit different". He noted that Turner had an "incredibly laid-back" approach to his studies, which worried his mother and led to criticism from other teachers. While there were books at home, Turner did not read regularly and was too self-conscious to share his writing with others. Nonetheless, he enjoyed English lessons. Turner then attended Barnsley College from 2002 to 2004. Given the opportunity to "get away without doing maths", he largely opted out of the "substantial" subjects required for university entry. He studied for A-levels in music technology and media studies, as well as AS-levels in English, photography, and psychology.

2002–2004: Formation of Arctic Monkeys

At the age of 15, Turner's weekends revolved around girls and drinking cider with his friends. Joe Carnall, a schoolfriend, has said Turner was "always the quiet one" in their social circle. After friends began forming bands and playing live, Turner, Helders, and Nicholson decided to start Arctic Monkeys in mid-2002. According to Nicholson, Turner already had "instruments about the house" and was conversant in the basics of musicianship because of his father's job as a music teacher. Helders bought a drum kit, while Turner suggested that Nicholson learn bass guitar, and invited Jamie Cook, a neighbour who attended a different school, to play guitar. Initially, Turner played guitar in the instrumental band; he became the frontman when two other school friends declined to sing. Helders considered Turner the obvious candidate for lyricist – "I knew he had a thing for words" – and he gradually began to share songs with his bandmates. Before playing a live show, the band rehearsed for a year in Turner's garage and, later, at an unused warehouse in Wath. According to Helders' mother, who drove the teenagers to and from their rehearsal space three times a week: "If they knew you were there, they would just stop so we had to sneak in." Their first gig was on Friday, 13 June 2003, supporting The Sound at a local pub called The Grapes. The set, which was partly recorded, comprised four original songs and four cover versions of songs by the Beatles, the White Stripes, the Undertones, and the Datsuns.

In the summer of 2003, Turner played seven gigs in York and Liverpool as a rhythm guitarist for the funk band Judan Suki, after meeting the lead singer Jon McClure on a bus. That August, while recording a demo with Judan Suki at Sheffield's 2fly Studios, Turner asked Alan Smyth if he would produce an Arctic Monkeys demo. Smyth obliged and "thought they definitely had something special going on. I told Alex off for singing in an American voice at that first session." An introduction by Smyth led to the band acquiring a management team, Geoff Barradale and Ian McAndrew. They paid for Smyth and Arctic Monkeys to record numerous three-song demos in 2003 and 2004. Turner was quiet and observant during studio sessions, remembered Smyth: "Whenever anyone popped in the studio, he would sit and listen to them before he would say anything." At their rehearsal room in Yellow Arch Studios, Arctic Monkeys developed a reputation as particularly hard workers; the owner lent the band touring equipment while the owner's wife helped Turner with his singing. Barradale drove the band around venues in Scotland, the Midlands, and the north of England to establish their reputation as a live band. The band handed out free copies of the demo CDs after each show and fans began sharing the unofficial '' Beneath the Boardwalk'' demo compilation online. After finishing college in mid-2004, Turner took a year out to focus on the band and deferred vague plans to attend university in Manchester. He began working part-time as a bartender at the Sheffield music venue The Boardwalk. There, he met well-known figures including musician Richard Hawley and poet John Cooper Clarke. By the end of 2004, Arctic Monkeys' audiences were beginning to sing along with their songs and the demo of "I Bet You Look Good on The Dancefloor" was played on BBC Radio 1 by Zane Lowe.

2005–2007: Rise to fame

Arctic Monkeys came to national attention in early 2005. They received their first mention in a national newspaper in April, with a ''Daily Star'' reporter describing them as "the most exciting band to emerge this year". They self-released an EP, featuring the single " Fake Tales of San Francisco", in May and commenced their first nationwide tour soon afterwards. In June, in the midst of a bidding war, Arctic Monkeys signed to the independent label Domino Recording Company. After initial sessions with James Ford and Mike Crossey, they recorded an album in rural Lincolnshire with producer Jim Abbiss. Turner began dating London-based student Johanna Bennett around this time. In October, the single "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart. ''Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not'', Arctic Monkeys' debut album, was released in January 2006, and debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart. Turner's lyrics, chronicling teenage nightlife in Sheffield, were widely praised. Kelefa Sanneh of ''The New York Times'' remarked: "Mr. Turner's lyrics are worth waiting for and often worth memorizing, too ... He has an uncanny way of evoking Northern English youth culture while neither romanticizing it nor sneering at it." Musically, Alexis Petridis of ''The Guardian'' noted that the album was influenced by guitar bands "from the past five years ... Thrillingly, their music doesn't sound apologetic for not knowing the intricacies of rock history."

It was the fastest-selling debut album in British music history and quickly became a cultural phenomenon. Turner was hailed by British press outlets as "the voice of a generation". In interview profiles, however, he was described as quiet and uncomfortable with attention. The band dismissed the hype, with Cook saying their goal was "to be able to grow like The Clash. When they started, it was a very basic, punky record. Then they started to take off and move in lots of directions. That's what we want." Less than two months after the album's release, Turner declared that Sheffield-inspired songwriting was "a closed book": "We're moving on and thinking about different things." Years later, Turner said that the attention during this period made him "a bit frightened or nervous": "We shut a lot of people out, just to try to keep some sort of control." The band turned down many promotional opportunities and quickly released new material – a five-track EP '' Who the Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys?'' in April, and a stand-alone single, "Leave Before the Lights Come On", in August. That summer, the band made the decision to permanently replace Nicholson, who had taken a touring break due to "fatigue", with Nick O'Malley, another childhood friend. Nicholson was informed at a band meeting, during which "Al did the speaking." Turner and Nicholson stopped speaking for two years but later repaired their friendship.

Arctic Monkeys' second album, ''Favourite Worst Nightmare'', was released in April 2007, just over a year after their debut. It was produced in London by Mike Crossey and James Ford. As of 2020, Ford has produced every subsequent Turner project. Lyrically, the album touches on fame, love, and heartache. Turner and Bennett had ended their relationship in January; she was credited as a co-writer on "Fluorescent Adolescent". While uninterested in the songs concerning fame, Marc Hogan of ''Pitchfork'' said the album displayed Turner's "usual gift for vivid imagery" and explored "new emotional depth". Petridis of ''The Guardian'' noted that the band were "pushing gently but confidently at the boundaries of their sound", with hints of "woozy psychedelia" and "piledriving metal". The album was a commercial success, debuting at number one in the UK, while Arctic Monkeys headlined Glastonbury Festival in the summer of 2007. Also that year, Turner began to collaborate with other artists. He worked with rapper Dizzee Rascal on the Arctic Monkeys B-side "Temptation", a version of which also featured on Rascal's album '' Maths and English''. He co-wrote three songs on Reverend and The Makers' debut album '' The State Of Things'', after briefly sharing a Sheffield flat with the frontman Jon McClure. Another Sheffield singer, Richard Hawley, featured on the Arctic Monkeys' B-side " Bad Woman" and performed with the band at the Manchester Apollo, as part of a concert film directed by Richard Ayoade. Turner also announced plans to form a side-project band, the Last Shadow Puppets, with Ford and Miles Kane, whom he had befriended during a tour in mid-2005.

2008–2011: Musical experimentation

The Last Shadow Puppets' debut album, ''The Age of the Understatement'', was released in April 2008, shortly after Turner had moved from Sheffield to east London. Co-written by Turner and Kane, the album was recorded in the Loire Valley, France and featured string arrangements by Owen Pallett. Alexa Chung, dating Turner since mid-2007, featured in the music video for " My Mistakes Were Made For You". Hogan of ''Pitchfork'' noted that, lyrically, Turner was "moving from his anthropologically detailed Arctics brushstrokes to bold, cinematic gestures." Petridis of ''The Guardian'' detected "the audible enthusiasm of an artist broadening his scope" and praised "a certain fearlessness on display". During a tour with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Turner said Kane's presence gave him "somewhere to hide" on stage. The Last Shadow Puppets gave a surprise performance at Glastonbury Festival, with both Matt Helders and Jack White making guest appearances. Alison Mosshart performed with the band at the Olympia in Paris, and provided vocals for a B-side. Also in 2008, Turner formed a covers band with Dev Hynes for a one-off show in London and recorded a spoken word track "A Choice of Three" for Helders' compilation album ''Late Night Tales''.

Turner has described Arctic Monkeys' third album, ''Humbug'', released in August 2009, as "a massive turning point" in the band's career. They travelled to Joshua Tree, California to work with producer Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age; it was the band's first experience of working in a studio for an extended period of time. Homme has said the album's heavier sound was initiated by the band themselves, while he encouraged Turner to embrace longer guitar solos and to develop his newfound "crooning" style of singing. While Petridis of ''The Guardian'' found some lyrics "too oblique to connect", he was impressed by the band's "desire to progress". He described "Cornerstone" as a "dazzling display of what Turner can do: a fabulously witty, poignant evocation of lost love." Joe Tangari of ''Pitchfork'' felt the album was a "legitimate expansion of the band's songwriting arsenal" and described "Cornerstone" as the highlight. During a break in the UK ''Humbug'' tour, Turner joined Richard Hawley on stage at a London charity concert, and played a seven-song acoustic set. Homme joined Arctic Monkeys for a live performance in Pioneertown, California.

While living in Brooklyn, New York, where he moved with Chung in the spring of 2009, Turner wrote an acoustic soundtrack for the coming-of-age feature film '' Submarine'' (2010); it was released as an EP in March 2011. Director Richard Ayoade initially approached Turner to sing cover versions but, instead, he recorded six original songs in London, accompanied by James Ford and Bill Ryder-Jones. Two of the songs had already been written; Turner wrote the rest after watching dailies from the film set. The songs existed within the world of the film as a mixtape made by the main character's father. Paul Thompson of ''Pitchfork'' felt "Turner's keen wit and eye for detail" had created a "tender portrayal" of adolescent uncertainty. Ben Walsh of ''The Independent'' said the "exquisite" soundtrack was "reminiscent" of Cat Stevens's work on '' Harold and Maude''. In 2014, the ''Submarine'' soundtrack appeared on ''The Timess list of 100 Soundtracks to Love. Turner also co-wrote six songs for Miles Kane's debut solo album ''Colour of the Trap'' (2011) and co-wrote Kane's standalone single " First of My Kind" (2012).

Turner wrote Arctic Monkeys' fourth album, '' Suck It and See'', in New York and met up with his bandmates and James Ford for recording sessions in Los Angeles. Marc Hogan of ''Pitchfork'' enjoyed the album's "chiming indie pop balladry" and "muscular glam-rock". Petridis of ''The Guardian'' remarked that Turner's new lyrical style of "dense, Dylanesque wordplay is tough to get right. More often than not, he pulls it off. There are beautifully turned phrases and piercing observation." Richard Hawley co-wrote and provided vocals for the B-side, " You and I", and performed the song with the band at the Olympia in Paris. Turner joined Elvis Costello on stage in New York to sing "Lipstick Vogue".

2012–2017: International success

By 2012, Arctic Monkeys were based in Los Angeles, with Turner and Helders sharing a house. Arctic Monkeys toured the US as the support act for the Black Keys in early 2012. While they had previously opened for Oasis and Queens of the Stone Age at one-off shows, it was the band's first time to tour as a supporting act. They released "R U Mine?" as a standalone single in preparation for the tour, with Turner's new girlfriend, Arielle Vandenberg, appearing in the music video. Later that year, Arctic Monkeys performed "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" and a cover of "Come Together" by the Beatles at the 2012 London Summer Olympics opening ceremony. In early 2013, Turner provided backing vocals for the Queens of the Stone Age song " If I Had a Tail" and played bass guitar on "Get Right", a Miles Kane B-side. Arctic Monkeys headlined Glastonbury Festival for a second time in June.

'' AM'' was released in September 2013. Ryan Dombal of ''Pitchfork'' said that the album, dealing with "desperate 3 a.m. thoughts", managed to modernise " T. Rex bop, Bee Gees backup vocals, Rolling Stones R&B, and Black Sabbath monster riffage". Phil Mongredien of ''The Guardian'' described it as "their most coherent, most satisfying album since their debut": "Turner proves he has not lost his knack for an insightful lyric." Arctic Monkeys promoted the album heavily in the US, in contrast to previous album campaigns where, according to Helders, they had refused to do radio promotion: "We couldn't even have told you why at the time. Just stubborn teenage thinking." Arctic Monkeys spent 18 months touring ''AM''; they were joined onstage by Josh Homme in both Los Angeles and Austin. Turner briefly reunited with Chung in the summer of 2014, having ended his two-year relationship with Vandenberg earlier that year.

Columbia Records approached Turner about working with Alexandra Savior in 2014, and he co-wrote her debut album, ''Belladonna of Sadness'', in between Arctic Monkeys' touring commitments. Turner and James Ford co-produced the album in 2015, with Turner also playing bass, guitars, keyboards, and synthesisers. An additional song "Risk" was recorded with T Bone Burnett for an episode of the crime drama ''True Detective''. While Turner and Savior performed together in Los Angeles in 2016, the album was not released until April 2017. In reviewing it, Hilary Hughes of ''Pitchfork'' remarked: "Turner's musical ticks are so distinct that they're instantly recognizable when someone else tries to dress them up as their own." Savior later said the press attention surrounding Turner's involvement was overwhelming: "I'm so grateful for him, but I'm also like, 'Alright, alright!'"

The Last Shadow Puppets released their second album, ''Everything You've Come to Expect'', in April 2016. Turner, Kane and Ford were joined by Zach Dawes of Mini Mansions, with whom Turner had collaborated on the songs "Vertigo" and "I Love You All The Time" in 2015. Owen Pallett again composed the string arrangements, this time working in the studio with the band rather than remotely. According to Turner, the album featured "the most straight-up love letters" of his career, written for American model Taylor Bagley whom he dated from 2015 to 2018.MOJO June 2018, page 79, Andrew Cottirill Laura Snapes of ''Pitchfork'' detected an air of "misanthropy" in the album. However, she acknowledged that Turner was "no less a gifted lyricist than ever" and described some songs as "totally gorgeous ... the structures fluid and surprising". Alexis Petridis of ''The Guardian'' enjoyed Turner's "characteristically sparkling use of language" and "melodic skill". However, he felt the pair's "in-joking" during interviews and Kane's "leery" encounter with a female ''Spin'' journalist sullied the album. From March until August 2016, they toured in Europe and North America. Johnny Marr played guitar with the band at two shows, while Turner's father David played saxophone at a Berlin show.

2018 onward: ''Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino'' and ''The Car''

''Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino'', Arctic Monkeys' sixth album, was released in May 2018. After receiving a Steinway Vertegrand piano as a 30th birthday present from his manager, Turner wrote the space-themed album from the perspective of "a lounge-y character". He recorded demos at home, alone and later with Helders, and shared them with Cook in early 2017. Cook was initially taken-aback by the change in direction but was "very, very excited by what he'd come up with." By mid–2017, the whole band was recording the project, produced by Turner and James Ford, in both Los Angeles and France. They were joined by musicians from the bands Tame Impala, Klaxons, and Mini Mansions. Upon release, Jonah Weiner of ''Rolling Stone'' characterised ''Tranquility Base'' as "a captivatingly bizarre album about the role of entertainment – the desire to escape into it, and the desire to create it – during periods of societal upheaval and crisis." Alexis Petridis of ''The Guardian'' found it "quietly impressive" that the band chose to release the "thrilling, smug, clever and oddly cold album" rather than more crowd-pleasing fare. Jazz Monroe of ''Pitchfork'' declared it "a delirious and artful satire directed at the foundations of modern society." The album became the eighth number one album of Turner's career in the UK. The band toured the album from May 2018 to April 2019. Turner began dating French singer Louise Verneuil in mid–2018. As of September 2022, he lives between London and Paris.

Arctic Monkeys' seventh studio album, ''The Car'', was released on 21 October 2022. The first single from the new album, "There'd Better Be a Mirrorball", accompanied by a video directed by Turner, was released in August. During a tour to promote the upcoming release, the band headlined the 2022 Reading and Leeds Festival.

Artistry

Influences

Turner was "into hip-hop in a big way" as a teenager. When he first started writing lyrics, Roots Manuva's ''Run Come Save Me'' was his main influence. He also listened to Rawkus Records and Lyricist Lounge compilations, and artists such as Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, OutKast, Eminem and the Streets. He has repeatedly cited Method Man as one of his favourite lyricists, and has referenced the Wu-Tang Clan in his own lyrics.

For Turner, the Strokes were "that one band that comes along when you are 14 or 15 years old that manages to hit you in just the right way and changes your whole perception of things." He changed his style of dress and began to take an interest in guitar music. He has since referenced the band in his lyrics. the Vines were the first band Turner ever saw live and Craig Nicholls provided inspiration for his early stage persona. Other early guitar influences included the Libertines, the Coral, The Hives and The White Stripes. In his late teens, Turner began "delving" into older music and discovered lyricists including Elvis Costello, Ray Davies of The Kinks, Jarvis Cocker of Pulp, Paul Weller of The Jam, and Morrissey of The Smiths. Turner has since performed with Jack White of The White Stripes, Costello and Johnny Marr of The Smiths.

John Cooper Clarke, whose poetry Turner first encountered at school, was a "massive" source of early inspiration. Turner was working as a barman at The Boardwalk in Sheffield in late 2004 when Clarke appeared on stage as the opening act for the Fall. The performance made a big impression on the eighteen-year-old: "He's talking 100 miles an hour, and he's really funny ... It just blew my mind." He was inspired by Clarke's use of a regional accent and the early Arctic Monkeys song "From the Ritz to the Rubble" was his homage to Clarke's style ("my best shot at it, at least"). Later in his career, Turner requested to interview Clarke for ''Mojo Magazine'', published two Clarke poems as part of a single's artwork and used another ("I Wanna Be Yours") as the lyrical basis for a song. In 2018, Arctic Monkeys invited Clarke to perform his reading of "I Wanna Be Yours" at one of their Sheffield arena shows.

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