ALEX TURNER (MUSICIAN)

'Alexander David Turner'^[1] (born 6 January, 1986)^[2] is an English musician and member of Sheffield band, Arctic Monkeys. He is the band's lead vocalist and plays lead guitar for the band, as well as being the songwriter.

Contents

Early life

Forming the band

New Project

Other Projects

Equipment

Private life

References

External links

Early life

The only-child of two teachers, Turner received his first guitar as a Christmas present in 2001 along with neighbour Jamie Cook.^[3] According to Turner, Oasis gave him the desire to play the guitar^[4], while the antics of Craig Nicholls - lead singer of Australian rock band The Vines - left him thinking "That's what being a singer is all about".^[5] Turner suggests that his performances attempt to replicate those of Nicholls, saying "When we play, I'll do what Craig Nicholls does, be all spaced out." However, it has been the influence of his mother and father (through their teaching of German and Music respectively) has helped hone his interest in language and his attention to musical detail:

''"Me mum, not only is she like a linguist or whatever, but she's always fascinated by words that mean summat. She's a big one for underlining things in books. For me birthday she gave me this book with all little things that she’d written down out of books. She's good like that. I’ll be like, 'What does this word mean?', and she can tell me."^[6]

Forming the band

Along with Andy Nicholson and Matt Helders, Turner attended at Stocksbridge High School ^[7], and formed Arctic Monkeys in 2002. Turner used to work at the bar in local concert venues, and stated ''"it really annoyed me when bands would come on and say 'We've got CDs at the back for sale - three pounds each'... you'd think 'Fuck off, who do you think you are?'"'' ^[8]. On this basis, Arctic Monkeys gave away free demo CDs at their gigs.
Turner has always been the band's main songwriter, and his sharp and cutting observations of inner city England have drawn comparisons to The Streets' frontman Mike Skinner. However, Turner has admitted that during the early days of the band ''"nobody wanted to admit they wrote [the lyrics] so we kept trying other singers so they'd do it for us."'' Despite enjoying songwriting, Turner shyed away from acknowledgment because he ''"didn't want to have piss took out of [him]!"'' However, he has suggested that he has always enjoyed songwriting and that since getting his guitar, has spent most of his spare moments penning new lyrics, as ''"that’s what [he]'d feel comfortable doing.'' Describing the manner in which he constructs his lyrics, Turner says

''"I'll think about something and I'll be writing, penning something down and I'll keep building on that. The best stuff comes when I’ve got a melody and a rhythm so I know how many syllables each line is going to have and then build it up from there, and make it a whole thing, and try and pay attention to every aspect."''

New Project

Plans have been announced for Turner to record an album with friend Miles Kane and producer James Ford. Kane, formerly of reccurrent Arctic Monkeys support act The Little Flames, announced the project on August 2, 2007. The as-yet-untitled project will feature Turner and Kane sharing vocal, guitar and bass duties with Ford playing drums. ^[9]

Other Projects

Alex worked with Dizzee Rascal on the song Temptation from Dizzee Rascal's album Maths and English. This song is very similar to "Temptation Greets You Like Your Naughty Friend" By Arctic Monkeys.

Equipment

Turner used to play a Fender olympic white American standard Stratocaster, and later a black American standard Fender Stratocaster guitar, both sporting maple fretboards, until the release of the band's single "Brianstorm" and the second album ''Favourite Worst Nightmare''. When touring the new album he uses a black Fender Bronco with a black pickgaurd and rosewood fretboard, a guitar discontinued by Fender. Also, during live performances of "If You Were There, Beware", he uses a Gretsch Spectra Sonic. He uses Orange AD30T amplifiers. ^[10] He has also been using Bad Cat amps recently.
During the ''Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not''-era Turner´s pedalboard consisted of two Pro Co Rat 2 distortion pedals and a Boss TU-2 tuner.
Now, touring ''Favourite Worst Nightmare'', he has replaced the Pro Co pedals with an Ibanez Ts-808 Vintage Tubescreamer overdrive pedal. He has also extended the pedalboard with a Hughes & Kettner Rotosphere MK2, a Danelectro Reel Echo, a Boss LS-2 Line Selector and an Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man.

Private life

Turner has maintained a very private life, and shunned media publicity when declared the ''Coolest Man On The Planet'' by NME magazine in December 2005. He has distanced himself from the celebrity lifestyle, he and the band are often spotted around Sheffield, supporting local bands, returning to clubs such as 'The Leadmill' and watching their football team Sheffield Wednesday. Like the other members, he rarely comments on his personal relationships. Blender magazine have described him as ''"the least talkative member of the group, chewing over his answers for so long that he ends up doubting his own words"''^[11].

References

1. ''Index of Births, Marriages and Deaths in England and Wales, 1984-2005.''
2. Lovely Lad
3. Brits go bananas
4. The Things They Say 4081
5. Stop making sense
6. "Hey, hey it's the Arctic Monkeys" (p2, p3), The Times, 2007-07-28. Retrieved on 2007-07-29.
7. Arctic donkey
8. Artist Profile - Arctic Monkeys
9. Arctic Monkey plans side project
10. I want to sound like...Arctic Monkeys
11. The Lads Are Alright

External links

★ Video interview with Alex Turner at 2007 NME Awards