Viva Brighton Issue #43 September 2016

MUSIC
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Turin Brakes
Back in the festival groove
You’re doing loads
of festivals off the
back of your new album,
Lost Property.
Isle of Wight, Glastonbury,
Together
the People in Preston
Park… Think it’s
been ten years since
we did as many as
we’ve done this year;
I don’t know why, we
just stopped being a festival band. But then recently
we started to pop up on the UK festival
scene and we’ve loved it - we’re getting closer
and closer to stadium antics. All of a sudden we’re
playing all these bigger stages, reinventing ourselves
for the festival crowd.
A slight schedule dilemma at Glastonbury
- Turin Brakes playing at the same time as
Adele… She was a support act for us years ago,
at a little show in Camden - 2007, I think. We
hadn’t put two and two together that it was THE
Adele, so we made a joke that if it wasn’t for us,
she never would have got there. But it was completely
fine - Glastonbury is such a big festival
that we absolutely packed out the tent. Adele and
Turin Brakes can survive in the world together at
the same time.
How have your stadium antics played out at
festival gigs? Any flash covers? We kind of
avoid covers; in fact, we were just walking around
the other day saying the big difference between
festivals today and when we first started is that so
many now are like function bands - getting major
spots on the main stage. It’s cool, but it’s creeping
into slots that used to be there for original
artists. Where the hell are festivals going to be
in ten years’ time? You’ve gotta keep being brave
and putting original
artists onstage or
it all starts turning
into ‘X Factor Karaoke
Land’. For us,
it’s about building up
energy between these
serious, melancholic
songs we do; there’s
lots of jokes and
piss-taking. Our bass
player Ed is a lunatic
onstage, expressing himself wildly. We’ve learned
to loosen up and not take ourselves too seriously.
Your and Gale’s transcendent harmonies are
the hallmark of Turin Brakes’ sound - was
this fate? Or something to do with growing
up together? We went to the same primary
school and were in a cathedral choir. All the
years we’ve spent hanging out with each other,
with the same reference points, the same understanding
- we can probably communicate more
in a single stare than other people could do in
days. It’s an unspoken thing that can only come
through chemistry. With Rob and Ed, it was pure
luck that the chemistry was there. That’s like
striking oil - incredibly rare.
What is floating your musical boat at the moment?
I’ve gone backwards, actually, rediscovering
an album by Elliott Smith called XO - which
I used to listen to years ago; I found it the other
day and haven’t stopped listening to it. The Maccabees,
Laura Marling - I love her. Strong songwriters
always float my boat - from Joni Mitchell
to Kate Bush and everyone in between.
Amy Holtz interviewed Olly Knights
Turin Brakes play Together the People in
Brighton on the 4th and Hastings Pier on the
18th. togetherthepeople.co.uk
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