Alex Turner (musician)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Alex Turner | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Alexander David Turner |
| Born | January 6, 1986 Sheffield, England |
| Genre(s) | Indie rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instrument(s) | Guitar, vocals, combo organ, tambourine, Bass Guitar |
| Label(s) | Domino |
| Associated acts | Arctic Monkeys, The Last Shadow Puppets |
| Notable instrument(s) | |
| Fender Stratocaster Fender Bronco Gretsch Spectra Sonic |
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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.
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[edit] Forming the band
Alex Turner, along with Andy Nicholson and Matt Helders, Turner attended at Stocksbridge High School,[3] and together with Cook formed Arctic Monkeys in 2002. From his time working at the bar in local concert venues, Turner was "really annoyed [by] bands coming on and saying 'We've got CDs at the back for sale - three pounds each'... you'd think 'Fuck off, who do you think you are?'"[4]. 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.[4] 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 shied away from acknowledgment because he "didn't want to have piss took out of [him]!"[4] 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.[5] 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."[2]
[edit] The Last Shadow Puppets
In August 2007 plans were announced for Turner to record an album with friend Miles Kane and producer James Ford. Kane, of Arctic Monkeys support act The Rascals, announced the project on 2 August 2007. The project features Turner and Kane sharing vocal, guitar and bass duties with Ford playing drums.[6] Owen Pallett also features on the album. The duo have called themselves The Last Shadow Puppets, the album is called The Age of the Understatement, and was released on the April 21, 2008 and reached the number one spot in its first week.
[edit] Other projects
Turner worked with Dizzee Rascal on the song "Temptation" from Dizzee Rascal's album Maths and English. He also worked with Dizzee Rascal on a different version of the same song "Temptation Greets You Like a Naughty Friend" which featured on the "Brianstorm" single. Turner also features in the Reverend and the Makers song "The Machine" and features on guitar in the song "Sex With The Ex" from their debut album The State Of Things, on which he also co-wrote some of the songs with McClure.
[edit] Equipment
Turner used to play a Fender Arctic White American standard Stratocaster, and later a black Mexican 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 pickguard and rosewood fretboard, a guitar discontinued by Fender. Also, during live performances of "If You Were There, Beware", he uses a Gretsch Spectra Sonic. During the earlier days he used Orange AD30T amplifiers.[7] Now he uses a Fender Vibroverb for clean tones and a Selmer Zodiac 30 watt for more distorted tones.
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 ProCo 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.
[edit] 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'[citation needed], often DJ or frequent at clubnight Threads.[8]
Alex is currently dating TV presenter Alexa Chung.
[edit] References
- ^ Index of Births, Marriages and Deaths in England and Wales, 1984-2005.
- ^ a b "Lovely Lad", The Boston Phoenix, 2006-06-10. Retrieved on 2007-02-19.
- ^ Caesar, Ed. "Alex Turner: That's what he's not. So what is he?", The Independent, 2007-04-14. Retrieved on 2008-01-05.
- ^ a b c "Artist Profile - Arctic Monkeys", EMI, Retrieved 7 June 2006.
- ^ "Hey, hey it's the Arctic Monkeys" (p2, p3), The Times, 2007-07-28. Retrieved on 2007-07-29.
- ^ Arctic Monkey plans side project
- ^ "I want to sound like...Arctic Monkeys", NME, 2006-02-15. Retrieved on 2007-05-17.
- ^ http://www.threadsproductions.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=179<ref> and watching their football team [[Sheffield Wednesday]]. ''[[Blender (magazine)|Blender]]'' magazine has 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"''.<ref name="Blender">{{cite news| url=http://www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?id=1897| publisher=[[Blender (magazine)|Blender]]| title=The Lads Are Alright| date=May 2006}}</li></ol></ref>
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