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Having heard a lot of hype surrounding them over recent months, Purple Revolver finally caught Turbowolf live for the first time when they supported Andrew WK.
Not ones to rest on their laurels, since then they have just finished touring with The Subways and are now lined up to play some of our favourite festivals this summer – Dot to Dot, Download, 2000 Trees and Bestival to name a few.
Taking all this into account we made it our latest mission to catch up with them and get to know them better. We managed to pin down three quarters of the band as Lead Singer Chris, Guitarist Andy, and Drummer Blake chewed the fat with us backstage at Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London.
PR: Tonight’s the last night of the tour with Subways, you killed it out there, how’s the tour been for you?
Chris: Thanks. It’s been good. They’re really really nice, it’s been good fun.
PR: What else have you been up to this year? You played a couple of weeks ago with Andrew WK.
Blake: Andrew WK was cool, really good fun. It was kind of unexpected in a way. I was stood side of stage watching him play and there was, you know, this big stage invasion. I haven’t seen that many people smiling at a gig for so long, that was really nice. There were more people on the stage then I’ve ever seen.
Chris: We’ve also been out in Europe. We did a European tour with Pulled Apart By Horses who are good mates of ours and top lads. We played a bunch of shows with them in the UK over the years but never actually toured with them but always been talking about it so we all went into Europe and that was amazing.
Then we did a week on our own, went over to Poland, did a whole bunch of dates, went to Austria, Germany as well. That was very good, just really nice to go out on our own and play some headline shows in Europe you know. It was a really different experience you know, we weren’t really sure what to expect.
PR: What kind of reception did you get?
Chris: Really amazing, like we didn’t expect there to be so many people at our shows because obviously we’d never played at places like Vienna on our own. It was just amazing, there were loads of people there, they all went crazy for us and knew all the words. That was an amazing experience, going so far as Warsaw, so far East.
Andy: The Warsaw show really stood out. It felt like a hometown show to me, like same as when we play Bristol, it’s really crazy and everyone knows what’s going on, we just go to one of the furthest away places on the tour and it’s like a hometown show was very cool.
Chris: That’s what we’ve been up to recently, and we did a few Subways shows in Europe too. We’ve been away for a month then we came back and had 2 or 3 weeks off, just been trying to write for the next album and stuff.
PR: You’ve been together a while but just got signed last summer to Hassle Records, have you noticed a difference since then?
Chris: We noticed a difference since the album came out mostly. Before like people didn’t really know the songs, they knew bits, but now people really know it and can fall in love with it. They sing along and stuff, it’s great.
PR: When are you recording your next album?
Chris: We’re going to record it in maybe 2035, some time round then and it’ll be ready probably around the time the world crashes into the sun. It’s timed perfectly though so that when it comes out, people will hear the last song and then it’ll be all over.
PR: So you’ll make us wait? Like a Chinese Democracy a la Turbowolf?
Andy: Yeah, but so much better.
Chris: And I won’t have braids, but I will be ginger. We can tell you that much.
PR: Any plans for a headline UK tour soon? Maybe before 2035?
Andy: Yes there are but we can’t really say anything specific. It’ll be some time after summer. This summer.
PR: You’ve lots of festivals before that?
Blake: Yes Dot to Dot. Then we have Download, Bestival and little ones like Truck, Y Not, 2000 Trees, Off The Cuff. Loads, it’ll be cool.
PR: Any special surprises planned for them?
Blake: We’re not going to turn up, we’re not going to play.
Chris: We’re just going to be there and feel our way instead.
PR: And what, hand the instruments over to some randoms and let them do the hard work for you?
Andy: We do do that occasionally, it never works out that well!
Chris: There’ll be some new stuff, there’ll be weird shit going on. There’ll be like, you know, all sorts of stuff
Blake: Maybe an inflatable snowman
Andy: There might be something from Ancient Egypt. Some seriously arcane shit. So look out for that!
PR: What’s the best, most memorable gig you’ve ever played?
Chris: There are so many
Andy: The Berlin show was cool. White Trash in Berlin. It’s like a punk rock restaurant in Berlin and it looks like something out of a Robert Rodrigues movie, it’s super gnarly and cool.
They’ve got a venue downstairs but we wanted to play in the restaurant. It was tiny, loads of tables and chairs. There was pole dancers there and they all came on stage and there was this 70 something year old man like getting up on stage and rocking out. He ended up crowdsurfing, this ancient old guy, crowdsurfing with his shoe in his hand. He had a great night, he absolutely loved it
He was saying I’ve seen Hendrix, I’ve seen the Doors, I’ve never liked Punk Rock before tonight. So that was cool, that was really good.
PR: Sounds incredible. What’s your favourite song to play live?
Blake: I always like playing “Lets Die” cos I know that means we’ve made it to the end of the set and I haven’t fucked up too badly.
Andy: I like the last bit of “A Rose for the Crows” the slow bit cos I get to turn on my really brutal pedal.
Chris: I will say I like “The Big Cut” I like the bit in the middle where it breaks down and I like the element of freedom we have. Some times we draw it out longer, some times shorter, but I like that cos it’s never the same, and we always play different stuff. Me and Andy sort of make stuff up and do what we want. I think on the next album we might get a bit more of that loose jamming stuff, things you can change up.
PR: Coming back to Festivals, any festival survival tips you can share?
Chris: Don’t shit in your own shoe.
PR: Is that based on personal experience?
Chris: No, I just thought you might not want to do that.
Blake: Treat people like you want to be treated, if you want a bag of piss in your face then do it to other people, but if you don’t then don’t do it.
Chris: Try not to camp anywhere near nerds that keep you awake all night reciting the entire Family Guy series before you have to play the biggest show of your life. That’s not based on personal experience either.
PR: We’ve noticed an animal theme emerging – wolves, snakes, crows etc. What’s your favourite animal and why?
Andy: A Tapir. They are very noble creatures. On Saturday I’m going to visit them at the zoo. I’ve now found a contact that can get me backstage at the zoo so on Saturday I’ll be backstage with the tapirs. There’s a baby one, I’m gonna be hands on, hanging out with the Tapirs and then going out for a curry. It’s going to be great.
PR – Finally, we’re preparing a mixtape feature this month with your Summery, festival tracks on heavy rotation on the bus and iPods. If Turbowolf were to contribute five or 10 songs to our mixtape what would they be?
Andy: Five Death from Above songs. As much of the album as I’m allowed to fill up the tape, and keep repeating it. All 10 songs if I can.
Blake: I’ve been listening to Deathgrips recently, I’m not sure if it’s summery – quite grimy. Hall and Oates always gets me drinking, you know that song “You make my dreams come true”.
Chris: I think stuff like Doobie Brothers, Steeley Dan and I’d say maybe Refused as they’ve reformed. I think that would be a good mixtape.
Interview – Lara Cullen
Pictures © Marc Broussley loudpixels.net