Frank Turner is "excited" to finally be making a punk album.
The 38-year-old musician – whose recent projects include 2019’s historical folk record ‘No Man’s Land’ and 2018’s dance inspired LP ‘Be More Kind’ – has confirmed plans to embrace the heavier side of his own personal tastes for his next collection.
He exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "With folk music and indeed punk rock with my solo stuff, it’s always been going right up to the edges of the centre of my music taste, and then slightly taking a ring road.
"For once in my life, I’m heading to the city centre! It’s like, f*** it, I’m allowed to make a punk album for once in my life so I’m gonna! I’m quite excited about it!"
The as-yet-untitled album is still early in its development, with Frank still writing material with 21 songs already fighting for a spot on the tracklist.
However, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic does mean plans are up in the air when it comes to actually recording – which was due to happen later this month.
He added: "I’m not because I cannot get to Los Angeles where I was planning to record it with an unnamed producer, who shall remain nameless for now.
"Existing plans have come apart. There are discussions going on about whether there’s any possibility of recording it remotely.
"The answer to is probably no, just in the sense that the point of hiring a big name producer is to have them in the room while you’re working."
When it comes to the new material, there’s a fairly even split of songs written before or during the pandemic, and Frank is aware of avoiding the trap of releasing an album of lockdown tunes.
He said: "There’s going to be a glut of songs about lockdown at some point, which are probably going to get old pretty quickly.
"There are one or two songs I wrote at the beginning of lockdown which are about lockdown that now feel completely stale.
"I might well go back and re-attack those songs and write about something else.
"Having said all that, this is a generational event, this is a huge thing. I think it’s not surprising and not illegitimate for art to address that, you know?"
While fans wait for the next full length record, they will also be looking forward to his split LP ‘West Coast vs. Wessex’ with punk legends NOFX, which will be released on July 31 and sees them covering each other’s material.
Reflecting on having his childhood hero Fat Mike singing his songs, Frank admitted: "I can’t over exaggerate how amazing it is.
"NOFX are quite a distinctive band in terms of their tonality and playing style and the rest of it, so hearing my songs put through that filter was just crazy. Like, so cool – a life capping experience!"