Alexander David Turner[1] (born 6 January 1986) is an English musician and member of Arctic Monkeys and The Last Shadow Puppets. He is the vocalist and lead guitarist in both bands. He is the main songwriter in the Arctic Monkeys and shares writing duties in side-project The Last Shadow Puppets with Miles Kane.
Contents [hide]
1 Recording career
1.1 Forming Arctic Monkeys
1.2 The LastShadow Puppets
1.3 Other musical projects
2 Musical equipment
3 Personal life
4 Discography
5 References
6 External links
[edit] Recording career
[edit] Forming Arctic Monkeys
Main article: Arctic Monkeys
Along with Andy Nicholson and Matt Helders, Turner attended Stocksbridge High School,[2] and together with his neighbour Jamie Cook, formed Arctic Monkeys in 2002.
Turner is believedto have started learning guitar because of the band that was one of his main influences, Oasis. Turner has always been the band’s main songwriter, and his observations of inner city England have drawn comparisons to The Streets’ Mike Skinner.[3] 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 sothey’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]! »[3] 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.[4] Describing the manner in which he constructshis 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. »[5]
They recorded their smash hit album in August2005 (Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not) shortly after securing their first record deal.
[edit] The Last Shadow Puppets
Main article: The Last Shadow Puppets
In August 2007 plans were announced for Turner to record an album with 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 andKane 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 21 April 2008 and reached the number one spot in its first week. They recently did a small tour backed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, starting atPortsmouth Guildhall on 19 August 2008.[7]
[edit] Other musical 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 Your 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 « The Machine » from their debut album The State Of Things, on which he also co-wrote some of the songs with McClure. NME reported that Turner was working with Alison Mosshart of The Kills which has now been revealed to be ‘The Fire And The Thud’ which appeared on Humbug with Alison providing vocals. He appears on Tony Christie’s album Made inSheffield, playing « Only Ones Who Know ». In October 2008, Turner made his debut as a short story writer, performing spoken word track « A Choice of Three » on his bandmates’ compilation Late Night Tales: Matt Helders.
[edit] Musical equipment
This section does not cite any references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be…