Tickets for Turbowolf's show at the Trinity Centre are available here. 

Their third album The Free Life comes out on March 9, and six days later they headline the Trinity Centre in Bristol, rescheduled after the closure of the Bierkeller. Ahead of the homecoming show for the Bristolian group, we chatted to Chris from Turbowolf. 

Having toured a lot of places, how do you view Bristol as a musical city these days compared to when you were first starting out? Are you excited for your homecoming at the [Trinity Centre], and is there anything special planned for it?

Yeah we love Bristol! It’s our home and has been a great place to come up in the music scene and develop our band. It’s changed quite a lot over the years in some ways…like some of the venues we used to play are now gone. I hope that new bands have places to hone their craft as we had the privilege of doing here in Bristol. And yes…we’re very excited for our Bristol show! It’s always great playing here. Our fans are the best.   

What do you think about the problems facing Thekla and other live music venues in the city which are being threatened with closure?

It’s a wholly stupid situation. The irony levels on this are too much to take, like with most gentrification scenarios. The fact that people want to live in the city centre near where all the “cool” stuff is going on, means that all the “cool” stuff has to go because they want to live near the “cool” stuff. Ridiculous, and we wish the Thekla all the best.   

The new album features some of the crunchiest riffs physically possible, and there are some similarities to Wolfmother. Have you met them and chatted to them and have they influenced the album?

Thank you! Crunchy is part of balanced diet. We have met Wolfmother actually and played a show with them once. But no, I wouldn’t say they influenced the album directly. Lovely dudes!

There are also obviously sounds from Royal Blood, amongst others. How much influence and say did all the collaborations have on the production and sound of the album? Did you also get to chat to Ben Thatcher from Royal Blood about the drums on the album? They’re incredibly fast and powerful.

Production comes from Andy and myself, with some help from Tom Dalgety as our mix wizard. We love Mike and Ben and are our friends but no they didn’t have any input on our record apart from when Mike sang on the song Domino, but that was written for him by us. And maybe what you can hear in the drums is that we use the same mixer (Tom) as Royal Blood do. Ben and Blake are both great drummers…I’ll tell Blake someone has noticed the drums!

Are they are more collaborations on your wish list for the future?

Ooh…don’t know…maybe MC Ride from Death Grips? And maybe Satomi Matsuzaki from Deerhoof? Why not. 

‘Very Bad’ features an increase in tempo of guitar and drum playing, an element which can be heard elsewhere on the album too. Was this done intentionally with the idea of a hectic live show in mind? Or are your live shows going to be adapted base on the album, instead of vice versa?

Thank you. We write with performing the song live in mind as well as it sounding good on record. But we treat both things differently. The record is meticulously crafted; as it will exist in that state for ever. Whereas live; each song exists purely in that moment and whatever way we can get to making it sound good and work, we’ll take. 

‘Concluder’ is primarily just one voice and one guitar. Does this pave the way for more acoustic songs in the future? And how was it recording a song with minimal instruments in comparison to lots of heavy guitars and busy drums all going on at the same time?

It was fun to make something that’s “us” but in a different way. That was the challenge really. I think we did a good job of making it nicety (nice&nasty). And who knows if we’ll do anymore like this. I don’t.

How do you view the current state of guitar music in the UK, and do you feel the future of rock’n’roll is in safe hands with new bands climbing up the ranks?

There’s lot’s of great bands, most of which will never appear on the populous’s radar. And the future of rock’n’roll is not rock’n’roll as we know it. For any one art form to exist it must be willing to change, and nothing in art should ever be safe.

Tickets for Turbowolf's show at the Trinity Centre are available here.