Alex Turner has revealed that working with Miles Kane on The Last Shadow Puppets allows him to try new things musically that he wouldn’t be able to with the Arctic Monkeys.
Speaking to John Wilson on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Front Row’ last night, Turner explained that The Last Shadow Puppets’ 2007 debut allowed him to move away from the largely observational lyrics of Arctic Monkeys’ early material.
Turner said: “Going into this second album I remembered the Puppets was a vehicle for me to try new things for the first time. Before that record, every song I’d ever written was based on a very real scenario.
“The first Shadow Puppets record was the first time I attempted to step away from that. Most of the time it came off pretty silly. But there were a few moments where it worked out.”
Zackery Michael/PressTurner went on to say that working on the side project gave him an escape from his observational lyricism, and totally changed the way he approached his vocals.
He said: “I don’t remember ever thinking about my voice before [The Age of the Understatement]. The idea of singing never occurred to me then. I’d just write these things, and my voice was a vehicle for getting the words out. The melody isn’t something I’d considered, but it’s as powerful as a melodic aspect of the song, if not more so.”
Turner also said that The Last Shadow Puppets latest album, ‘Everything You’ve Come To Expect’, presents a more refined version of the abstract lyrics on its predecessor. He went on to explain the lyrics on album track The Dream Synopsis are a reference to that.
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He said: “There’s a line in the chorus where I say it must be awful to hear me talk about my dreams. In a way I’m talking to people who were fans of the very immediate, observational lyrics I wrote at the beginning.”
The Last Shadow Puppets appear on course for a Number One album, with ‘Everything You’ve Come To Expect’ setting the early pace this week, outselling their nearest rivals by more than 5,000 copies following its release last Friday.