Alex Turner (musician)

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Alex Turner (musician) bigraphy, stories - British musician

Alex Turner (musician) : biography

6 January 1986 –

Alexander David "Alex" Turner (born 6 January 1986) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist, guitarist and main songwriter of the English indie rock band Arctic Monkeys. Turner has also recorded with a side-project called The Last Shadow Puppets and as a solo artist.

Career

Arctic Monkeys

The band signed to the independent label Domino Records after a bidding war in 2005. Its first album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, released in early 2006, became the fastest-selling debut album in British music history. The band has since released three more albums: Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007), Humbug (2009) and Suck It and See (2011) all reaching No.1 in the UK album charts.

Turner’s initial songwriting with Arctic Monkeys was based around specific concepts, particularly on their first album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, which is often considered to be a concept album centered around nightlife in the UK. He later progressed to more varied themes, especially noticeable on Humbug and Suck It and See.

In July 2012, Turner revealed that he had been writing songs for the band’s next album while touring the US with The Black Keys.

Turner has a baritone vocal range.

The Last Shadow Puppets

In August 2007, plans were announced for Turner to record an album with Miles Kane, James Ford and Owen Pallett.

The album, The Age of the Understatement, was released on 21 April 2008 and reached number one in its first week. Towards the end of 2008 they completed a small tour, backed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, starting at Portsmouth Guildhall on 19 August.

Solo work

Turner wrote and performed all six tracks for the soundtrack for Submarine, the first feature film by Richard Ayoade, a friend and director of various Arctic Monkeys music videos. The soundtrack was released on 18 March 2011 in the UK and US.

According to Matt Helders, speaking to NME magazine, Turner recorded a new solo track after the R U Mine?/Electricity sessions.

Collaborations

In October 2008, Turner made his debut as a short story writer, performing a spoken word track "A Choice of Three" on his bandmate’s compilation Late Night Tales: Matt Helders. Turner worked with Dizzee Rascal on the song "Temptation Greets You Like Your Naughty Friend" from Arctic Monkey’s Brianstorm EP and "Temptation" from Rascal’s album Maths and English. Turner also appears in the Reverend and the Makers song "The Machine" from their first album The State Of Things. In 2011, Turner also contributed by writing and co-writing six songs on Miles Kane’s first album Colour of the Trap, a role that will be taken by Paul Weller for Kane’s second album. He also co-wrote the song "First of My Kind" with Kane and Eugene McGuinnessASCAP Entry for Record Store Day 2012 and "Get Right", a B-side to Kane’s single, "Don’t Forget Who You Are". Turner has also collaborated with Queens of the Stone Age on their sixth studio album …Like Clockwork, which was released on 4 June 2013. In this album, Turner’s vocals are featured in track four, "If I Had a Tail", and he helped Josh Homme, lead singer of Queens of the Stone Age, write the lyrics for track six, "Kalopsia".

Personal life

Turner had a two-year relationship with then-Goldsmiths College student Johanna Bennett from 2005 to 2007. He had a four-year relationship with television presenter Alexa Chung from mid-2007 to mid-2011; they divided their time between London and New York City. Turner has been dating Arielle Vandenberg since August 2011; the two live in Los Angeles together.

Early life

Alexander David Turner is the only child of Penny and David Turner, who taught German and music respectively at Sheffield secondary schools.Index of Births, Marriages and Deaths in England and Wales, 1984-2005. He was raised in High Green, a suburb of Sheffield. He attended Stocksbridge High School in Sheffield (1997–2002) and was later remembered by his English teacher, Steve Baker, as "someone unconventional, a little bit different, with a brightness and a cleverness that would serve him well. He had a very original sense of humour. Alex was never particularly vocal, but you could sense when some pieces of poetry moved him".