In a discussion spanning 20+ years, and zipping back & forth in our own virtual ‘music time machine’ Olly Knights and The Song Sommelier’s Keith Jopling chat about the crash & burn (and magnificence) of Dark on Fire and the reconstruction of Turin Brakes.
If Olly Knights, singer and songwriter from Turin Brakes had a time machine, he would travel back to 2007 and the recording sessions for the band’s fourth LP Dark On Fire. It was an album written for stadiums: anthemic and powerful. The band had stepped up from a simple indie-folk outfit to a full plugged-in band with a large personnel of guest players that filled out the album’s sound to something more expansive. But commercially, the album was a disappointment, and it didn’t take long before the band was unceremoniously dropped by Virgin Records (itself in the grip of an identity crisis with its parent EMI under the full ownership of private equity firm Terra Firma).
Olly would have gone back to the start of the recording process, sat down with long-time bandmate (and lead guitarist) Gale Paridjanian, producer Ethan Johns and all involved, and would have told everyone to make that record even bigger - more epic and ambitious. Had it been so, perhaps Virgin Records might have realised what they had on their hands - something as sweeping and emotional as a U2 record - all killer and no filler as they say. Indeed, things might have worked out differently if Dark On Fire had come earlier - ‘swapped around’ with the previous LP, the low-key electronic folk hybrid JackInABox. Both records owed much to the classic American rock sound that the band was “messing with at the time”.
But here they are, a decade and a half later, writing new songs and plotting a route to album no. 9 (or maybe number 10 if you count 2020’s Lounge at the Edge of Town, a concept album collaboration between Phil Ramocon, a quiet streaming-only release now finally being mastered for vinyl - it’s well worth splashing out for).
The climb back up the hill began with a memorable gig at a leafy suburban West London Lido. The band’s slow and steady resurrection built from there, working outside the mainstream of the major labels and charts and instead to a model of independence they called ‘The Robbie System’, a tribute to the patient guidance and wisdom of their drummer (and de facto caretaker-manager) Rob Allum.
In effect, Turin Brakes got a head start on making their own way as an independent band - a model they are now consulted on occasionally by contemporaries and new bands alike. Perhaps in another dimension the band could have given good advice to the financier who bought EMI and Virgin, Guy Hands. Then again, let’s just be happy and grateful that Turin Brakes are still making very good pop music. Come in and listen to Olly and Keith talk about The Art of Longevity.
Many thanks to Andrew James Johnson for edits and original music and Mick Clarke for the cover art, as ever
Turin Brakes are working on album number 9. Meanwhile, ‘Lounge at the Edge of Town’ is coming to you on vinyl soon…