Alex Turner

Alexander David Turner is the child of Penny and David Turner, who taught German and music respectively at Sheffield secondary schools. He was raised in High Green, a suburb of Sheffield. As a child, Turner took piano lessons. 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.»

Turner spent most of his teenage years listening to rap artists such as Roots Manuva. His attentions later turned to guitar music following the breakthrough of The Strokes and The Libertines. Turner also admired The Beatles and aspired to be like them. Turner’s parents bought him his first guitar for Christmas 2001. Following sixth form college, where he studied at Barnsley, his parents reluctantly agreed to let him defer university for one year to pursue his musical ambitions. During this time he worked as a barman at the Sheffield venue, The Boardwalk. Turner has since said that, had Arctic Monkeys not become successful, he would have studied English at Manchester University. Though he had a love for guitar, he commented that he spends more time on words to the songs and he tended to listen to them more than to the music in the background.

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 four more albums: Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007), Humbug (2009), Suck It and See (2011), and AM (2013) 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 albumWhatever 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 fifth album (later titled AM) while touring the US with The Black Keys.

The Arctic Monkeys’ new album AM has been very successful. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics; the album received an average score of 81, based on 34 reviews. Simon Harper of Clash magazine states, «Welding inspiration from hip-hop greats with rock’s titans, ‘AM’ is built upon portentous beats that are dark and intimidating, yet wickedly thrilling.» Time Out said of the album, «One of Britain’s greatest bands just got greater in an unexpected but hugely welcome way. Single men, I urge you: put down FHM and pick up AM.» In their 10/10 review, NME wrote that AM is «absolutely and unarguably the greatest record of their career.» Tim Jonze of The Guardian noted that the album «manages to connect those different directions – the muscular riffs of Humbug and the wistful pop of Suck It and See – with the bristling energy and sense of fun that propelled their initial recordings.

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 atPortsmouth Guildhall on 19 August.

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.

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 Monkeys’ 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 was taken by Paul Weller, amongst others, for Kane’s second album. He also co-wrote the song «First of My Kind» with Kane and Eugene McGuinness for Record Store Day 2012 and played bass guitar on «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 provided inspiration to the writing of the album’s sixth track «Kalopsia,» by mentioning the name to Josh Homme during one of their conversations.