Frank Turner is sharing Little Changes’, the latest new track lifted from his forthcoming album Be More Kind, due out through Xtra Mile Recordings/Polydor on 4th May 2018. The new track arrives close on the tail of Turner’s recently announced Be More Kind 2019 tour, a string of arena dates which will include London’s Alexandra Palace on 3rd February 2019.
One of Turner’s personal favourites from Be More Kind, the nucleus of Little Changes was formed in part by his own experience of the positive impact of cognitive behavioural therapy. Speaking about the track, Frank says; “It started out as a simple folk song about relationships, in particular drawing on my experiences with CBT therapy in the last couple of years – the idea of trying to make small, practical adjustments to your life, which can add up to something significant. Over time, the music grew in a really interesting, early 80s pop direction, and the metaphor of the lyric grew into something more expansive.”
Be More Kind represents a thematic and sonic line in the sand for the 36-year-old. ‘I wanted to try and get out of my comfort zone and do something different,’ says Turner. After the stripped-down, live-sounding previous album Positive Songs…, Turner wanted to try a new approach for the record. With this in mind he recruited producers Austin Jenkins and Joshua Block, formerly of psychedelic-rock Texans White Denim, and Florence And The Machine and Halsey collaborator Charlie Hugall and the idea of recording a more rock-led album with tints of electronic-pop took shape. Be More Kind was made over a period of seven months, giving Turner the opportunity to turn songs on their head, try different versions and shake up the dynamics within his band.
Be More Kind was inspired by a Clive James poem called Leçons Des Ténèbres: “I should have been more kind. It is my fate. To find this out, but find it out too late.” “It devastated me the first time I read it,” he says. “A lot of older, wiser people tend to say things like that, that the things that come out in the wash at the end of a human life are the way you treated the people around you. In the modern world, that’s a lesson that all of us, myself included could do to learn.”
Turner is currently amidst the first leg of the Be More Kind World Tour, which sees him playing 120 dates to over 200,000 people across the UK, the USA, Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
BE MORE KIND 2019 – WORLD TOUR
JANUARY
22nd Birmingham Arena
25th Manchester Victoria Warehouse
27th Leeds First Direct Arena
29th Glasgow 02 Academy
FEBRUARY
1st Bournemouth Windsor Hall
2nd Cardiff Motorpoint Arena
3rd London Alexandra Palace
REMAINING UK & IRELAND 2018 DATES
MAY
1st Southampton Guildhall 01/05/2018 SOLD OUT
2nd Southend Cliffs Pavilion 02/05/2018
4th Leicester O2 Academy 04/05/2018 SOLD OUT
5th Oxford O2 Academy 05/05/2018 SOLD OUT
8th Hull City Hall
9th Norwich UEA