Why Alex Turner's "More Confident" Putting Politics In Music
21 May 2018, 09:06 | Updated: 21 May 2018, 09:15
The Arctic Monkeys frontman has talked about why he's more happy sharing his views on their new album.
Alex Turner feels more "confident" about giving opinions in his music.
The Arctic Monkeys frontman addresses subjects such as the US presidency and Leonard Cohen's death on the band's Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino album, and he admitted it's the first time he's been comfortable enough to know how to express his own views.
"[Before] I'd never wanted anything political to get into the music and that was because I didn't know how to do it," the For Out of Five singer told The Sunday Times Magazine.
"It's not as though these are protest songs necessarily, but I'm more confident about putting myself across."
Find out why Alex Turner thinks Arctic Monkeys' new album is so different to 2013's AM:
The 32-year-old rocker also thinks there is now more of a "pressure" on public figures to speak out, though he thinks its important that people only do so if they're informed on a subject.
Asked why he thinks more celebrities are speaking out about issues and their values, he told the magazine: "Maybe they're forced to be that way through the way it's gone.
"I seem to remember feeling like I hadn't given sufficient consideration to these issues to be able to discuss them, which I'm not sure is necessarily a bad attitude towards it. They often are complex.
"It can go too far the other way, where people feel forced to talk about it, but they haven't given it too much thought. There is a pressure on you now to think about stuff, which is not unhealthy."
Alex Turner took part in a special X-Posure album playback with Radio X's John Kennedy last week, where he talked through all 11 tracks of the album.
Find out how his Grandad helped him on the lyrics to American Sports:
