Interview: Arctic Monkeys

Published on Friday 6 November 2009 17:32

BACKSTAGE in Antwerp, Alex Turner is thinking about Glasgow. "Fantastic audiences," says the Arctic Monkeys' leader in recognition of the demanding aesthetes who once terrified Des O'Connor to the extent he pretended to faint.

"We've had a proper Glasgow education, too: Barrowland, before that King Tut's, and before that the Barfly. I was talking to James Allan of Glasvegas recently and he was at the Barfly gig. He told me it inspired him to form his band, which was a nice thing

to say. Though I'm sure what he meant was: if these little tykes can do it, so can I."

Oh, what decadent delights await skiffle combos! In the Lotto Arena, the Monkeys' drummer Matt Helders has just taken delivery of their rider of post-gig relaxants. "What have we got tonight, then? Cobra beer – sound. Peroni as well. Salsa and chips – we tried a healthy rider once, nothing but fruit and water, terrible – and fun-sized multi-packs of your Snickers and your Bountys." But he looks disappointed. "No humbugs. You'd think they wouldn't have missed them."

Humbug is the band's third album, also known as their American album (it was recorded there) and their hair album (three of the band have grown long, flowing locks). Although the reviews were good, four stars mostly, it hasn't yet sold as well as the previous two. Kicking off in Belgium, they're touring arenas for the first time – "our swollen show," according to Turner, and Glasgow's SECC is on the itinerary. If record sales don't swell accordingly, maybe Arctic Monkeys will have a "Bah, humbug" Christmas.

Then again, maybe not. "We can't be the newest sensation any more," says Turner. "And we don't want to be," adds Helders. One of the earliest and most exciting examples of the internet buzz band, they forged their cult reputation with Sheffield steel: tough songs about clubbing and girls and resultant disappointments which referenced the home city in almost every verse. Soon, their kitchen-sink social-realism was being praised on Newsnight Review. In no time, Turner – a shy lad – was being acclaimed as the songwriter of his generation.

But Humbug is Arctic Monkeys daring to be different. They've swapped joshing in kebab-shop queues for Joshua Tree (the Californian town steeped in rock mythology where the album was recorded) and Josh Homme (the frontman of Queens of the Stone Age who produced). The sound is heavier, the lyrics cryptic and no longer South Yorkshire-specific.

Helders, still only 23 like Turner, nods when the American influence, and potential market, come up. "They get mentioned all the time so it must be true," he says. "But we didn't want to recap the first two albums. Sheffield isn't very big and you can use up the local colour quite quickly. I mean, what's the city got that's new since the second record – a hotel? The Premier Travel Inn is pretty massive, but…" His voice trails off, as if Turner would struggle to work "Premier" into a song, but of course he did once heroically rhyme "Rotherham" with "problem".

Helders is the band's resident comedian, the cheekiest Monkey. Turner ponders his replies for a long time, then will attempt five sentences at once. It's odd, but not unusual, to find a clever and witty songwriter struggle for words in conversation. Eventually he says: "Well, there are no songs about soup this time. I find it difficult using the same words twice on a record, never mind write the same song again. But hang on, I do mention go-karts, don't I?" Indeed he does. The line "Do you want me to build you a go-kart?" sounds like classic Sheffield chat-up.

But, just as Turner may feel he can no longer celebrate "tracky bottoms tucked in socks" in his songs because most of the band now have proper rockstar haircuts, the presence of real, living, breathing girlfriends for all four members would seem to restrict the opportunity for any more tracks about romance petering out at the bus stop.

Guitarist Jamie Cook is stepping out with glamour model Katie Downes. Helders is laughing at a tabloid story claiming she's been causing Yoko Ono-style friction. "That was rubbish. All of our girlfriends are very understanding, and of course very beautiful." Turner has been with the TV presenter Alexa Chung for two years, but the most dramatic change women have made to the band is that he's quit Sheffield to live with her in Brooklyn.

A simple question about how he likes the place takes him forever to answer. It's been great for the songwriting, he says finally. "I used to worry about spending too long on it, that if the songs didn't just emerge via a magical ray of light they'd be inferior. Now I'm not afraid to craft a bit more."

The craft has been most evident in the Last Shadow Puppets, last year's hobby band, where he and Miles Kane paid homage to 1960s melodramatists Scott Walker and John Barry and had a tremendous turtle-necked time. Monkeys fans' dads want another Puppets album and Turner hopes there will be one.

Helders says he's no more worried about losing his friend to symphonic pop than to Brooklyn. "We weren't bothered when he moved. As you grow up, you want different things out of life. Now, because we're no longer always hanging about like in a gang, it's more special when we are together." Hang on, he thinks, this is getting a bit soppy. "The rest of us are pretty sure that one day he's going to come back to Sheffield all fat. I can't wait for that, it's going to be hilarious. By then he'll be living in a fat house an' all."

Helders can talk, having Sean "P Diddy" Combs as his new best friend, cruising in the rapper's Lamborghini, posting guided tours of his kitchen on the band's YouTube channel. "That tired me out cos it's so big," he says, while admitting Diddy's championing of the Monkeys initially raised suspicion. "He's genuine, though; he seems to get us – at least when we talk slower. And some Sheffield words confuse him, like nesh." Sorry? "It means being afraid of the cold, as in: 'You nesh git, you don't need a coat'."

So Sheffield lives on in the Monkeys if not always in their songs. It's almost time for the soundcheck, which is a pity, as Turner has warmed up. Crediting his linguist mother for his love of words, he's enthusing about his new favourite authors, all American, including F Scott Fitzgerald and Tom Wolfe ("I love his position").

And I leave Helders enthusing about his hair. "I wasn't envious of the others, honest, but I've just started to let mine grow longer and it's going a bit afro," he laughs. "It's already the longest it's been so I don't know what happens next. Yes, it's an exciting time for me and my hair."

Arctic Monkeys play the SECC on 24 November. New single, Cornerstone (Domino), released on 16 November. www.arcticmonkeys.com

&#149 This article was first published in Scotland on Sunday on 08/11/09