Brooklyn-based group Turkuaz has just released their new studio album, Life In The City, on September 28th and announced new tour dates, including a show at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY on October 19th and a blowout New Year's Eve show at The Palladium in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Earmilk is pleased to premiere their music video for "Make You Famous," which details the ups and downs of tour life. Listen to the full album on Spotify here.
E: What are your hopes for the new album?
T: First and foremost we want the album to bring people joy. We live in such turbulent and often dark times, and we hope that our music can be a bright spot in the midst of all that. Although we explore some of that darkness lyrically on this album, the music is meant to shine through as an uplifting force and I believe it does just that. We also hope it serves as a way to grow our fan base and put us into the eyes and ears of people who haven't seen or heard us before. We have a huge tour in support of this album and we hope the album motivates new fans to come out and join the Turkuaz family in celebration of life and love of music.
E: How do you think ‘Life In The City’ goes deeper emotionally?
T: In the past, writing Turkuaz songs has always been an exercise in a fun and playful interaction with the music. Though songs have been about things, it's always tended to have a certain levity to it and not be overly based in reality. So much so that our last album, Digitonium, was a fantasy driven theme album based around "The Sword in the Stone'. I think "Life in the City" has proven to have a theme around it as well, but this time-based in some more serious real-life reflection, both for me internally as well as what I see going on around me. The album explores a wide range of things – hopelessness and confusion in a fast-paced modern life, kicking bad habits, and trying to regain control – to delusional fantasies involving the devil and alluring space aliens. It takes a lot of twists and turns, and although it goes dark in some moments, the underlying music remains fun and energetic. That's become a good representation for me of how to deal with the ups and downs of life. Even when things seem really bad, an underlying sense of hopefulness can guide you through. Otherwise, we have nothing left.
E: Favorite studio memory you’d like to share?
T: We were fortunate enough to work with Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads on our latest single from this release, "If I Ever Fall Asleep". It was a real treat to get to work with him, with "Stop Making Sense" being one of the main influences in Taylor (co-founder) and myself starting Turkuaz. He and his engineer, ET Thorngren were the two that mixed that record, and working with them on ours was an honor. They imparted a lot on us through the process, but the strangest of all perhaps was when Jerry insisted that I run laps around the studio before doing vocal takes to give it a sense of urgency. I'm not sure it's something I'll incorporate into every session moving forward (though I appreciate the cardio workout), but it worked great for the song!
E: What does the next year look like for Turkuaz as a group?
T: We're keeping extremely busy. Tons of tour dates the rest of the year including our New Year's Eve "Balldrop" celebration, and then a bunch more dates soon to be announced for 2019. Additionally, we just shot a live concert film which we'll be working steadily on to release some time next year. Lastly, for "Life in the City" we recorded a LOT more material than we ended up using, and we're gonna continue to finish up that material and trickle it out over the next year. There's lots to look forward to from Turkuaz. We're more excited now than we've ever been. We're all very close as a group of 9 individuals, and it's exciting to be growing and continuing to make music together, getting it out to more fans than ever. We look forward to another year of that most of all.
E: Tell us about the song "Make You Famous."
T: It plays on the topsy-turvy world of touring and making music for a living. There are some references to the ups and downs of the road, the "hurry up and wait" lifestyle, and some of the well-known pitfalls of the industry. It's meant to display a lot of the chaos we can feel day to day, and I think the music does a good job of simulating that feeling for the listener. The lyrics remain playful but like with a lot of the record, they explore the negative as well as the positive. Overall though, it's a fun track, both on the record and the in-studio live version we did.
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