In The Name Of The Grandfather

By Joe Kavanagh

Like virtually all other aspects of modern life, music has become little more than a commodity over the course of the past few decades; a slickly arranged product churned out from a streamlined production line designed to fill every market need.

From bands like Linkin Park allegedly changing from their original name, Xero, at the behest of record executives who felt that they would benefit commercially from being closer to Limp Bizkit on shelves of record stores, to the 'creation' of Avril Lavigne in order to tap into the older teen market who were post-Britney but not quite adult enough to make their own independent music decisions; the recording industry has become a cynically inclined industry where talent and individuality are just two of the boxes to be ticked on the path to commodifying a product.

If anything, the recent funk that has seen music sales plummet due to file sharing, has only served to accelerate this process, as labels seek to homogenize music in order to appeal to the widest possibly audience.

It's the main motivation behind crossover tracks, melding together rap and metal, country and alternative music, and a seemingly endless supply of insipid songwriters whose music does not even challenge the musically challenged.

This inexorable march toward banal uniformity has also extended its influence over the very personalities behind this music, as vacuous stars hide behind concentric layers of publicists, their words and actions driven by a script which is itself driven by the bottom line.

Thankfully, this faceless production line of forgettable stars has not yet managed to grind the life out of the industry, and true individuals of singular talent still manage to crop up at regular intervals. Few, however, are quite as unique as Frankmusik.

Another crucial aspect in the making of a modern pop star is what is referred to as an artist's "back story", or the tale of one's life up to the point that they first began to flirt with fame and notoriety.

Journalists love a good back story and whether it was Edith Piaf's birth on a Parisian sidewalk or Kris Kristofferson's history as a Rhodes Scholar, Vietnam pilot and athlete who appeared in Sports Illustrated as a youth, the world of music is peppered with people whose past lives added to their appeal. Frankmusik is such an artist.

Like most good art, Frankmusik's springs in part from a certain angst, but unlike most artists, his angst was virtually predetermined, given the fact that his father walked out on his mother during their wedding reception.

Born Vincent Turner, his early years were spent living with his mother, in his grandparents' home in Croydon, south London, where tension also abounded in the wake of his maternal uncle's decision to become one of the first men in the UK to undergo a sex change, a decision that did not go down well in the family household.

By an early age, he found himself shipped off to boarding school, an experience that played an instrumental part in forging the person that he is today, as he channeled his loneliness into something positive, recently telling an interviewer: "You have nothing to do there. Like, if you're not a sports person - and I wasn't - you'd need other things to entertain you. For me, it was sitting in front of the piano for hours on end. It was therapy."

Which is not to say that he was simply a shrinking violet, as he was thrown out of school four times and even slapped repeatedly in the face on one occasion by a particularly frustrated headmaster.

The final straw came when those tackling a mysterious school fire discovered cannabis paraphernalia amongst his belongings, leading to his final expulsion and a chance for him to take stock of the direction in which his life was headed.

Giving academia one last chance he went on to third level study in St Martin's College of Art and Design and the London College of Fashion, but dropped out of both courses shortly after they began. Faced with a dwindling set of options, he gave his life over to making music.

Aside from his own experience with the piano, his earliest musical influences were drawn from his mother's extensive collection of 70s and 80s music, with the pop music of names like Steve Winwood, Billy Ocean and ELO, melding with such names as Bread, The Stranglers and Dire Straits.

Later, he would discover a love for jungle and club music, but he remains an unshakable fan of pop music, with its all of its brashness and immediacy. Despite his talent as a multi-instrumentalist, it was his vocal ability, however, that inspired his first flirtation with fame, when he appeared on the TV show Let Me Entertain You, thrilling audiences with his beat-boxing ability under the name Mr Mouth.

Such was Norland's influence that he has since become something of a father figure to Turner, who recently revealed that he worked his current contract so that it would split all of his earnings down the middle with Norland.

The next watershed moment in his life came with the death of his grandfather, leaving him with a realization of just how short life can be, and he chose the name Frankmusik is his honor.

It also drove him to work ever harder on his own music and his first release followed shortly afterward in 2007, with the superb EP, Frankisum. Such was the buzz surrounding his work that he suddenly found himself in huge demand as a remixer, with names like Pet Shop Boys, Bloc Party and CSS beating a path to the door of his home studio, all seeking his highly-imaginative take on their music.

His ever-expanding bandwagon surged into 2009, with his appearance on BBC's hugely influential Sound of 2009 list, and high profile appearances on tour with Keane and at Glastonbury ramped up expectations to his album release two weeks ago.

Complete Me has bowled over critics, with its imagination, technical wizardry and ability to remain inherently catchy despite all of the trickery contained within its 14 tracks (25 if you included the deluxe bonus edition).

An emotionally charged love letter to his ex-girlfriend, it uses the Depeche Mode method of mixing happy music with emotional lyrics, to create tension, drama and a certain substance that is too often missing from modern pop music.

It has been called "Mika on acid" and "a robot doing an impression of Ian Curtis", while Turner refers to it as "Blade Runner pop", which is probably the most accurate description out there.

Another aspect that flies in the face of the sterile world of modern pop, is Turner himself, a positively intriguing character whose scattergun interviews are nothing if not honest.

Something of a gay icon, his past as a ballet dancer, appearance in a photo-spread gay magazine AXM and recent revelation that he spent a night sleeping with an extremely famous male celebrity (though he claims they did not have sex) have certainly muddied the waters regarding his sexual orientation, in the best traditions of David Bowie and Pete Townshend.

For the record, he denies that he is gay, and has backed it up with a slew of forthright tales regarding his sexual exploits, which border, if not cross, the line of "too much information."

In a world where gun-shy celebrities have been cowed into issuing nondescript opinions for fear of offending anyone who might be able to assist their careers, he has not shown any inclination of keeping his opinions to himself, such as his recent comments on UK pop sensation, Pixie Lott: "I can't get any TV because I'm not Pixie f***ing Lott. She might be No 1, but I'd like to see her pack out a venue. She comes across like a complete f***ing moron whenever I see her."

Without wishing in any way to make light of it, he has even spoken of his repeated suicide attempts by various means, most recently only months ago, and also offered the following information regarding the pregnancy that doomed the relationship that inspired his album: "I was in the room when it [the abortion] happened. It tore a massive piece out of us."

He claims that the sole reason his ex now calls him is to scold him for revealing intimate details of their once private life, hardly surprising given that he has also shared her actual name.

Insecure, vulnerable even as he attempts to exude bravado, a technical whiz-kid whose entire notion of privacy is ambiguous at best, he may very well be the most accurately reflective piece of musical and cultural zeitgeist on the current music scene.

With his talent, ingenuity, colorful personality and quest to be the very best in his field, his is sure to be a hugely entertaining career and, with any luck, a lengthy one.