North London's Fake Turins are an audio-visual collective led by Dominic Rose.
New single 'Evergrown' was released 16th of April and recorded with producer Syd Kemp (Thurston Moore, Ulrika Spacek, Vanishing Twin) between lockdowns in 2020.
‘Evergrown’ is a song about potential, reflecting on our visions of self and letting our past aspirations wilt to make room for a new reality. The track sits softly between the cinematic scope of a big band setup and groove-addled rhythms that open a window of floral psychedelia.
Fake Turins released a string of singles through 2019 and were longlisted for Glastonbury Emerging Talent competition. In 2020 they returned with new single 'Legs' and were set to play Standon Calling and Rotterdam's Left Of The Dial Festival, both events had to be cancelled due to the pandemic.
2021 is looking up for the the Turins as they will play a Sold Out date at London’s 100 Club on May 19th and just added a date at The Lexington for 30th of July. On top of that they are gearing up to release their debut EP ‘Time Flowers Now’, alongside a short film that documents the process.
Please give us a little intro about your band – and my fav question for Dominic – how many members are now present as you seem to grow in numbers every time I see you...
Fake Turins are an audio visual collective established back in 2019 to bring together creative voices from across London - our only parameters being a willingness to explore & an open mind. My personal manifesto comes down to the strength & creative heights solely achievable through an open community. Currently we are at a stage-swelling 12 members, with an extended Fake Turins family on & off stage. The Fake Turins collective sits at 16 members as of this moment.
Has your musical journey had a deliberate direction or did it simply gradually evolve?
I think any creative pursuit takes on a life of its own after conception, and my role is simply to continually reframe the boundaries of our work. My own personal journey has been clear from the outset, but much like a map of negative space you only begin to fill in the gaps of where you want to go by exploring where you do not.
What do you do outside of music? / Do you have any hobbies that you turn to to rejuvenate your creativity?
I forget that there’s a world outside of music often - but on the off moments that I do find it’s always the natural world that restores me. I am a keen plant enthusiast & in another life would pursue that with the vigour that I do music. It’s very moving to think of the cycle the plants go through annually, which we only tap into at key moments of the year.
Your plans for the band were crushed by the Covid pandemic – like for a lot of musicians out there – what impact did the pandemic had on your music career and how did you stay motivated through all the madness of lockdown(s) and being stuck at home?
Truthfully, the only thing that seemed to keep me sane was focusing on our own creative adaptation. In so many ways we worked harder in that first lockdown than we ever had before, much of which never saw the light of day - but helped our community to feel engaged & important. It’s going to be difficult to weigh up the impact of last year until we’re much further away from it, but for now I am just grateful for the family of Fake Turins & their unabashed drive to make things.
Let's talk a little bit about the latest single 'Evergrown' - What was the process for writing and producing it? What was it inspired by?
Evergrown came from my own wilting desires for fame & stardom. To me it tells the story of self-defeat & of challenging the preconceptions we build & then stubbornly cling to. As someone who has always been making music since childhood I found the weight of being stuck in time as a question on my own validity (with music being an inherently fluid form) - which led to a song that attempts to draw a picture of the intimacy these dreams offer us.
Production wise we entered the studio with the lovely & incredibly talented Syd Kemp, who helped guide us through the space & captured our performance all on tape. It offered the band a chance to escape their own ideas of the song & have him lead us onto a more nuanced performance.
Is there a place you dream of performing and why?
There’s certainly a few cornerstones I’d want to hit in our career & fantasise about in red-band fashion. Harpa Hall in Reykjavik is one of those, along with the Ray Ban stage at Primavera. More locally, I’d love to play at the Dalston Boys Club — the beautiful venue round the back of Kingsland road that is full to the brim with old art & has two tiers & a vertical garden. These places exist to me as milestones in what I’ll call career freedom. Once you’re playing any of these there’s surely a lot more creative autonomy.
Little insider tip – best thing to do in North London?
I’m going to go ahead and say a night at Mannions. Once you start there anything can happen — and it might just take you until Monday morning to know where you landed. Those who know that place will agree with me.
If we were to look at the artists you are listening to, who would be on your playlist?
Although I love a lot of the music coming out of London & the surrounds at the moment, if I was to earnestly hand you a playlist of what I’ve been listening to it would be comprised of more than a little Joanna Newsom [her album “Ys”], Donald Byrd [“Places & Spaces” - 1975] & Die Verboten’s only record “2007”
If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?
More community driven. Everything seems to be so individually focused & built around iconoclasm — which as a project leader I recognise sounds like a hypocrisy — but the effort that many people involved in the industry put in to strip away the joyful, human connection of music seems antithecal to me. Having to work out the motivation & navigate exploitation is something I know has put off more than enough incredibly talented young musicians.
Check out the video for previous single 'Legs' here: