Leading into this month's release of his new album, "Undefeated," Frank Turner did what he's always done: worked his British tail off.
The anthemic punk strummer pulled off another in a series of daredevil-ish gig marathons in early May, like the time he performed in all 50 of the United States in 50 days. This time, he did 15 different U.K. cities in 24 hours, setting a Guinness World Record.
"Nightmarish and fun," quipped Turner, who performs in Minneapolis again Saturday at the Uptown Theater — one show only.
"The 24 hours part was fun. The 36 hours afterward was tough. I got home and just sort of sat there dazed with no idea what was going on."
The 42-year-old rocker — whose latest single is titled "Girl From the Record Shop" — also went to work supporting independent record shops last month by flying all the way to Middle America to man a shift at Minneapolis' own Electric Fetus. He really came to work, too, according to staff there.
"He was up for whatever we threw at him," raved the Fetus' marketing manager Dawn Novak, who said Turner stayed 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. wrapping records, filling endcaps, signing LPs and posters and treating shoppers to an unannounced busker set.
"We'd hire him back in a minute."
Talking via Zoom last week on the day his U.S. tour behind "Undefeated" kicked off in Harrisburg, Pa., Turner said he went to such great lengths (literally!) for reasons both altruistically punk and shrewdly commercial. Few musicians have balanced the DIY/indie spirit with the corporate world as effectively as Turner has in recent years.
"Yes, these were stunts to promote my record," Turner bluntly conceded.
"At the same time, I made a point of investing a lot of time and diverting about half of my record budget to supporting independent venues and running it through independent record companies. So I also see that as a valuable use of my time and resources."
Turner and his band, the Sleeping Souls — who are out with him again this tour — recorded "Undefeated" coming out of the pandemic lull and following a period of both personal and professional contentment for the singer.
On the personal front, he got married, a big event he said should impact his music in at least one discernible way.
"That part of my life is settled and done and I'm very happy, and that gives me a certain strength and a creative freedom in that I don't need to write any more [expletive] breakup songs," he said, citing his fan-loved 2013 album "Tape Deck Heart."
"I have some fans who want me to write nothing but breakup songs because of that album. While I appreciate that, it really is just one topic. I'm ready to tackle more topics."
On the career front, his 2022 album "FTHC" — the title stood for "Frank Turner Hard Core" — became his first record to top the U.K. charts.
"It just was nice to have the pressure taken off, because I'd had several No. 2′s and it was like, 'This is getting annoying now,'" he recalled with a smirk.
On the other hand, he admitted, "The second I got the phone call from my manager saying we'd gotten No. 1, I immediately heard my 15-year-old self in my brain saying, 'You [expletive] sellout.' When I was a kid, my self-definition was I didn't know or care who was on the charts."
"Undefeated" wrestles with conversations like that with his younger self, pondering how far he's gone in his career. In the U2-ish "Ceasefire," for instance, Turner sings: "I know I'm not everything that you had hoped and imagined that I would be / But I did my best / And I have seen things that you don't even know that you've never seen."
Other songs, including the opener "Do One" and humorously titled "Never Mind the Back Problems," reflect on Turner's punk-rock roots and whether he's stayed true to them. "Maybe punk's a promise that was never fully kept," Turner sings in the latter track. "Johnny Rotten's been selling butter on telly while England slept."
Recounting a recent conversation with his British folk-punk mentor Billy Bragg, Turner said, "Punk has changed but it hasn't died.
"One of the differences we came up with between his experiences with punk and mine is that in the '70s punk really did have the ambitions of being important and changing youth culture per se, an ambition to affect the world. My experience is that it was consciously outsider/underground art. It didn't expect or desire any regard from the mainstream. That's not to say there wasn't any ambition, but we were content to be not for everybody.'"
The title of "Undefeated" and song of the same name, Turner noted, is a nod to the fact that he's achieved long-term success in his music career while mostly doing things his way.
"I like that the word doesn't necessarily imply you're the world champion and have knocked everybody over," he explained. "It just means you haven't been knocked over and are still in the game.
"That's how I feel as an artist. I'm not the biggest artist in the world, but I'm still going."
Here's more of what Turner had to say in last week's interview:
On the Electric Fetus, where he has also performed over the years: "It's a great store, and a good example of what a record store can be in the 2020s: It's really a community hub, a bit of a guiding force and, of course, just a great place to buy records."
On his many other Minnesota gigs and connections: "One of my favorite ones we ever did was the Lowertown Music Fest in St. Paul in 2010. That was the first time I encountered Koo Koo. They were playing right before me. As they walked on stage, I thought, 'I'm gonna [expletive] hate this band.' But by the end of the set I was texting my booking agent saying, 'We need to take this band on tour.'
"And then I have fond memories of playing the Triple Rock. I was fortunate enough to catch some of that era and make friends with Erik and the D4 guys [club owner Erik Funk and his band Dillinger Four]. I'm slightly afraid to contact those guys when I'm in town and have stuff to do because chaos follows."
On whether punk is alive and well: "I'm fiercely optimistic about punk rock at this point. Last summer, I did a lot of punk festivals in Europe, and it was immediately apparent to me there's this new generation of punk bands that have little or nothing to do with my generation. Bands like Mannequin Pussy, Lambrini Girls, Gen & the Degenerates, the Meffs, the OBGMs. My favorite is NOBRO from Canada, absolutely brilliant. They're everything I want a punk band to be: angry, funny, tight, energetic, effusive. And maybe best of all, it felt like their music wasn't at all aimed for me."
Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls
When: 6:30 p.m. Sat.
With: Amigo the Devil, Micah Schnabel.
Where: Uptown Theater, 2900 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls.
Tickets: $50-$82, all ages, ticketmaster.com.
