It’s late afternoon in East London and I have just finished interviewing Luis and Jimmy who form half of Turbogeist, a four-piece band, that have evolved over two years, taking the underground punk scene by the fists. Surprising to some, there is still an active punk scene under all this wave of ‘solid beige’ music being thrusted upon us. Turbogeist are somewhat refreshing and fun, with satirical lyrics and screaming melodies hiding underlying poptones. When performing the guys make it a point not to take themselves too seriously, wearing face paint and dressing down, “we don’t dress up in black suits, red ties and have this serious image in order for people to take our music serious” says Luis, the lead guitarist of the band, “we want to have fun and we want the crowd to have fun”.
As we have a roundtable discussion, talking about the origins of punk down to comparing tattoos. Jimmy the frontman, who at first sits back and eyeball the conversation, starts to comfortably get involve and embroil about his love for punk, both citing The Replacements, The Damned and The Misfits as huge influences in his adolescent years. “Punk music was something that I clicked with as a teenager, there was a purity to its sound”. Turbogeist”s love for punk is clearly executed through their enthusiasm and through their music, they don’t consider themselves a metal band, nor do they want to be classed as heavy metal.
The band recently embarked on a US tour, which proved a success and from their ‘on the road’ antics they could have given Motley Crue a run for their title. Some critics might dismiss their music as just garage noise, but Jimmy’s grappling vocals and the band’s stoosh energy on stage is a must see for those who currently need to unplug from the commercial hub, you might loathe them or love them like marmite, but Turbogeist resuscitate punk back into punk. The guys talk excitedly about putting their album together this year and looking for producers to work with, “we sent an email to Jack White, fingers crossed we get a reply”, Jimmy says jokingly. The other half of the band consist of Josh on drums and James on bass, who finish up the ever mutating line up in the band, all four share songwriting responsibilities and have a camaraderie, even their manager Sam is noted as the silent fifth member. Turbogeist are excited about 2012 with Camden Crawl and SXSW scheduled in their calendar and an album on the horizon, it could be that punk might get injected back into the mainstream.
Check out ‘Alien Girl’, their current release, at: http://www.myspace.com/turbogeist
Words by Cindy Sasha
