For Turnstile's Brendan Yates, much of the last year has been something of a dream, a word he repeats several times in this interview. The Baltimore band's fourth album Never Enough earned Grammy nominations in the rock, metal and alternative categories. No one had ever been nominated in all three in the same year. It's the icing on the cake of an incredible 12 months.
2025 was truly the year of Turnstile, well beyond the “Turnstile Summer” promoted by Charli XCX. For Yates, the fact that they are nominated in three different categories is a sign of the breadth of their influences. «There has always been a lot of different music in the band's DNA».
What is a musical genre today?
It's a subjective thing. Genre can be a good guide to finding sounds you like. As for hardcore, it's perhaps more of a culture and a community than a genre. At a hardcore concert there can be bands with very different sounds who however share something profound, essential. We grew up going to punk and hardcore concerts, but we also grew up listening to rock, metal, alternative, R&B, rap, electronic, everything. We have never denied ourselves the pleasure of the music that has been part of our lives and influenced by what our parents played when we were little onwards. Everyone absorbs the things they are drawn to. It is important not to lock yourself in a cage to protect yourself from what attracts you.
How has your sound changed over the last two records?
When you write you have musical motifs that remain there, that persist. They are mantras that stick in your head and that you sing over and over again and that might one day become songs. To write the last album I locked myself in a room with a synth, a guitar and a piano. If the synth ended up in many textures on the album it's because I spent a lot of time getting my hands on it. Starting from one simple thing can shape the direction of a record.
What were the mantras buzzing around in your head?
The song Never Enough I had it in my head for a long time. You have words and melodies in mind long before they take shape. It spoke of many different experiences, the love that is never enough or one thing that fails to have a lasting impact, the feeling of constant chasing and chasing. It can become a mental pattern that, if you get trapped, is difficult to escape from. When we put it on, we immediately knew that Never Enough would have given direction to the writing of the album. It reflected the last few years of our lives, from the previous album onwards.
It seems to me that there is a lot of vulnerability in the songs, which perhaps doesn't emerge on the first listen, nor in the pit.
I always try to express what I'm feeling at a given moment, that's the beauty of music. Sometimes with friends we talk about the fact that songs become bookmarks of your existence only that, maybe five years later, those same songs can take on a completely new meaning, they grow together with you. It's a beautiful thing that music grows with you and means different things at different stages of life. I always try to pay attention to it. Because playing live gives the songs another importance thanks to the exchange with the audience.
The concert in Baltimore was beautiful.
We're still trying to process how special that day was. Not just being able to play in our city and raise money for healthcare, for the homeless, but to do it in front of friends and family, people we grew up with, some we see all the time, some we haven't seen in about ten years. It felt like a dream, really. It was one of the most important concerts we did.
What's inside a Turnstile record today? You made an entire film for the record, it almost feels like immersive art.
I've wanted to do this for a while: an entire film linked to an album. But it always seemed impossible, a crazy undertaking. while you write and start to shape the songs, with the sounds come images, colors, settings. When we finished the record, we ended up with a sort of outline of a film that gave the songs a life beyond the music.
I love the scene where during Birds they all mosh in that beautiful field.
It was special because it wasn't a real concert, but our first experience of sharing new songs with people. It felt like a dream.
Would you like to compose a soundtrack?
Very, very much. I've never done it, but I've always dreamed of it. I hope one day the opportunity comes.
From Rolling Stone US.
