"I'm afraid the press has misunderstood Guy's statement," Pete Turner puts Guy Garvey's announcement to make a prog album into perspective right at the beginning of the interview. "What he actually meant by 'progressive' was the word in the sense of progress, being progressive. This statement did not have much to do with the musical style of the same name." In the following, the 40-year-old Elbow bassist helps to clarify further open questions.
eclipsed: With the last album "Build A Rocket Boys!" the press has put you almost continuously in the progressive rock corner. Are you comfortable there?
Pete Turner: With "Rocket" it was quite okay that we were declared a retro band. At least Guy and I have been raving about the prog sound since we were young. The early King Crimson are our gods. Also Genesis up to "Duke" we find great - "Entangled", what a song! The only thing we can't do too much with is the bombast of Yes. The other three in the band we had to introduce in the last years to this music, they like more modern things, for example postrock. But now we're all into prog. During the recordings of "Rocket" this passion led to our own songs.
eclipsed: But with the new album you have said goodbye to the prog again.
Turner: Absolutely, we wanted out of this drawer! This time it was about composing a bit simpler songs again. The freshness of our early days had to return. Fortunately, she did. "Rocket" is already an extremely melancholic disc. But now we're back to the ground!
