Whilst interviewing C Turtle, I was met with a lucky reminder of the freeing nature of breaking the rules. The chat was easy and flowing, speaking a lot about the significance of a carefree attitude when prioritizing your unique sound. Each member of the band had something peculiarly original to bring to the table, and now the uncharted experimentalism and kaleidoscope of sonic emotions made complete sense.
The band prides itself on the courageous absence of rigid structure which seemingly and annoyingly penetrates the ideology behind a ‘perfect sound’. For C Turtle, there is no real reason to chase or have self-doubt about achieving mainstream success – but isn’t that what art is all about, to follow and listen to your inner creative voice with liberating disregard to what’s popular and well-liked?
Their most recent singles ‘Shake It Down’ and ‘Melvin Said This’ reveal the open world of musical boundlessness, where a key ingredient like a vocal or an instrumental, is not obliged to follow a strict set of rules in order to radiate and infect others with explosive positivity; but setting itself as a reminder that lyricism and technical rhythm ought to be fun and random. Without the latter, we would not survive in this gray, dull and monotonous mainstream adult world.
We spoke about everything and nothing regarding music and what the future holds for the band. With their debut album Expensive Thrills arriving soon via Blitzcat Records, you won’t want to miss some heartwarming sounds which make your feet shake with uncontrollable excitement, as the spring and brighter days arrive around the corner.
Hi guys, how are you? Thank you for chatting with me today. I have to start off by asking about your band’s name. I thought there might be a hidden message about environmental change, am I completely wrong?
Cole Flynn Quirke: Actually, the first album was created by me in lockdown, I was just recording stuff in my bedroom and I was too embarrassed to use my real name … So I took the ‘C’ from my name Cole, and there was already a band with the name ‘Dead C’, so I just thought ‘C Turtle’ would have to do. [laughs]
Oh I thought it was something to do with the actual sea, but that makes more sense.
CFQ: Well I’m from Brighton, so maybe there’s a link there.
I see, where would you say the idea to form this band originated from?
CFQ: Well, I used to be in a band that eventually split up but I didn’t want to lose the momentum of playing, so we quickly assembled C Turtle. As we were a group of friends already, forming a band together seemed like a natural progression. Then it became so much more than just a solo ‘thing’, everyone brought something special and unique to the group and from there, the sound naturally transformed into the original album.
Your sound is quite varied and experimental isn’t it? Has there been a source of inspiration where you got that from, some sort of foundation from which you’ve built your sound?
CFQ: We’re all massive fans of music and we all share similar tastes, although that can vary a bit as well. When you have a bunch of people bring in their own direction, I guess you’d inadvertently come up with something original. I think we have a lot of elements of basic song structure but we add bits of dissonance, feedback and elements of noise rock. We may even unintentionally make it stand out more than the generic pop music.
In 2020 you released ‘Emily’, a fully instrumental piece, which really seemed to help your organic sound stand apart from the lyrics. Would you say it’s harder to produce a purely instrumental composition, or to produce one that is predominantly built around vocals?
CFQ: I reckon yeah, I think sometimes to make a song hit a bit harder it’s easier to just ‘slap’ some lyrics on it … I don’t know what other guys think as well, but with vocals I think it’s easier to structure a song when you’ve got verses, choruses or interesting lyricism.
Jimmy Guvercin: I think it’s so much easier to do instrumental, to be honest with you.
Zoom camera switches between Jimmy and Cole laughing.
CFQ: You see, Jimmy is a far more advanced musician than I am, so his instrumentals probably require more time and effort. I hide behind silly lyrics.
So you guys are based in London, what would you say is the biggest challenge you’ve encountered?
CFQ: Probably having people do a similar sort of thing to you. I think when something is good it stands out, which I’d like to think has happened to us [Cole laughs proudly]. But yeah, having so many people do the same thing as you, it’s kind of hard to not compare. There was a period where I remember playing with bands and thinking “we’re actually not bad”, and then you’d play with some really good ones, and you think that there is definitely some room for improvement.
In your guys’ opinion, is there a difference between being unique and being authentic? Is there anything that helps you stay true to your sound and not fall into a spiral of trendsetting?
CFQ: Personally, I’m much more of a fan of older music, so I don’t really keep up entirely with the ‘new stuff’. A lot of our influences are coming from bands that people don’t hear or listen to anymore.
Finlay Burrows: I think as well, we’ve never actually just sat down and ever discussed the ‘sound’ of the band. It’s always been a bit more ‘natural’ and ‘random’ – if one of us comes up with a riff or an instrumental we think is cool, we use that as our foundation. But we’ve never intentionally and strategically sat down and thought about what sound we’re making. We’ve always done it ‘off the cuff’ really, more as it comes in the moment. We’ve been recording the songs alongside playing them, without a producer or a firm plan.
CFQ: There’s no, like, blueprint, or a secret recipe. Sometimes it just comes from us having fun.
Well, I guess that’s the best way of keeping your originality. Conjuring up your own creations is effortless.
CFQ: Exactly, I believe this attitude adds honesty to it in a way as well. We’re not trying to play like anyone else – ‘cause we just can’t.
JG: I learnt guitar simply by listening and playing along to my favorite records. Play it until you have it right, sort of thing.
Is there an underlying theme you guys like to talk about in your songs?
CFQ: I think we just try not to take it too seriously and be a bit more playful with it. I like when it’s not super obvious what the song is about, but no, there’s no political thing about it. We just try and write some poetry.
What emotion would you say one would get from listening to your music?
CFQ: I think our music definitely comes from a happy place, we love to add funny and cynical lyricism. I would never describe our music as ‘angry’ to anyone, but there are some shouts.
FB: I think yeah it’s definitely the lyrics and I guess sometimes the tone of mine and Cole’s delivery, or sometimes instrumentals, it can make it seem as though it’s ‘angry’, but when you listen to the lyrics, you can definitely hear the playfulness.
Do you guys have a favorite lyric in one of your tracks?
CFQ: Well, there’s one of the songs that’s coming out on the new album, called ‘Harry Who Knew How to Fly’, and there’s a lyric which repeats itself again and again – “I Harry, who could fly, I put Muhammad Ali in a headlock” – and I just think it’s quite really funny. It’s about a friend from Brighton who’s a really good skater.
FB: Yeah, maybe something from ‘Shake it Down’, that has some fun lyrics.
So when you create a track or an album, do you find it hard to define when something is completed, when all the necessary elements have been added to that final mix – and is there a certain feeling you get when you know that it’s completed?
CFQ: I think the hardest part is to accept that something is ‘done’ and can be released into the world. I try and see how I feel about the piece personally, and if I’m happy with it, then that’s it. If I spend any longer with this, I’ll become too obsessed. I do think some imperfections are worth celebrating as well, and sometimes it’s worth sacrificing perfection.
For my last question I wanted to ask about your short term goals and what is in store for you guys in the next few months.
FB: Hopefully create more music and write more songs.
CFQ: It would be nice to have more of Jimmy’s influence in our songs, have our sound be more hard hitting. So yeah, write more songs with Jimmy in mind.
JG: Agreed.
Words: Anastasia Bolshova // Photos: Daniel Turvil
C Turtle’s debut album ‘Expensive Thrills’ is out March 8th via Blitzcat Records. Pre-order the album and stream the singles via Bandcamp.