Understanding the two sides of Alex Turner
Understanding Alex Turner is perhaps easiest if you imagine him as being two separate people. There are the ‘Onstage Alex’ and the ‘Offstage Alex’ personas, and both embody significant dissimilarities from one another.
Diving into ‘Offstage Alex’, or perhaps, ‘Real Alex’, is a task that begins with his early skyrocket to fame. At the young age of 17, Turner was considerably quiet, reserved, and self-contained, especially in comparison to his friends and classmates at the time. Out of the limelight, he was every bit as normal as you and I. Growing up in High Green, Sheffield, he’d busy himself with nights out filled with rampant escapades worthy of lengthy next-day anecdotes. But we don’t need to go into the details of this too much. Just revisit Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, and you’ll find everything you need there.
In solitude, Turner embraced his intellectual nature, often delving deep into the labyrinthine corridors of his mind rather than venturing into the external world. And he liked it that way: at school, he was often berated for his “laid back” approach to his studies. “I remember a parents’ evening Mrs Turner came to,” Turner’s school teacher recalls, “She sat down and said: ‘Oh, Mr Baker, I’ve had nothing but criticism all night, and everyone’s told me to come and see you’. And I said: ‘Mrs Turner, don’t worry, he’s going to be all right.'”
“There are teachers who look at pupils, check their book to see how often they’ve handed homework in, and make judgments on that,” Turner’s teacher continued. “With Alex, I knew this was someone unconventional, a little bit different, with a brightness and a cleverness that would serve him well. He had a very original sense of humour, as you’d expect, but he was always quite reserved. I remember giving a class a bollocking once, and he was sitting there like Gromit from Wallace and Gromit – mute, but with these incredibly expressive raised eyebrows, as if he was saying sarcastically: ‘Ooooh – we’ve really cocked it up now.'”
Despite his seemingly unbothered exterior, however, Turner was always present. During one of his lessons, Mr Baker performed a strange rendition of John Cooper Clarke’s ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ that inhabited Clarke’s signature drawling style. Years later, Arctic Monkeys not only recreated the poem in their own gritty, indie-rock style, but Turner told Clarke himself that he remembers finding Mr Baker’s performance awe-inspiring.
Thus, Turner’s ability to both intrigue and baffle has contributed to his enduring popularity: you may feel like you know him, but at the same time, you never truly know what he’s thinking. What’s more, he’s maintained this authentic personality throughout his career. Even now, in interviews, his navigation of thought remains the same even if he seems more confident and mature in other ways. Offstage, he’s rarely one to volunteer information and often strays away from the realm of celebrity.
But then we have the enigmatic ‘Onstage Alex’. This version of Turner has become synonymous with Arctic Monkeys: he’s the over-confident, amusing, and charismatic frontman that we’ve come to know and love. This is the version that many people – fans or otherwise – have struggled to pin down, particularly in recent years. His confusing persona has historically been criticised for butchering his own songs, sounding too American, or harshly likened to that of a 1950s rock star wannabe. But those conclusions are missing the point.
Arctic Monkeys, aside from their obvious talents as a torchbearer of the indie rock scene, have always been a ‘fun’ band. Onstage, there are drippings of this all throughout the sets: fronted by Turner, fans are never without comical moments, no matter how subtle. Turner’s stage persona plays into this effortlessly, but he himself has no delusions about this version being something completely fabricated.
“I can’t go out there and absolutely be myself,” Turner once said. “The situation is so fundamentally unnatural. It’s not a full-on, ‘right, get into character’ thing; sometimes, part of how you feel comes out. But I think I always feel weird about that afterward.” Turner is a lot more introspective than we often realise, and we have to remember that he came from an area that idolised The Smiths, The Strokes, and the ones that came before that, such as the likes of The Velvet Underground.
The ‘Onstage Alex’ persona emerges from the legacy Arctic Monkeys has inherited, embodying a lighthearted demeanour that belies a profound artistic depth. Post-performance, he can peel away the layers, secure in the knowledge that audiences have been privy to a meticulously crafted glimpse into his world — a testament to his enduring passion for the realms of art and poetry.