On a threatening scorch of a summer day in Louisville, Kentucky, my friend and I brainstormed where we could bum ice waters. We settled on a nearby coffee shop. To our joyful surprise, accompanying the sweet, sweet air conditioning were the sweet, sweet tunes of Jesse and Alex, two members of the band “Turner.”
Madison: […] recording. Hello guys, thank you for doing an interview with me! First of all, what is your band name?
Jesse: We are Turner!
M: Amazing. When did you formally start playing music together?
(L to R: Hunter, Alex, Jesse, & Ryan after band practice)
J: Complicated question. The outfit of four has been together since spring of 22 under the name “Bad Mustache,” from which we’ve since rebranded. Before that, these three [gestures to Alex, Hunter, Ryan] were playing together.
Hunter: We, Ryan and I, started playing in my basements in 2019. We’d just graduated from undergrad, maybe a little bit before graduation. We played two shows as “the Soundrels,” and then 2020 happened. Then Alex moved to LA, backpacking across the country for a while. Ryan and I just played with some different people, tried to learn how to make music ourselves. Luckily, Alex came back. We thought, ‘Let’s go. This is what we know.’ Alex started playing with Jesse.
J: I met these guys through him, through common music taste.
H: [to Jesse] I met you at Seid’s during your EP release, and then I DM’D you like, “Hey, if you ever need a drummer, hit me up.” You said, “I’m good.” But Alex said, “I know a drummer with a house where we can play.” Turns out, same dude.
M: As the four of you guys, how long have you been playing together?
J: 2022.
M: What instruments do you play?
Ryan: I play bass, historically. I think past this album, I’ll be on six string guitar.
(Ryan, making more history)
J: I front and sometimes play rhythm guitar. Moving forward, much less guitar.
M: Why will you play less guitar?
J: The band actually slotted in a secret fifth option, who is not here right now. His name is Kam. He’s gonna be playing bass with us live, freeing up more intricate guitar parts that I can’t do. So I get to dance around.
Alex: I play guitar.
(Alex, demonstrating)
H: I play drums, and sometimes a sampler, if we ever use it.
M: Where were you all born and where do you live now?
R: I was born in Lexington, moved here 10 years ago.
J: I was born in Cynthiana, Kentucky, which is a little north of Lexington…very small town. I moved to Louisville, Kentucky after I went to school in Richmond at EKU, in about 2019. I’ve been here since.
H: I was born in Lexington, but I was raised in Ashland, Kentucky, up until I moved here 10 years ago… same year as Ryan, we went to UofL together.
A: Born and raised in Louisville, and living here right now.
M: Who are some of your influences, favorite artists and bands?
H: We’re not gonna get concise answers.
J: “Absolutely” (2021) by Dijon. James Ivy. Hayden, our producer over here, and I met out of a love for hyper-pop. We found each other through that kind of niche, indie scene.
H: My parents raised me on country music, and then my older brother put me on to everything that was cool, that wasn’t Eastern Kentucky country music. I was big into System of a Down when I was just getting into drumming. I’ve leaned toward aggressive play. In college, I started consuming and playing a lot of jazz, and then started learning about production, getting more
into electronic and house music. I’m really all over the place, whenever I’m thinking about what inspires me for this stuff. I like 2000s butt rock hits, you know what?
J: That’s dangerously close to dad rock, I think.
A: I like chords, guitar chords. Title Fight has really good guitar chords. Tool has really good guitar chords. I like jazz. A lot of jazz. I like bad guitar tones.
Ryan: I like The Strokes, Fiddlar, NOFX, oh yeah, and the Beatles.
M: Do you feel all of your influences merge when you’re playing together?
A: I think so, especially if we’re openly jamming with no kind of direction, playing what we feel. We give each other a moment to solo, to go off with our own ideas for a second, so we can see where one another comes from musically… which is always cool.
M: Have you written any songs? What is it like composing original material?
(Jesse, hitting the note which makes babies stop crying)
J: Yes. The majority of what we play now, and have been playing for the last couple of years, has been influenced by my transitioning from being a solo artist to being in a band. A lot of what I listened to and was influenced by was indie bedroom pop, a very vulnerable genre. Trying to put that in a band setting can be difficult sometimes, but with these three, over the years, we’ve developed a trust and comfortability with one another. I will not write a drum part. I don’t know how.
(Hunter at his throne)
Whatever he [Hunter] does, fits like a glove. I still usually write lyrics alone. We’ll get ideas in session, and then I’ll be by myself trying to figure out what fits. Recently, we’ve been thinking about our second album, thinking about what different sounds we can tap into that aren’t indie bedroom pop. I started working with Ryan, who has been sending me demos of stuff he’s worked on in the past. I think there will be some growing pains trying to make it all sound cohesive and natural and together. But I’m excited for it, because it means we’re going to change, and we have a lot of diversity in sound to explore.
M: Are you currently working on an album? What is the difference in direction for you from your last album to this one?
J: We are in the throes of releasing our first album. We’ve recorded everything. Hayden and I are mixing with a guy from New York, Mr. Harry Backer, working on the mixes and masters now for the rest of the album. One, “Jump In,” is done, and released.
The recording process has been two or three years of trial and error. The way a track is
recorded and the energy with which it is recorded can be so different. In November finally, we reached a solid idea of what the record sounds like. We’re ready to get it done. This is the best-sounding of any music I’ve ever made. I think it’s as good as it can get.
(L to R: Elijah, Turner’s videographer, Jesse & Hayden)
M: Describe your recording process.
Hayden, producer: It depends on the song. We’ve recorded this album more than one time. The first time we did it, we tried to record it basically exactly how you “should” record an album – extremely professional, tight, with soundproof rooms, and we played close to the mic. When we went back and re-approached it, we wanted to actually incorporate the flaws that we were trying to avoid, which is the vulnerability of it. That version we recorded at this little one bedroom hut we called “The Himbo Dome.” It’s where I was living at the time, one room, vaulted ceilings. We embraced the atmosphere of the room, trying to emphasize and intentionally capture the room’s particular effect on the sound. Some instruments and vocals we still recorded close mic, but instead of soundproofing, we let the walls be open. We put up room mics in a lot of the rooms to capture their reflections. When you’re listening to the music, I think it feels like you’re in
the room with the band.
J: We worked in another space. It was also a house. It was an old house in downtown New Albany. That’s where we did drums. We went and did all the guitars and vocals at “The Himbo Dome.”
M: Do you remember how long the recording process was for the album?
Hayden: The first time we recorded the album, that took a year and a half. The second
recording of the album probably started around this time last year. We wrapped almost
everything in March (2025). There were a lot of snowy days, a lot of cold days, but we focused in the cold. We’re still technically finishing it, just Harry and I co-mixing it, finalizing.
M: How do we find your music online?
J: Spotify, Tik Tok, “Turner” on all streaming platforms.
M: Do you guys have any goals and plans that you want to elaborate on? You could keep it mysterious, if you’d like.
J: We’re in the beginning of the process. People are finding us every day and reaching out to us, encouraging us. If we could get on a two-week leg of a tour by the end of the year, on a decent sized regional band, that’s a success. We’ve got Elijah over there, our video guy, hi Elijah, and we are currently still finishing the first video for this first song. We’ve got our next video shoot scheduled. The idea is a single and a video a month, for the next five months. We’re pretty booked through the year. We need to get the singles out that way, and then by the end of the year, we will have the album out, with shows here and there. It’s brewing.
M: Anything final that you want to say to our readers?
J: Look up “Drunk Singing in Your Apartment” on Tik Tok. It’s fun.
More information is waiting for you on Instagram, Youtube, and Spotify!
Dave Bixby 