Alex Turner explains why ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’ ended up as an Arctic Monkeys album not a solo album

Arctic Monkeys are releasing their new album ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’ next week, and Alex Turner has been explaining some of the thoughts behind the record in a new interview.

“I was never interested in making a solo album,” Turner said to German site Intro, after it was revealed that the album was created largely by the frontman on his own, and almost became his debut solo album.

“I am a part of this band and one would disrespect the other,” he continued. “Nevertheless, I wanted to make this music, it was in me. When you compose on the piano, you automatically get different results than on the guitar. And it was important to me to say goodbye to the realism of most of the Arctic Monkeys stuff.”

“Overall, it developed in a direction that soon made me realise she had absolutely nothing to do with what people would expect from a Monkeys record.”

“Relatively early,” he said, asked when the rest of the band were brought in on proceedings. “When I finished the first demos, I invited Jamie to listen to everything and work on the songs together. He recorded a few guitars, had complementary ideas and was pretty enthusiastic overall.

“His enthusiasm has taken away my uncertainty. After a while, we brought Nick into the studio and played him our demo of The Star Treatment. He was also thrilled, and so I gradually got the green light from everyone.”

The band have also revealed that they won’t be sharing any new music until the release of the new record, so you’ll have to wait ‘til 11th May.

If the anticipation is too much, though, you can get an idea of what to expect in our review of ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’. Watch the album’s trailer below.