13 Questions With…Jeff Turner

A famous twin and a true musician, XO’s Jeff Turner took a break from jamming with his guitar to answer his 13 questions

How did you guys come up with the name XO?

It’s named after Elliot Smith – XO. We had a hard time coming up with a name so we decided to use the title of one of our favourite albums.

What’s so great about Atlanta, Georgia?

It’s really diverse, people-wise. Like most seem to think the “south” is culturally barren and old and Atlanta seems to show them different by keeping up with other major cities. The music scene has kind of fallen off with the whole “crunk-rap” thing, but there’s a really good indie scene on the rise.

Who was your favourite band/musician growing up?

I was into punk and bands like Propagandhi, but I was also really into The Beatles.

Who did your parents listen to while you guys were growing up?

My mom was into radio music like Rod Stewart and my dad was into musicians like Elvis Costello and John Lennon.

Why did you guys decide to start a side-project?

XO actually started before Say Anything. We just didn’t continue on because we had gotten so into Say Anything and we were doing stuff for them so we had to put it aside. The main reason for the band is that we wanted to show our creativity.

As a band, will you guys be focusing on an acoustic sound or will you be leaning towards a more full-band sound?

It will definitely be a full band. Like I recently did an acoustic tour, but we have been playing shows as a full band. But that doesn’t mean we won’t continue to do acoustic songs.

Should people expect a full-length sometime soon?

We are actually working on some stuff as I have been writing a lot the past while. For a date, I’d have to say we’ll try to release something the beginning of next year.

What have you thought of the feedback you’ve gotten from fans?

It’s great that we’re getting fans through our EP, getting noticed through articles and that people appreciate our stuff. But to be honest, I really don’t care what everyone thinks. I don’t mean to sound harsh or anything, but people start comparing us to other bands and end up missing the point. We’re not trying to be anybody else, we’re just putting in a lot of effort and creating music that’s us. Like I don’t even listen to other bands because there’s not much music out there today that I like. All they seem to care about is making money so they end up not putting any heart into the music they create.

Will you guys ever have Max Bemis do guest vocals on one of your tracks?

I don’t know. We are really trying to break off from Say Anything when it comes to our music and we don’t want to be compared, so who knows. If anything happens, it’ll be random.

Name one band/musician you think people need to know about.

Anything done by Mark Kozelek.

What artist do you wish you could collaborate with and why?

Mark Kozelek! Aside from him, I wish I could collaborate with John Lennon, because he’s a music icon on every level.

If you could only keep one album for the rest of your life, what would it be?

The Beatles – Abbey Road.

Define XO using one word.

Interesting.