Rock
Interview: Bowling For Soup and Frank Turner chat new tour and why they've never tried to be cool
Bowling For Soup frontman Jaret Reddick and folk-punk singer Frank Turner chat to ContactMusic about their upcoming Bowl My Bones joint tour and much more.
Bowling For Soup and Frank Turner have much more in common than you'd think.
The pop-punk legends best known for hits like 1985 and Girl All The Bad Guys Want might not be the first band you'd think of doing a co-headline tour with the folk-punk singer, but BFS frontman Jaret and Frank have been wanting this to happen for a long time.
Frank is touring next month celebrating 20 years of his Campfire Punkrock EP, while BFS are fresh off their biggest headline show to date at Wembley Arena in December.
Together, they'll hit the road in Australia in May before bringing the Bowl My Bones tour to the UK in June and July with special guests American Hi-Fi.
In a special joint interview, Frank and Jaret have chatted to ContactMusic.com about the tour, famous friends, respective plans for their next albums, and the chances of getting in the studio together.
Contact Music: When did you realise now was the time to make the joint tour happen?
Frank Turner: Wanting to do it's been a thing for a long time. We've been friends, sort of from afar. Jaret came across my stuff and started tweeting me, and I lost my s***. As there often is between two musicians who mutually appreciate each other and become friends, there's a sense of, “Hey, we should do shows together at some point”.
Jaret Reddick: A lot of things had to go right for it to make sense. As I was getting more and more into Frank's music, Bowling for Soup were really trying to figure out what it was we were going to do. We were almost done, we took a little break, and then, of course, we came back from that, hit the gas.
We've had a few member changes here and there, Chris retired, but we found this amazing resurgence in our genre of pop punk. We've watched Frank’s trajectory, and it just makes total sense. We've never done a summer tour before in the UK, so to come out there do a summer tour, do it with Frank Turner, and play f****** castles? Very excited about it!
How much discussion has gone into how the shows will work, in terms of set times and lineups?
FT: Probably loads! [laughs] We both have teams that are excellent and do their thing. I will say that it's been a lovely thing on every level, both between me and Jaret, between our respective bands, between our respective crews, between our respective booking agents, whatever it might be.
There's been a real cultural meeting of common ground. Without mentioning names, I've done co-headline tours in the past that have been a little… there's just been some culture clash moments. This one's been lovely!
JR: It's all a bunch of people that want to deliver the best show possible to the fans, who are the reason that we're there anyway. And I realise that sounds super cliche, but it really is.
FT: If you told me 20 years ago, or whatever, that I would be doing a f****** co-headline tour with Bowling for Soup, I would have done a backflip.
My kind of journey through music and genres, I've always been somebody who doesn't quite fit anywhere particularly, but if you put a gun to my head and ask me where I really feel like I belong, I belong in the punk world, and probably the popular end of it.
Bowling For Soup and Frank Turner are coming to the UK
You found your home in the punk scene, and then the first time you two collaborated was on a country song, Drunk As It Takes!
FT: We have a lot more in common than some people seem to think. There is a secret underlying appreciation for country - it's not as secret in Jaret's case now, because he's literally done a country record.
But there is a kind of perfection to country songwriting, which I think we both really, really appreciate. There's a kind of purity and a simplicity to it that I think both of us bring to what we do, regardless of what genre that ends up being.
JR: Growing up, we had a really hard time finding our place, because pop punk didn't exist. It wasn't until Warped Tour where we started to find, “Oh, okay, so we fit into this thing, and that's what we're going to do”. But you [Frank] really are sort of on your own island. It's one of those things where you could play with pretty much anybody, and you have!
FT: In my early years, there was one month where I did shows with both Munford and Sons and Gallows!
JR: I think for both of our bands, there's longevity, there's relatability. We've both been doing it so long that even if you don't like us, you really can't say anything, because obviously it's f****** working.
Lyrically, we're both - there's poetic-ness to it at times, but for the most part, if you want to say something, if I want to say something, we just f****** say it, right?
Frank Turner is excited for the co headline tour
FT: I feel like it's never been particularly cool to be into either of our bands. I think that that's actually a strong point, because it means the people who are, have come because they like the music and not because they feel like they should like our bands.
Jaret, correct me if I'm wrong, but I just don't think anyone's ever really got laid by telling somebody that they were a fan of either of our bands!
JR: I don't know, but I do believe you're right. I always said that people come see our band and they're looking up there and they're just going, “I could f****** do that!”
When you think of your friendship, and those you’ve made with heroes and favourite bands, are there still surreal moments?
FT: On the one hand, I don't want to spend my entire life going “Jesus f****** Christ” every single time anybody talks to me, because that's ludicrous. But I also don't want to be the kind of person who's just like, “Yeah, whatever, I just had dinner with Fat Mike”, as if that doesn't mean anything to me at all.
JR: Being friends with Frank, Fat Mike, the Descendants. Some of those are big influences on me in my life and music and things. I just sort of blink and find the awesomeness in it.
When I met Dee Snyder, his wife leans over to me, and goes, “Yours is the only band that our family agrees on listening to in the car”. I heard the same thing from Billy Ray Cyrus, that the Cyrus family like to listen to Bowling For Soup in the car!
[But] what's crazy to me is always the people outside of music. When we went to the Grammys in 2003 and people are like, “Was it weird?” No, because you expected to see all those, like, Elvis Costello and Dave Grohl. I mean, this makes sense. When Michael J Fox walked in, I was just like, “Holy s**t! There's Michael J Fox!” Then we sat next to Evander Holyfield. Those are the ones where you're just like, “What is my life?”
Let’s talk new albums. Jaret, where are Bowling For Soup at?
JR: We went into the studio last summer to do one song for SSL, the console company. They just needed a band to come in and record a song and try out this new gear. It was our first song to record as a three piece. I was just like, “Guys, I think, I think I've got the fever. Let's just do it.”
We picked a point on the calendar, which was February this year, and we made it happen. Most of the writing was during the last part of last year, and in January this year.
I think 2009’s Sorry For Partying was the last great, great, great record that we did. I think some fans would disagree and say, “Actually, Punch Drunk Love is great too”. But the last two records, I'm just like, “There's a couple of songs that that I probably shouldn't have put on here” or whatever.
There is not one stinker on this album. All three of us have said this might be the best Bowling For Soup album ever, which is crazy to say.
We were going to try and rush it, get it out quickly. Quite frankly, that makes zero sense, because we’re gonna be on the road with Frank and then with Simple Plan. We're probably looking at the Fall or maybe even early next year. It'll be worth the wait.
And you, Frank?
FT: Undefeated was my 10th record, and I genuinely think it's one of the best records I've ever made. I have a luxury, which is that I don't need to make another record right now.
In my career to date, I have been very kind of constant in terms of touring, recording, releasing, touring recording, releasing. And almost, for the first time, I'm in a place where, like, I don't have to do that, and I'm trying to enjoy that feeling.
I mean, I've got a bunch of songs coming together. I've been kind of slightly more in the kind of Trad folk-country world in terms of my listening and some of my writing as well. But the same time, I don't want to make a record because that's what I do, because I'm sort of obligated to do it by profession or whatever. That doesn't feel very artistic to me.
I wrote most of Undefeated in the space of a month. I had bits and bobs hanging around for ages, and then suddenly just went “blah”! I suspect something similar will probably happen, but I don't need to force it, so I'm not gonna!
If you’re not writing for a purpose, is it still cathartic flexing those creative muscles?
FT: In a way, that's what I want to lean on more, writing because I want to write, rather than writing because I have to write. It is easy to get caught in the world of trying to write songs that will go on the radio or that will please this constituency or that constituency, and that just seems like a s****y creative directive to me.
I want to write songs because I think they're cool. One thing I've been doing recently, at my partner's instigation, is writing poetry, which is something I've never really done before. I've always written words to go with music.
A lot of them may well turn into songs, but like, it's so liberating to write words without having to think about the chord changes underneath them, or how long or short it has to be to fit three and a half minutes.
JR: I certainly agree with Frank. I really never got caught in that trap of writing songs to be on the radio or to be a single, so to speak. I mean, I'm mindful of it in that if I think, “Okay, this song's got a good hook”, I'm not going to make it five minutes long.
I write songs that I think are cool, that I think people would want to listen to, and that I'm proud of. Even the even the silly ones, I think there’s all place for all of them. I want to write songs that I think are funny and interesting but have some substance to them.
Is there any temptation to record something together as Bowling For Soup and Frank Turner?
JR: We were actually gonna do a song together for the new [BFS] record. I was writing during a very busy time for Frank. We had this dream day where he was gonna come by the studio. He did come by, but we just made it a hang and a visit, and there's no pressure.
I think even if we did do a song at this point, trying to get it out before these tours, we would be just s******* it out. I think in the future, I think we're both convinced we will do something together musically.
Finally, if you could pick a song from your own catalogue for the other one to cover, what would you want to hear?
FT: That is a good question. I'd like to hear you guys cover something from the folk end of what I do. I think that I could hear you guys do Photosynthesis justice.
JR: I'm tempted to say one of the more punky songs, but honestly, I think it would be cool to hear you do Turbulence. It’s really emotional, I think you would nail that.
FT: I've got guitars behind me. I'm gonna think about that!
Full dates for Bowling For Soup x Frank Turner - Bowl My Bones UK Tour 2026
June 25 - Margate, Dreamland
June 26 - Southampton, TK Maxx Presents Southampton Summer Sessions
June 27 - Lincoln, TK Maxx Presents Live at Lincoln Castle
June 29 - Glasgow, O2 Academy Glasgow
June 30 - Halifax, TK Maxx Presents Live at The Piece Hall
July 2 - Scarborough, TK Maxx Presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre
July 3 - Llangollen, TK Maxx Presents Live at Llangollen Pavillion
July 4 - Cardiff, TK Maxx Presents Depot Live at Cardiff Castle
July 5 - St. Austell, Eden Sessions
