At one point, in his conversation with Turnstile on Wednesday night, Lawrence Burney brought up the band’s recent show at Baltimore’s Wyman Park. It was a free event, so, naturally, every square inch of grass was occupied by a body. There weren’t 10,000 people in the room with Turnstile and Burney at AG Studios, in Tribeca, but the energy was similarly intense, with fans gathering outside the venue over an hour in advance, then huddled close to the stage to catch every word from the band members.
Turnstile were in New York for the launch of Pitchfork’s new zine featuring the group. (The event was produced by AdHoc, and zines are now available to purchase at Printed Matter.) In addition to the couple hundred fans, friends and family of the band came to support, including frontman Brendan Yates’ parents, indie favorite Faye Webster, photographer Quinn Batley, and folks from the Baltimore skate brand Carpet Company. On stage, after an intro from Pitchfork’s head of editorial content, Mano Sundaresan, Turnstile and Burney continued their conversation from the cover story, talking about the sound of the new album Never Enough, the group’s ambitious visual treatment for it, and how band’s “collective consciousness” has deepened over the last 15 years.
Following the interview, fans were given the opportunity to ask questions. One fan hailing all the way from Chicago asked about how it felt for the band to go from playing cramped basements to massive festivals. Another asked drummer Daniel Fang about his Perfect 10 album, Floral Green by Title Fight. After the talk, Turnstile hung out with fans and signed zines. Between a set on The Tonight Show and a raucous show in Brooklyn, the night felt surprisingly chill and homey, a respite from the noise of Turnstile’s busy album release week.