NYLON - June 2008 - (Page 116) MONKEY GONE TO HEAVEN His other band is known for its gritty realism, but Alex Turner’s new side project (with little Rascal Miles Kane) is all about widescreen escapism. Meet the Last Shadow Puppets. By Matt Glazebrook. Photographed by Will Anderson Alex Turner’s face is pale and drawn and his slight frame is slumped in his chair. He looks worn out—unsurprisingly, perhaps, considering the 22-year-old has been touring and recording almost continuously since his emergence with the Arctic Monkeys in mid-2005. On the other hand, it could just be that, by his own admission, he “drank too much on the plane last night.” “You’re going white, Al,” teases Miles Kane, also 22, frontman of fledgling rockers the Rascals and the other half of the Last Shadow Puppets. “You’re freaking out.” Clad, like Turner, in classic ’60s Brit-style (Chelsea boots, slim-fit jeans, a mop of mod-ish hair), Kane is the more garrulous and wide-eyed of the pair. But that too is understandable, considering that the album that brings Kane to the plush surroundings of New York’s Maritime Hotel represents only his second ever attempt at singing in a real recording studio. Turner found his newest cohort when Kane’s first band, the short-lived and underappreciated Little Flames, supported the Arctic Monkeys on a U.K. tour. With a burgeoning friendship came a creative bond that “was always quite apparent,” according to Kane. “People would say, ‘when you two do your album together…’” The duo certainly seem in tune, finishing each other’s sentences, swapping inside jokes and generally treating their bemusing existence with the same air of good-natured sarcasm (“First of all…” begins my softball opening to the interview. Laughing, they interrupt in unison: “ how did you meet?”) The Age of the Understatement, the Last Shadow Puppets’ stunning debut, took shape last summer in rural northern France. “Miles lost it for one day because he got bitten by bugs,” says Turner. “Ah, yeah, I got dead ratty,” says Kane. “Where we were staying was in a field, with loads of animals around. I got pure bitten dead bad. I think I’m quite…” “Susceptible?” offers Turner. “Yeah, susceptible in the wild,” says Kane, earnestly.
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.