Miranda

Album: FTHC (2021)
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Songfacts®:

  • For a long while Frank Turner was estranged from his father, city investment banker Roger Turner. When a dying uncle arranged a reconciliation, the singer discovered Roger had transitioned and now called herself "Miranda." Here, Turner describes overcoming resentment from his previous troubled relationship with his dad.
  • The singer describes how his father wasn't a good parent.

    When I was young, he always seemed so filled with rage
    He was angry at my clothes, my hair, my music, my teen age


    Turner discussed their relationship with The Guardian. "It was never violent, but it was everything up to that," he said, "and it was extremely f---ing unpleasant."
  • After reuniting with his trans-parent, Turner's anger and resentment didn't disappear overnight. But as he recognized Miranda was more considerate and less forthright than his father was, he let go of his rage.

    One sunny afternoon she was dancing next to me on stage
    I felt my anger drain away from inside my ribcage


    Now, they have a far better relationship. "She's really fun, really chatty and she cares," said Turner of Miranda. "[She's] interested in who I am and what I do, which my dad never was at all. It's always going to be a work in progress, but we're doing all right."
  • Turner acknowledges the public trans debate gets quite intense, but wanted to share his story. "It's a song about forgiveness and again about acceptance, but it's vitally important and hopefully obvious that it's not about forgiveness and acceptance of anyone's gender identity," Turner told NME. "That's not something that requires forgiveness and acceptance. That song found its way onto the record because I needed a way to say, 'These are the things that I used to f---ing hate about my dad."
  • Turner recorded the song for FTHC (Frank Turner Hardcore). He laid down the album at Abbey Recording Studios just outside Oxford with production by Rich Costey (Foo Fighters, Muse, Biffy Clyro).
  • Ilan Rubin from Nine Inch Nails plays drums on 11 FTHC tracks, including this one. Turner parted ways with his long-term drummer in 2020, so he needed someone else and Costey suggested the American musician. Because of COVID restrictions, Rubin tracked his parts remotely from the US.

    "We had a day where Ilan was in Los Angeles, Rich was in Vermont and I was in London," Turner told HMV. "We were all on a Zoom call together and it was very strange, but yeah, that guy really knows how to play the drums."

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