Before Turbowolf hit Oxford, Tim Hughes takes tea with their hard-rocking frontman

As frontman of the rock band Turbowolf, you might expect Chris Georgiadis to be a bit of an beast. After all, their music is a mad melange of crunchy riffs, tight, sweaty grooves, flailing body parts, and acid-soaked adrenaline.

So when I caught up with him, it came as some surprise to find him sitting a Bristol cafe, about to enjoy a cup of Earl Grey.

“I’ve already had scrambled eggs and smoked salmon and am now waiting for my girlfriend to bring me some tea,” he laughs.

“My flat’s getting refurbished and we’ve got people in there, so I’m living my life in this cafe,” he explains.

“It’s a nice one, though. I used to work for them 15 years ago.”

He admits he is enjoying the chance to relax before heading out on a headline tour, which, on Wednesday, comes to Oxford’s Bullingdon.

“I’m very much looking forward to going out on tour and seeing some familiar, and new, faces,” he says.

Talking to Chris, you’d think he’d been sitting around at home for months on end.

In reality, Chris and bandmates Andy Ghosh, Blake Davies and Lianna Lee Davies have only just got off tour as support for Death From Above 1979 and, before that, Royal Blood.

It was those incendiary shows, and the chance to spread their hard-rocking philosophy, which has been fuelling their ascent to rock’s premier league.

And while enjoying the experience, Chris admits there’s nothing quite like headlining your own shows.

“People are there to see us, so we are not so much having to force ourselves on people or try and sway them in a short amount of time.

“You normally only get half-an-hour to win the crowd over. Headlining a show is very different; everyone there knows the music, pretty much, and gets involved straight away.

“We have good fans and they come from all walks of life. Outsiders looking in might see people mostly wearing black and listening to noisy heavy metal, but it’s not like that.

“A lot of rock is outside the mainstream and people who also like to see themselves out of the mainstream gravitate to this sort of music.”

That music channels the best of hard rock and psychedelia reminiscent of vintage Brit acts like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, but fuelled by something newer and edgier.

Pounding drums, chainsaw guitars, punk attitude, electronic beats and soulful vocals make for a visceral, trippy and eminently listenable experience. This is rock that even non-rock fans can love.

They come armed with their latest single, Rabbit Foot, and new album Two Hands.

The LP, a follow-up to their eponymous 2011 debut, was co-produced by Tom Dalgety, who has previously given his expertise to Royal Blood, Band of Skulls and Opeth. It comes out on Tuesday.

But while they sound good in the studio, it is in their dynamic, in-your-face live shows that Turbowolf come into their own.

Do they, I wonder, have to work on their stagecraft, or does the performance just come naturally?

“The music excites us to play it,” says Chris. “It is not at all contrived. It feels natural to move like that.

“We always move around and make other people feel the energy of the music. We never, ever talk about that side of the band; we just do what we want.

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“The same goes with what we wear. We just do whatever we want to do and, happily, everyone feels able to express themselves.”

Free spirits one and all, Turbowolf don’t take orders from each other, or from anyone else.

“A lot of people want us to do certain things,” he says, “but it’s a process of learning that we are basically going to do whatever we want to do.

“There are so many people pushing and pulling. And we are happy to take people’s opinions, but we are not going to do anything about them.

“It’s our thing. We are the ones creating the art; it’s our band and we are the bosses.

“One day we might think it’d be great if we all wore tutus. Who knows what might happen in the future?”

So how does he sum up the band and its sound?

“We are quite exuberant and eccentric rock musicians; if that’s a valid term.

“I always find it hard to describe it, and that’s a good thing. We just go with whatever we want to make and just do it without thinking about whether it’s going to be played on radio or whether other people are going to like it.

“If it comes from a true place and is without compromise, people are going to appreciate it.

“We make horrible music, but make it sound better than it is.”

Turbowolf
Wednesday, April 8
Bullingdon Arms, Oxford
Tickets: £9
Visit seetickets.com