Hometown: Nashville, Tenn.
Band Members: Jonas Stein (vocals, guitar),?Dave McCowen (bass), Kingsley Brock (guitar),? Matt Hearn (drums)
Album: Butter
For Fans Of: Deer Tick, Jacuzzi Boys, JEFF the Brotherhood
It seems only natural to associate the Turbo Fruits with food. There’s food in the scuzzy rock band’s name (even if it’s derived from winning on a £1 slot machine in Scotland), and singer Jonas Stein chats from a cozy spot in his “bachelor-cabin” on a farm outside Nashville that he’s christened “The Sugar Shack.” His languorous Southern drawl lights up when discussing the highly entertaining Louisiana-style crawfish boil that he and the band cooked up and videoed this past spring. The band’s forthcoming album, which drops September 11, is even called Butter.
Inspiration for this foodie affair started at a young age for Stein. “The first time I remember trying to cook something myself, I woke up really early when I was maybe six or seven years old and I had seen my parents cook eggs before,” he recalls. “I woke up and I wanted to surprise my parents, so I tried cooking them eggs for the first time ever. I was so young and just did not have the knowledge to put oil and/or butter on the pan, so I made scrambled eggs and they were really shitty. I woke my parents up with them, and I think they took one bite and didn’t eat the rest of it. I think they appreciated the thought, though.”
Stein’s cooking and musical chops have certainly improved since then and although and he talks excitedly about wanting to host his own cooking show one day, the young singer actually has a lot on his metaphorical plate right now. Turbo Fruits, which he founded around the time that his previous band Be Your Own Pet broke up, is on the cusp of a breakthrough. After releasing the first Turbo Fruits album in 2007 and moving through a seemingly endless revolving cast of supporting musicians, Stein feels like he’s finally found the right ingredients to make Turbo Fruits gel.
Clearly, he’s on the right path, as a host of other established players in the music industry have caught an enticing whiff of the Turbo Fruits. The buzzy, frenetic jams on Butter impressed Jim Eno, drummer and co-founder of Spoon, to produce the record. The unbridled energy and Southern roots made fans out of fellow Nashvillians Kings of Leon, who will release Butter on their new independent label, Serpents and Snakes. Stein’s friend Seth Riddle, General Manager of the record label, “had to play it for all the Kings of Leon boys and I guess they were all for it,” says Stein. “Everyone’s been really supportive. It’s been a blast over there. We’re really happy to have all their help.”
Additionally, Stein and the other Fruits have two more projects on the backburner. They have their own label, Turbo Time that exclusively churns out vinyl singles and 7-inch records. And, Stein co-founded the infamous Bruise Cruise with Turbo Fruits’ booking agent Michelle Cable in 2010. While he acknowledged that the ship won’t set sail again next year so the band can tour and write and record another album, he staunchly maintains, “It’s gonna happen again.”
For now, though, the Turbo Fruits are focusing on Butter’s upcoming release and prepping another outrageous cooking adventure to mark the occasion. On Sept. 16, there will be an album-release shindig for the band and “we’re going to have a full pig roast there,” says Stein. “I think I might take a class on how to butcher a pig that this local butcher shop offers. It sounds pretty intense.” And of course, no party would be complete without free beer and a live performance from the band.
It’s this kind of relentlessness and resourcefulness—manifesting itself in both the Turbo Fruits’ music and other projects—which has helped the band carve out a spot for itself in a nationally recognized Nashville rock ’n’ roll scene. With Butter, Stein believes the band can expand on those successes, saying, “I think the time that we put into this record is going to hopefully help give us, give Turbo Fruits’ career, a little boost. It’s been almost three years since our last full-length record came out, so we’re ready to get…not a fresh start, but something similar.”