At its best, music has the power to convey the deepest feelings, to transmit them from the artist into your own soul, to move you in unexpected ways. ‘A Wave Across a Bay’ by Frank Turner appeared on his 2022 album ‘FTHC’, which was full of personal songs, drawing on various aspects of his life. There are genuine and affecting songs about Turner’s childhood and relationship with his father. However, this is the song that really shifts something deep inside, getting to the heart of relationships and loss. ‘A Wave Across a Bay’ is a song that I have played over and over and over again.
‘A Wave Across a Bay’ was written as a tribute to Turner’s friend Scott Hutchison, the frontman from Frightened Rabbit, who took his own life in 2018. It’s incredibly intimate and full of real heartbreak. Lyrically, it is achingly well written and exposed. With great sensitivity, Turner shares his grief but also creates a beautiful vision of his friend: “There must have been a moment // Just before you hit the water // When you were filled with a sense of peace and understanding // With the wind in your hair // And the light in your eyes // As you realised you were finally escaping // But somehow in that moment // You miraculously missed it // Like a wave across a bay never breaking // And that’s how I like to think of you // Ever falling, never landing // Rolling solely out to sea and always smiling.”
Turner told AUK about writing and performing such an honest, emotional song: “The song began from an experience I would describe as lucid dreaming – or maybe a reasonably extreme manifestation of grief – a dream about Scott, as described in the first verse, in which, so it seemed to me, he showed me some chords and a melody. The song grew from there, I did my best not to mess with the first draft. I was nervous about its reception, not least by Scott’s family, so I cleared it with them before releasing it into the world. It’s a lyric with some fairly visceral imagery, so I was duty-bound to consider the impact it would have on other people. The reception of it has been heart-warming, for the most part. I’ve had some deep conversations with people after shows about it, both with relation to Scott and to these people’s own experience of similar situations.”
Although it is, of course, an open-hearted and personal song, Turner manages to capture something universal in how we respond to loss and grief. We can easily locate ourselves in ‘A Wave Across a Bay’ and it stirs within us our own memories and powerfully-felt emotions, our own experiences of loss. Musically, there’s a sense of scale to match the narrative. Like the powerful words, the instrumentation and Turner’s vocals build and grow and, by the end, ‘A Wave Across a Bay’ truly soars.
‘FTHC’ was Turner’s first number 1 album, though this success had been building for years as the previous four had all landed in the top three. Much of the album feels like a return to his punk roots with his band Million Dead – its energy is infectious. Turner’s brand of folk has always been flavoured with these punk sensibilities and influences but they really came to the fore this time around, blended with his typically melodic delivery. With a loyal and growing fanbase, Turner is known for a relentless touring schedule and he has delivered almost 3,000 live shows. Given the nature of this song and how hard it must be to perform, it is incredibly moving to see ‘A Wave Across a Bay’ live and I urge everyone to look out for tour dates soon and his forthcoming record, ‘Undefeated’, which will be out on 3rd May 2024.
