British folk/punk/poet Frank Turner is returning this week to New Zealand.

This month also sees the release of his fifth studio album, Tape Deck Heart, recorded in California with producer Rich Costey, who has worked with the likes of Muse and more recently Foster The People and TV On The Radio.

"Rich drove me and the guys [his band The Sleeping Souls] to dig deeper than we have before, put more blood sweat and tears into the process.

"I guess influence-wise, outside of the usual miasma of my taste, I was thinking in particular about The National, and about the rawer side of the lyrics I like, particularly Aiden Moffat," he reveals.

While his last album, England Keep My Bones was essentially about mortality and Englishness, he says, there are a few different strands running through his new work.

"I suppose overall it's a record about change, and in particular about break-ups. I wanted to write a very raw, personal record that seemed like the counter intuitive thing to do."

Turner went to Eton College and once shared a French class with Prince William before studding at the London School of Economics; not quite the standard background of a singer/songwriter who used to rip into politics and critic society.

"I think my mum and dad were concerned with my life choices, because I chose to do something totally outside their field of experience," he says. 

"But I work my arse off, and my parents' appreciation of that fact, among other things, has made them more appreciative of where I'm at in my life," he says.

While many of us start their journey of political opinions on the far left, ready to change the world, before settling down somewhere more moderate, we don't leave as much evidence as a songwriter.

The folk troubadour found his arguably biggest audience last year when he played ahead of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London after being hand picked and invited by Danny Boyle.

One of the songs he performed was I Still Believe which contains the line "Come ye, come ye, to soulless corporate circus tops."

And it wouldn't be the English press if they wouldn't kick up some fuss. The Guardian's music blogger Michael Hann wrote an article decrying that this punk poet had been a right winger all along. Reason enough to ask what the man actually thinks and if politics should matter in art.

"I don't consider myself to be a right-winger actually," Turner says.  "I'm a liberal, in the vein of JS Mill, but that's a word that has had a lot of its meaning twisted in time.

"You can include politics in art if you want, or not, it's a personal decision.

"It's not something I'm interested in any more - the bulls**t ignorant thuggery that goes along with a lot of 'politics' in the music scene has no appeal to me anymore."

Now it's time for another stint of relentless touring, which brings him once again to our fair country.

"I have only fond memories [of New Zealand] .

"I have some old friends from back home who've relocated out there, so it's always nice to catch up. Plus I don't think I've ever had a bad show in NZ, so my expectations are high!", he says.

Turner plays Auckland's Kings Arms on April 6 and Wellington's Bodega April 7.

- Stuff