Buffy The Vampire Slayer directly sparked 00s rock band’s ‘ridiculous’ reunion

Frank Turner has revealed how a Buffy The Vampire Slayer spinoff tempted fate with the Million Dead reunion tour.

The 43-year-old folk-punk star is getting his former post hardcore band back together 20 years after their second album Harmony No Harmony and subsequent breakup just months later.

Speaking exclusively to Metro, Frank opened up on how fans have James Marsters’ character Spike to thank for him getting back with bandmates Ben Dawson, Julia Ruzicka, Cameron Dean and Tom Fowler

‘The origin story for it is ridiculous. There is a series of eBooks that are spin off from Buffy the Vampire Slayer called Spike,’ he said just days after Buffy’s own revival cast its new slayer.

‘Our old guitar tech reads them. And there’s a scene in one recently where Spike has to go somewhere quickly because he has to get back to London for the Million Dead reunion show.

‘Our guitar tech read this, screenshot it and sent it to all of us on an email thread. And so for the first time in at the time 19 years, we were all in communication with each other.’

Frank was talking to Metro after we helped launch of the London Grassroots Music Tube Map, alongside the Mayor of London, Transport for London and organisations including the MVT, Featured Artist Coalition, Outernet and Universal Music.

‘The Joiners Arms, you can stand there and know that Radiohead, Oasis, and everybody else played there,’ he said, reflecting on the importance of independent venues.

‘But also [Million Dead] broke up on that stage. It’s kind of interesting to me now, 20 years later, to stand there and think about what that means.’

Frank stayed friends with drummer Ben over the years – and even formed side project Mingle Harde with him in 2012 – but he ‘hadn’t heard from Cameron in decades’. A Buffy eBook was the spark they all needed.

‘We quickly discovered that we all lived to the UK again, which was news, because various people living overseas, and that turned into a chat which turned into a pint which turned into a rehearsal,’ he recalled.

‘It’s very evocative. It’s an interesting thing psychologically… a lot of memories that I had completely forgotten have come back.’

Although ‘it took a minute’ to settle in the first few rehearsals, but there was a moment where ‘suddenly it all clicked’.

However, fans should temper expectations and not expect more beyond the Harmony No Harmony reissue and UK tour.

‘We’re excited for it. I like to think that we’re approaching it with the right mindset, as in, we’re not making any new music,’ Frank clarified. ‘We’re not making this into a going concern. We’re going out to enjoy ourselves, and hopefully for other people to enjoy it too.’

There are unannounced plans to also reissue the band’s 2003 debut A Song to Ruin, but there will be nothing beyond that.

The I Still Believe singer acknowledged he was ‘the barrier’ stopping Million Dead from doing anything ‘for the longest time’, but he pointed out his own career is in a very different place two decades on.

‘I just didn’t really see the need. It’s different from a lot of reunions in the sense that my quote, unquote “day job” is more successful than Million Dead was,’ he explained.

‘With no disrespect to anybody else – I don’t need to do it. But at a certain point, that actually turned into a selling point for me. “Oh, I’m literally doing it for kind of pure reasons”.

‘Also, I was just thinking, “Are we going to have fun?” Yes. “Are other people going to have fun?” Yes. Well, then why not? Why hold out on adding to the sum total of human happiness?’

Everyone involved has their own lives and jobs – some with children and families – which would make a full-time reunion a struggle.

‘I don’t want to speak on anybody else’s behalf. I don’t know whether anybody else would be interested in being more,’ Frank admitted.

‘I’m busy enough as it is, but other people in the band have jobs, they have kids… It’s not like being in a band in your 20s, when everyone can drop everything to just show up wherever you need to be.’

There will be some changes on-stage too, with the group ‘having to tune the guitars down quite a lot’ to accommodate Frank’s voice/

‘I’m no longer 22, sadly,’ he laughed. ‘And on the basic level, there’s more physicality to it. I’ve just got a mic and I’m charging around and – well, probably going to be charging around. We’ll see how my voice holds up.

‘But it is a more aggressive style of music, which I do like.’

He’s strived to ‘incorporate elements of that’ into his work with his backing band the Sleeping Souls, which was evident on 2022’s chart topping album FTHC.

‘[Non Servient is] arguably heavier than anything Million Dead did,’ he pointed out. ‘But I’m looking forward to [the tour], it’s different mindset.’

He added: ‘I hope people enjoy it.’

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