Bowling For Soup and Frank Turner have so much more in common than you might think.

Though the former is responsible for some of the biggest pop-punk tracks of all time and the latter has carved out a legacy as a punk-rock troubadour across 3500 shows, the pair are connected by just how they have managed it. Tenacity, belief, pure adoration of what they are creating.

It’s for this reason that the two hitting the road together to play some of the UK’s most beautiful places makes perfect sense. A celebration of a combined five decades of making it happen, coming to a head in a slew of singalongs, circle pits and smiles.

To find out more about the pair’s deep connection, Rock Sound sat down with Frank and Jaret Reddick.

Rock Sound: How does it feel to be at a place where something like this tour has been able to become such a huge reality?

Frank: We have been friends for quite a while now, often from a distance because of both being touring people and living on the other side of the world. And as friends and musicians often do, you say things like, “Oh, man, we should totally do stuff together sometime’, and it’s usually bullshit or the intention is good, but the reality, the practicality, not so much. And the fact that this has finally come together, if nothing else, makes me feel more integral as a human, because it means that once in my life I’ve stuck to my word/ I think we’re both really stoked about it. It feels like a great pairing, and there’s a lot of love in the room, between crews and between bands. I think it’s going to be great.

Jaret: I think it’s punk rock, you know? It’s just so DIY, and you’re so in this together, and you want the show to be awesome. We’re very like-minded, both in our bands and our crews, in that we both think, ‘Let’s just give them the best show possible’. It’s then about what we need to do that.

Frank: I think we have a similar attitude towards shows as a concept, too. I mean, I am of the considered opinion that Bowling For Soup do it rather better than I do, and I’m enjoyably slightly nervous about the tour because of that, too. Let me say this without hopefully being miles up my own ass, but I think that my band and I put on a pretty fucking good live show, and quite often when we go on tour, I’m not that worried about who we’re touring with, because I think that we usually dropkick them out of the park. This particular one, I’m like, ‘Oh fuck, man, this could be a challenge’.

Jaret: You’re crazy. But I’ll get up my own ass as well. We both know we’re good, right? Like, I know my band is lethal. And entertainment is such a big part of what we do, and your show is so energetic. So, I think our shows are different enough that it’s just going to be a fucking great night. But these co-headlines are interesting because we’ve done it with Less Than Jake and Reel Big Fish, and when you have to follow Less Than Jake, you wake up real quick. You get up there, you fucking take a shot of whiskey, and have to be ready to go. There’s no waiting for the adrenaline to kick in.

RS: A big thing about this is what you mentioned about being able to connect and become friends despite being on opposite sides of the world. But it goes deeper than that into your different journeys, different relationships, different points of influence. But what was it like to really find that point of respect and build from it to where you are now?

Frank: I knew who Bowling For Soup were. I knew I knew the headline songs, because if you’re my age and you were involved in punk rock, then, of course, you fucking do. But from there, it really started on Twitter when Jaret came across my music. And then we met at festivals, and people came out of shows, and all that kind of business. And I was just super hyped. It was like, ‘Fucking hell, it’s the guy from Bowling For Soup. That’s incredible.’

Jaret: Yeah, Twitter, that was the thing. I would answer his tweets, blow up one of his songs whenever I could, and just become a fan.

Frank: And I’ve been extremely flattered by that, and I’m very honoured by it. You guys are like older brothers to me, and it’s a huge validation for you to feel that way. But also, whilst we have had different journeys at different times, I think that’s true. I do feel like we both have one thing in common: neither of our musical outings has ever been especially cool, at least in mainstream music appreciation. And I think that there’s definitely a sense that our audiences are people who just like music because they like it, and it’s not liking it because it makes them look a certain way or puts them in a certain category. There’s a very slight kind of outsider status for both of us.

Jaret: I think longevity and relatability are big factors for both of us, as well. It was really easy for people to hate on us early on because we were funny and silly, and, from an outsider’s perspective, weren’t taking ourselves seriously enough. But then, when they go, ‘Oh my God, they’ve been doing this 32 years, and you listen to the songs, okay, there’s actually substance to that. Also, if you think you can write a funny song that can stand the test of time and still be listenable in 25 years, fucking try. Because I’m telling you, it’s not as easy as you think. But also, both of us lyrically have something relatable to just an audience member. You don’t have to be a punk, you don’t have to be cool, you don’t have to be uncool. You have to be you.

Frank: Yeah, it’s something human.

Jaret: We’re both really honest in our songs. We’re both very honest about who we are. Both of us do a lot of autobiographical stuff, and I think there are just a lot of similarities where that stuff is concerned, and also within the fandom as well.

RS: And connecting through that real stuff is so much bigger than connecting through business connections and forced friendships. People know when what you are saying is real.

Frank: There’s also a dedication to songwriting overall within both of what we do. All I really wanted to do was write good songs, and I think that’s probably true of Jaret as well, and I think that came across when we were doing it during COVID. We did this thing called ‘Back to the Metal’, where we chatted once a week for nearly a year, which started as a one-off conversation in which we didn’t get anywhere close to actually talking about any of the things we said we were going to talk about. So we kept going for 12 months, 52 weeks, and what I loved about those chats was that it was just two music fans. There’s a kind of almost naivety to the appreciation of songs and music for what they are, which I think that we share. I don’t care whether something’s cool or not cool; I care whether it moves me, and I think we both had that.

Jaret: I think that the world that we live in now. Whether it’s streaming or whether it’s the Internet, things are so blurred with everything, music being one of them, and I think that’s a good thing. Listen to whatever the fuck you want to listen to, you know.

RS: Is there anything both of you have found in each other’s songwriting that surprised you whilst listening?

Frank: I think the thing that really struck me after spending time with Jaret’s back catalogue was how much he’s secretly a country fan. I mean, not even that secretly anymore, because you’ve done your solo records. Any two songwriters who start talking about songwriting at a certain point start talking about country, because there is an almost platonic ideal of simplicity of form when you get into Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, or Willie Nelson. It’s stripping everything away in a way that sort of weirdly reminds me of the Ramones. The simplest, most perfect, direct way of expressing the sentiment in a way that also pays respect to the poetic form as well.

Jaret: It’s because of the storytelling. And Frank has this way of saying things poetically. When I would hear a song, I used to be like, ‘Fuck, I wish I had written that, but now I’m just glad I can be a fan of it.

Frank: It’s my favourite thing when you hear a song, and you’re like, Oh fuck, that was there, it was sitting on the fucking table, and I didn’t think of it, and they did. I’ve had that listening to so many of your tunes.

RS: What does it mean to be in this place where you’re able to share these moments, push each other and find new things to build upon, even at this stage in both of your careers?

Frank: One of the other things we have in common is that we are survivors. I think that if you had looked at either of us in the first two or three years of our music career, if somebody came along and said they’re still going to be going in 20 or 30 years, people would have been like, ‘Really, them?’. And yet we fucking did it. I think that’s part of the reason why we both have an appreciation for our craft, and I mean that as both a musician, a songwriter, and a performer, you know. It’s nice to be on tour with kindred spirits. I’m extremely honoured that we’re talking about longitude, and I think that’s a huge compliment to me and what I do. I’m very touched by it.

Jaret: It’s been this incredible climb. So to watch you catapult to where you are, and for us to have got caught another wave, so to speak, and now we’re co-headlining fucking castles. That’s pretty fucking rad.

Frank: I didn’t think it was going to land here, and it fucking did, so let’s have fun with it.

The Bowl My Bones Tour kicks off this week. Here are all of the dates:

JUNE

25: MARGATE Dreamland
26: SOUTHAMPTON Southampton Summer Sessions
27: LINCOLN Live at Lincoln Castle
29: GLASGOW O2 Academy Glasgow
30: HALIFAX Live at The Piece Hall

JULY

2: SCARBOROUGH Scarborough Open Air Theatre
3: LLANGOLLEN Live at Llangollen Pavilion
4: CARDIFF Cardiff Castle
5: ST AUSTELL Eden Sessions