Turnstile’s Brendan Yates was curled up in bed at his Baltimore home during Charli XCX’s recent Coachella set – oblivious to her announcement that “Brat Summer” was sort of over and “Turnstile Summer” was about to begin. It wouldn’t remain a mystery to him for long; within minutes, millions had seen his band’s name plastered in all caps on a towering screen behind her. “I thought it was a joke,” he smiles, remembering how his phone lit up with messages from friends trying to get his attention. “I was like, ‘What is this AI image?’”
It’s six weeks later, and the 35-year-old frontman is briskly strolling through a leafy park in Los Angeles, his tawny hair bouncing, as he recalls the pop star’s premonition over a video call: “She’s really special and makes music that resonates with a lot of people, so to get that nod was really nice.” It was unexpected for a pop star, even one as preternaturally ahead of the curve as Charli XCX, to offer such a glowing endorsement of a hardcore band, but that’s a limited descriptor for Turnstile, a group who operate with a similarly leftfield vision as her.
