The Late David Turpin is the stage name of Irish-born writer and recording artist David Turpin. David released two well-received albums (The Sweet Used-to-be and Haunted!) under his own name, before a hypothermia-induced near-death experience inspired him to extend his moniker before the release of his watershed third album, We Belong Dead. An elaborate fantasia on the theme of human extinction and animal return, We Belong Dead contained the erotically charged single ‘Fur’, and juxtaposed artfully synthetic pop arrangements with sampled animal calls and field recordings. After releasing the album, Turpin took a break from music to complete a doctoral thesis on human-animal transformations in mid-century Anglo-American poetry. He also moved into screenwriting, with his debut film as screenwriter – the Gothic fantasy The Lodgers – premiering at the Toronto Film Festival in 2017, and opening worldwide thereafter. His second feature enters production in winter 2018. For his forthcoming album, ROMANCES, Turpin has ‘cast’ eleven male guest vocalists in conventionally ‘feminine’ roles of romantic longing and dejection, simultaneously honouring and upending the conventions of the melodramas and musicals that inspire him. The result is Turpin’s most conceptually elaborate work, but also his most accessible. We Belong Dead