With a gig at the O2 and numerous festival gigs under his belt, not to mention an album virtually written and a forthcoming headline festival gig at Blackheath, folk-punk troubadour Frank Turner has had a ‘relaxed’ year.

God knows what next year will hold when he puts his back into it.

On September 14, the singer tops the bill at On Blackheath food and music festival, which also features Imelda May, Athlete and The Levellers.

It is one of Frank’s 17 gigs in September.

He said: “I’m really looking forward to it. It should be lots of fun. It’s nice to have a London show that’s outdoors.

“The line up is really great, it’s going to be really good.”

Vibe last talked to Frank in January when he was coming off the back of his fifth album Tape Deck Heart and preparing to play at Greenwich’s O2.

He said: “This year has been much easier for me than last year. Last year was easily the hardest touring year I’ve ever had and it nearly killed me and my crew and my band.

“This year we worked really hard for the first few months but we have had a fair amount of time off.”

But don’t think the 32-year-old is complaining, he likes to keep busy.

He said: “I don’t quite know what to do when I’m not on the road. I kind of wander around aimlessly. It has been more relaxed – partly because of last year but partly because of next year too.”

Frank plans to release a new album at the start of next year and has recently made great strides towards it.

He said: “If you had asked me a week ago, I would have been more nervous. I’ve written 18 songs, we’re going to trim that down to 12 or 13 or whatever it is and we’re recording in America in October.”

As ever, he plans to bring something different from the last record.

He said: “One thing that always blows my mind is the wierd conservatism of quite a few music fans. Every time I do anything someone will say ‘well, it doesn’t sound like the last thing you did’.

“And I say ‘I know, that’s the f*****g point’.”

He added: “Tape Deck Heart is a weird one for me because with a tiny bit of hindsight, it’s a very dark personal record and it feels like a record I needed to make.

“I needed to get it out of my system. Not to do it down in any way but I have been feeling quite liberated writing since that record.”

As  for the gig at the O2: “It was hilarious. The biggest shows I ever went to as a kid were at the Astoria so that was the pinnacle of my ambition.

“Whenever we do stuff like that, I try hard to have a sense of humour about it. You stand there and go ‘this is ridiculous’ but in a brilliantly awesome way.”

Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls headline On Blackheath on September 14. Go to onblackheath.com