Frightened Rabbit Interview

Written by Chris Hay

Interview
Frightened Rabbit

The release of Midnight Organ Fight in 2008 heralded the arrival of one of Scotland’s finest bands. Two years later, with the praise still flowing and the number of fans increasing exponentially, Frightened Rabbit are back with their third offering The Winter Of Mixed Drinks. The band’s drummer Grant Hutchison recently took some time to speak to The Banter about breaking America, the new album, big summer shows, and some D.I.Y. movie making.

As we speak the band has just arrived back from a successful trip to Austin, Texas for the South By South West Festival. A heavy schedule meant it was a hectic trip, though it had its highlights, of which Grant mentions one in particular, “We played a show called Mess With Texas. We went on after Billy Bragg. He’s got a bit of a mouth on him, and over-ran by about 15 minutes. By the time we got to the last song it was dark, the stage is facing the city so you can see out into the sunset and it’s really pretty amazing to see.” An appearance at this famous festival is just a tiny part of what is going on across the pond for Scotland’s favourite sons; college radio stations are taking major notice of the band which will be touring in April and May with many big venues already sold out. Having played New York more times than London the gathering momentum is largely down to typical Frightened Rabbit hard work and promotion, and they are looking to take things to the next level.

“I think the next goal for us is to do some of the late night shows, there’s about a million of them”, said Grant before joking about not receiving a phone call from the Craig Ferguson Show. “They’re starting to translate themselves by getting small indie bands in to play. That would be the next aim. The North-East is basically selling out cause we’ve been there about ten times before. First of all we’ll get that out the way and then maybe try and meet some celebrities!”

It is understandable to expect our American friends to not get the songs in the way we do in Scotland, but the Rabbit’s drummer doesn’t think that it is a problem. “The general theme of that (Midnight Organ Fight) I think is something that everyone can on a whole relate to. I don’t think they get all the phrases. There are a lot of colloquialisms in there and phrases that might not even come across well outside Glasgow, especially the swearing. When Scott plays Poke and says the line with the C word in it, it doesn’t matter where he is, as soon as you shout that out everyone understands. In Scotland that word… I wouldn’t say it to my mum or anything… but in general conversation it’s used in the same way a lot of other words are. When you go to the States it’s a real taboo word”.

America in general has taken to our proudest export extremely well, with critics fawning over their defining Scottish laments. A suspect review from one website recently led to an excellent response piece by Casey Newton of Crumbler, which was published on twentyfourbit.com. The Pitchfork review compared Frightened Rabbit’s sound to that of Muse, and Casey’s response highlighted the laziness of the writing after a less than favourable response from the band. Grant explained the feeling on the piece, saying, “To be honest we were quite anxious about the Pitchfork review anyway. We had kind of convinced ourselves that’s what they were going to do. When I first read the review and saw the number at the top I was pretty disappointed, but then you read the review and this guy’s retort to the review (Casey’s article) and it explains that it’s just a bad review”. frabbit

“If someone has a good weighted opinion on music or any of the songs that are on the record then it’s fine, if they don’t like it that’s ok, but this person has clearly just not listened to the record and thinks that one listen, and probably not even the whole way through to be honest, is enough. We don’t really care anymore because in the States we feel we’ve gained success that’s beyond them. Even with that review we sold out Webster Hall (New York) and Metro in Chicago”. The response to this review shows that support for Frightened Rabbit runs deep with both fans and critics who have given The Winter Of Mixed Drinks the glowing response it deserves. It is destined to be one of the albums of the year and continues the ridiculously high standards in Scottish music that the band itself has set. The album has moved on from the break-up woes of Midnight Organ Fight, responding to several songs and sporting a fuller sound and brighter outlook.

“This was the record that we wanted to make, that (lead singer) Scott wanted to make, from the time we started writing songs. I feel like we’ve matured on this record and we had the opportunity to do what we liked with these songs rather than what we had the time to do. The last record worked for what it was because the songs were so personal and so raw, and had there been massive production it might have taken away from it. This time we felt like these songs needed and deserved to be bigger and sound fuller cause there’s a slightly happier tone to the record. We all feel a lot happier about this record and it just came down to figuring out how to play them live which was quite difficult”.

You will be able to catch the new material this summer at Bellahouston Park on June 12th as part of the Snow Patrol spectacular. Snow Patrol actually requested they join the bill, which also features Editors and Band of Horses. 30,000 are set to attend making this the biggest show yet for the band, and while crowds this size could soon become the norm, how they found out about the slot was less than conventional.

“We saw a thing on our twitter saying ‘Frightened Rabbit at Bellahouston’. We went onto the snow patrol website and there it was that we were playing”. It’s a massive opportunity for them to play at such a big event alongside one of the most successful acts in the world, but is a level of success akin to Snow Patrol something this band is striving for?

“I don’t think we’d ever want to get to the stage where we put a cap on anything that was happening, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being in the charts. The more people that hear your music, surely the better. It’s not necessarily a goal that we have to reach that, but if we do then it’s got to be a good thing”. Snow Patrol might have gained millions of fans with their chart success, but they have also alienated a lot of their long term followers who would suggest they have sold out. While I could see Frightened Rabbit appealing to millions and going on to be a worldwide name, I don’t think they will be doing it by dropping what they stand for and going mainstream. This is not a band that is looking to move away from its roots, which they highlighted perfectly earlier in the year with the making of their own video for the single Nothing Like You. Grant explained the reason behind this second promo, “The polished video was paid for by the label and we basically thought it was shit. It just wasn’t us and made us look like a crap version of the Killers. It had all this green screen stuff and we watched it the same way we listened to our record; differently and far more intently to try and pick things out. We just hated it, we weren’t comfortable when we were doing it so we had a lot of back and forth with the label and said ‘give us a week and we’ll come up with something better than that’, so we did. That’s actually the one that’s been used in America, I saw it on their MTV the other week. We feel like the work we put in has paid off”.

The video is proper DIY movie making at its best that shows the band are invested in doing things their way. It was also a chance for them to reward some of their loyal fans. “We just invited people along for the end, played the song really loudly and got them to dance. It was nice that people wanted to be involved, I think it’s cool. If I managed to get into a video of a band I liked I’d love it. You’d be showing all your mates. It was brilliant, it was really good fun.”

It is due to be a busy year for Frightened Rabbit and there should be plenty of chances for Scottish fans to catch them live. Bellahouston Park is confirmed, there will be a Scottish festival among the many they will do this summer and Grant shed some light on a certain rumour. “Our goal for this year would be to do the Barrowlands. Our next Glasgow show will, fingers crossed, be there”.

Frightened Rabbit support Snow Patrol at Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park on Sat June 12th for further information and tickets visit www.gigsinscotland.com or call 08444 999 990

www.frightenedrabbit.com

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