In advance of the release of their third LP, The Winter of Mixed Drinks (available in stores now), and their return to the SXSW Festival in Austin, TX, I had the opportunity to sit down with brothers Grant and Scott Hutchinson of Scotland’s Frightened Rabbit. Taking a seat with them in the Beach Hotel at Bondi, the two were definitely exhausted from their travels on the other side of the globe – but were visably thrilled to be sitting under our summer sun.
As I left the interview, I also had the unique opportunity to watch them perform on the beach for shoottheplayer.com – something which should be posted very soon. Keep your eyes peeled! In any case, onto the interview….
Larry: Scott and Grant, welcome back to Australia.
It’s your second time down here I believe… at least for touring?
Scott: Yes… and full stop as well. We never managed to make it out as a tourist.
Grant: Yeah, last year was the first time I’d ever been to Australia. It was really good.
You were out here then for just a couple of shows, in that case the NYE festivals: Purple Sneakers and Pyramid Rock. How was that experience?
G: It was good, it was intense. We did like 6 shows in 5 days, 12 planes.
S: *laughs* Yeah, too many flights. But then we had like 10 days off after New Years for our headline Melbourne show, so we got some time to ourselves.
G: … to be tourists and have a holiday. I went out the beach in Melbourne. I drove with a couple of friends from Sydney to Melbourne – did a road trip.
S: In spite of how intense the shows were then, it was all really great. We love playing out here. It’s been nothing but a pleasure.
And as we speak, you’re on another east coast mini-tour, playing Laneway in Sydney and Melbourne, alongside a couple of sideshows – including an Echo and the Bunnymen support slot in Sydney – which I’m sure many writers have written more than enough puns about.
S: *laughs* I hadn’t even thought of it!
How has the tour gone so far? Are you looking forward to supporting them tomorrow night?
G: Yeah it should be great. We’re glad that managed to get rescheduled. But the Laneway stuff we’ve done the last couple of days, we kind of just wish we were on the rest of that tour! It’s such a good line-up, so many bands I admire, an honour to be a part of it.
S: Yesterday (in Sydney) was such a nice setting as well. An old mental home which seemed fitting.
It was a great day, and I noticed a lot of Scots in the crowd, singing along to every word of every song, alongside the Sydneysiders. Would it be fair to say you have a fair amount of passionate followers?
S: Definitely.
G: Yeah, we’re really lucky that we do, you know, I think I found in the past that we’re in one of those situations where people just don’t dabble in it, they just get really really obsessed with it – and there are a lot of people who are really obsessed with our music. I think it’s the nature of it, being quite personal, quite full on, there’s a lot of heavy heartbreak issues – up to this point anyway. And I think that instills a lot of feeling in people. And it’s important.
S: The subject matter, the content of all the songs, is something that people have been through and can relate to.
G: I think what happens is, and I’ve met a lot of people who have said this, but they have someone, the most important person in their life leave them, and then what they have is Frightened Rabbit.
S: *laughs* Our record, yeah.
G: And then to meet the person who sound-tracked the most momentous occasion in their personal life, is no small feat. I’m pleased that we’re able to be there for them…
S: … so I think that goes someway as to explain why they’re so passionate.
Have you found similar resonance in the Australian crowds?
G: Yeah it’s not that much different, I must tell you. Amazing – Our headline show in Sydney, Wednesday night, we have yet to play, so we’ll see what happens there – but our headline show in Melbourne was just so great. The best nights for me are when there’s almost no difference between the audience and the band. The whole thing’s just a room come together, and we had that feeling about it. And to be honest, it didn’t feel that different from being at home.
S: Like you were saying before, the crowd’s singing along, it doesn’t happen everywhere. So to come so far, and to have a local Aussie crowd appreciate it, as passionate about it as fans back home – is really amazing.
I’d like to talk now about your new album, The Winter of Mixed Drinks. It’s easily your most polished and striking album to date, and shockingly catchy. Can you tell me a bit about the making of the album? I understand you went to Fife to record it?
S: I did, yeah! Fife! Mainly to write… a couple of the demos I did there turned up on the album. But yeah, a friend of mine … oh well you’re going to get a bit of a backstory here… needed help to sand his floors a long time ago, and so I did that, and he’s like “If you ever need the place, just ask and I’ll give you the key”. And so he was on tour with his band, and it was empty anyway, so I thought I might just call in that favour. So we were off the back of the Aussie tour, and then we went to the US for our most intense tour to date over there, like in terms of venues, and size of the crowds.
*I turn to Grant, who’s shaking his head* You look exhausted just thinking about it!
G: I was in hospital at the end of that tour! Like it was serious!
S: It was totally… I mean we were fucked. It was crazy! There’s no other word for it. And at the end of it, he went off to hospital, and I went off to Fife – for my own recuperation. I was fully detoxing, lemon diet and all. You basically have 10 shits a day *laughs* – and so I went and did that and wrote a lot of the record. I was by the ocean, and it had a huge influence on the content. It was really important to be writing the record, and that being a part of the recuperation process.
I was worried to be honest, because I’d never written anything other than songs about getting upset by girls, and it was nice to know that I could face the challenge, and actually write about something else. Just being out there in Fife, a small town called Creole, it presented me with more than enough inspiration to get the ball rolling – I was well chuffed, it was great. I’d recommend it to any Australian tourist who comes over to Scotland – buy a teapot from Creole!
Where did the album title come from?
S: It’s a line in one of the songs – but I think with the last two records as well, we’ve always wanted to title the record with a phrase that is instantly associated with Frightened Rabbit. I don’t want to call it something that already exists – and I’ve never seen that phrase anywhere else. You can call your album Eyes Open if you want, but a lot of people use that phrase, and so it’s not instantly associated with a band. So it was a purposeful move to produce a title unique enough that represents the album, which is unique all the same.
G: Definitely ties it all together, the same way that Midnight Organ Fightsummed up what happened, what went on, on that record.
S: There’s a lot of nautical imagery in the record, so I was very tempted to call it something which tied that in. I was thinking maybe put a different slant on it where there’s a dual thing going on – perhaps the guy IS swimming out to sea, or maybe he’s just on a really heavy night of drinking, losing his mind.
Or perhaps both?
S: *laughs* Yeah, but don’t drink and swim!
G: You definitely do one or the other.
S: I’m not going to endorse that… Weirdly enough, the main advertisement for not swimming and drinking in the UK was done by Rolf Harris. His voice goes through my head every time!
G: It wasn’t drinkin’ was it?
S: It was drinkin’!
So Gordon, formerly of Make Model, joined you for the first time on this album, how did he come into the mix?
S: It was actually after we recorded the album that he came on, so he’s joined us for the tour. When it came to think about playing songs off the new record…
G: … it felt to layered to accomplish as a four piece.
S: So Gordon came on for that. He’d been pals with the band for a wee while, he’s been in touring bands since he was 17. And he just struck me as someone who’d know the ropes, and fit in perfectly. And I think that’s the most important thing when you’re choosing someone, that you know you’re going to spending time on the road with, the musical thing is almost secondary to how you think you guys are going to get along.
G: “Is he a dick?”
S: Turns out he’s not!
G: *laughs* He’s not… so far…
So the album’s first single, “Swim Until You Can’t See Land”, was released quite far in advance of the album – how’d that come about?
S: I think the label just wanted something before 2010, so that people know we’re still here.
G: Even just from the band’s perspective, by that stage the album was done, and you really don’t want people to have to wait to hear what you’ve been doing. We wanted to start adding new songs to the setlist.
S: Weirdly enough, we didn’t get to play “Swim” yesterday, as it requires a lot of retuning of the guitars, and I couldn’t see my tuner because of the sun, so we cut it, but it’s nice to start adding new songs live after so long of the same stuff. We’ve actually been playing the Midnight Organ songs for years…
It still definitely dominates your sets.
S: Yeah we’re still learning the new songs, cause we don’t record live as a band – so we make the record, and then work out how to play it live. So we’ve been figuring it out.
G: And we’ve been talking, too, about seeing other bands – even though you might love to hear a new track or two, that’s not generally why you go to see a band. So it’s been great to play that one in the meantime.
And now you’ve got the new single “Nothing Like You”, which you played yesterday.
S: Yeah, and I think it gets released a week or so before the album does.
It’s definitely one of my favourites off the new album – but what made you guys choose it as a single… and what can we expect from the video?
G: There are two videos! There was one funded by the label, and then we sort of decided to make one ourselves. An alternative version.
S: Very much lo-fi, done by ourselves, with one of those little FLIP cameras. So we’ve got the larger budget, and the smaller budget video. But I think the reason we chose that track was because it was the catchiest number on the record. And also it came down the fact, unfortunately, that a lot of the tracks are over 4 ½ minutes long, so for radio pluggers they’re not really into that – so it’s the shortest track on the record, I think.
But I like it! The chorus was actually the only straggler we had from the last record. So as I didn’t want to not acknowledge the last album on this one – it’s still semi-autobiographical and there’s no way to completely move on from that – it serves as a bit of a connection, a reference of the period of the last album. So is appropriate as a single.
Do you know which video we’ll get to see?
G: Both. The first will be the one we didn’t do ourselves. And the second one will come out a bit later.
S: There’s all sorts of politics as to why they want to use it… but anyway you’ll be able to see both, and hopefully enjoy them!
The last thing I’d like to discuss is SXSW, which you’ll be playing in a few weeks – the first time you were there was in March 2007, and now you’re going back. As someone who is heading there for his first time, can you fill me in on your experience there?
S: This’ll be our third time there – the first time was kind of like a holiday. We did two shows, one in Urban Outfitters…
G: … the whole trip was funded by Urban Outfitters… cause we were without a label at that time. But we were lucky enough to have the guy who runs the music division of Urban Outfitters take us on tour, and we played Philadelphia. But it really was like a holiday. But really, you can’t go to SXSW expecting too much, because it’s not going to be the making of your band, unless you’re one of the like two or three buzz bands – a Bon Iver or a Fleet Foxes. So unless you’re them, it’s just a convenient way to play to bunch of people who you think need to see your band, from around the world.
I’m a bit jaded I guess, but I love going there and playing shows, it’s a lot of fun.
S: And perfect timing this year, because we will have just released the new record. But for me, the shows there are almost secondary to meeting people and having fun.
G: The last time we did it was totally different to the first time, where there were only two shows and not much pressure. The second time was relentless – 7 or 8 shows – 3 on the Friday.
S: It’s exhausting, but good to hammer it, everyone sees you…
G: It’s such a zoo, it’s a blast. A great way to see the city. You fall in love with Austin, everyone’s in a pretty good mood. Free drinks, margaritas. If only just to get your dinner, make sure you hit up the day parties. I remember last time I had had a bunch of beers, and a pork roll or something, which is enough for me, and I managed to see Cold War Kids, followed by Midlake, in a room smaller than this. And I’ll never forget that – you’ll never be likely to see those bands in a setting like that again.
And you’re not doing 20 shows this time are you?
S: No, just 5 this time around!
Well guys, thanks for your time and I look forward to seeing you over there!
The Winter of Mixed Drinks is in stores now.
