SONIC SUGGESTIONS: Frightened Rabbit

10.24.10: FRIGHTENED RABBIT: THE SOCIAL (click for more info and tickets)

As the latin tinged sounds of downtown Orlando’s Calle Orange Festival filled the city streets, I found myself climbing the steps into a world seemingly thousands of miles away. Light with refreshing Scottish accents and instant camaraderie, Frightened Rabbit welcomed me onto their tour bus to discuss their evolution as a band, new albums, and the end of the world. I sat down with Scott & Grant Hutchinson, Andy Monaghan, & Billy Kennedy Sunday, October 24th with the Scotland indie rock ambassadors just before their near capacity show at The Social.

aXis: Can you give us a brief history of Frightened Rabbit?
Scott: Yeah, it was really me, beginning on my own about five years ago, then Grant joined a year after that. Billy joined after that then Andy joined when were about four years into it.

aXis: You’ve been together since 2003?
Scott: 2004 is when I really got started.
Grant: And even then, probably 2005. I mean even when I joined we still weren’t that good. Hah, well, its not that we weren’t good we just weren’t where we wanted to be.

aXis: Yeah, you were still evolving.
Grant: It wasn’t really until Billy joined that it became a more serious thing. And then, wow, when Andy joined there was just no stopping us!
Andy: (laughing) Yeah that was it.

aXis: What’s the story behind the name Frightened Rabbit?
Scott: There’s not much of one. It was just a nickname given to me by my parents. When I was younger I was quite socially maladjusted. I’m shy basically, I didn’t like speaking to people.
Grant: It’s true.
Scott: I just didn’t like talking to anyone.

aXis: And here we are, thanks!
Scott: Hah! No, no when i was young. I was just kind of terrified of talking to other kids. I’m better now.

aXis: Is that a hard thing to overcome? As a musician you must be doing a lot of interviews.
Scott: You know, it’s helped me. I’ve been forced into it really.

aXis: Where do you draw influence and inspiration from? Do you find other music influencing or more the aspects of day-to-life?
Scott: Well, all of that really. I mean there are bands that we look up to musically and then also bands that you look up to career wise. Seeing how they’ve done it and gone about it. You know, I mean, one band in particular in that aspect is a Scottish band called Biffy Clyro. They don’t necessarily influence us musically, we don’t like listening to their music, but, you know, we just look at the way their career is going and they’ve basically done it the same way we have. They just toured, kept going, they didn’t stop. You know, still over here they’re not as big they are in the U.K. but, in the U.K. it was, what, actually their 6th record that kinda got them into the public eye and the way that they did that, well, it was kind of a very natural, organic way of doing that. You know, rather than just boom and all of the sudden you’re the biggest band in the country. Through really hard work and touring, they managed to get where they are which is one thing I really admire about bands like that.

aXis: Do you think there was a definitive point in your lives where you knew you were in the right place and that you wanted to be professional musicians? Has it been kind of a childhood dream?
Grant: Nah, no not really.
Scott: No. Well, I’m not sure the professionally is still even the right word, you know.

aXis: You guys are working pretty hard.
Scott: Yeah, yeah, yeah. For me, at least, I guess since I was in high school I wanted to be a musician. But originally wanting to be a professional musician with orchestral stuff. I realized that wasn’t for me but I wanted to be in a band. But you can’t be sure if that’s going to happen or work out.

aXis: Have you all been playing since you were young?
Grant: Not really, high school is when I started playing.
Billy: Yeah.
Andy: Yeah, high school.
Scott: Yeah, 11 or 12, something like that.
Grant: In the U.K. before that, really, you could play when you’re what 17?
Andy: Or just 16, I’d say in a high school band. Someone could say, “Hey you wanna play the bass?” and you’d just say, “Eh, sure. Let’s kick around a bit.” (laughing)

aXis: You guys have been touring a lot this year, all over the globe, basically. You’ve been to Australia, here a few times, back to the U.K. right? That must be tough.
Scott: Yeah, I mean, there can be worse things to do. I just don’t think people get how exhasuting it can be.

aXis: Yeah, it seems like a big party to everyone else.
Scott: Yeah, it can be that!

aXis: That makes it all the more tiring, really.
Grant: Yeah exactly. Well, thats the thing. Having the bus over here, this is not how we travel everywhere. You know, this is kind of just a splurge. And you know, speaking to people back home that keep saying, “Yeah, but you’re going around and you’re on a bus!” And you think, “Yeah, but who wants to live on a bus?” A bunk thats this high, and you’re living in a place where basically you’re going in a port-a-lou every time you need to use the toilet. You know. But, we’re definitely not complaining about being on tour. When you’re not on tour and you’re at home, its great to be at home but at the same time I, personally, kinda get itchy feet. I want to get back out.
Scott: I don’t get that. (laughs) I like being at home.

aXis: How long have you been on tour? This tour started earlier this year right?
Scott: For some reason it doesn’t feel like it stops. The album came out in March, and since then we’ve had just over a month in bits and pieces off. But even then that fills up with stuff. We were supposed to have September off but then things kept getting added. We ended up doing quite a lot of work in September actually.
Grant: Yeah, just because you’re not on tour doesn’t really mean you’re not…Cause festival season in the U.K. is so big, there are so many festivals. Dates just kept getting adding, we recorded a song in September as well. So, it just wasn’t time off. Even what we time we tend to get off, we need more.
Scott: I…We like to be busy. You know spend a few days generally doing nothing then I wanna get doing something again.

aXis: Obviously, you’re huge in Scotland, but do you find there are other parts in the world that you find your following is larger?
Scott: Usually, it’s the places we’ve been to a few times. Europe, we haven’t really played a lot in Europe so we get pretty small crowds in some places there. We’re now on our sixth or seventh U.S. tour so I think it’s just a case of we haven’t given up. We just keep going out and thats what solidifies things.

aXis: That’s true, you’re building a name for yourself. How does touring so frequently and having little time off effect your writing process? Do you find yourself writing on the road?
Scott: No, I don’t do that. It doesnt effect it, I don’t mind not writing for long periods of time. But, it does take a little getting back to it. You have to get in the motion again and start thinking that way. I’m always thinking about it, but, just not, I dont always have the time. I hate doing things in little bits and pieces. You can’t get properly immersed in the whole thing.

aXis: You’re writing process is just getting together in a room and hashing it out?
Scott: No, they don’t get involved. It’s just me sitting solidly for days getting things done. Then I introduce what I’ve done to the rest of the band and see where it goes from there.

aXis: We just briefly touched on festivals, getting back to that…You guys have been doing a lot of festivals. I know the volcano had other plans for you during Coachella, but you’ve done a lot of the other major festivals. Do you like the festival experience as opposed to smaller venues like The Social? Do you have a preference? I’m sure they must be two different things.
Scott: Yeah, that’s the thing; they are different things. I couldn’t, I do like the festival experience, but I couldn’t do that exclusively. It’s good to have that over summer, and thats it. But when you come on tour you get into a routine almost. You get up, you load your gear into the venue, soundcheck, play, load out, and everyday you just kinda get into tour mode. Festivals just arent like that at all. Festivals are just fucking… (laughing)
Andy: “GET IT DONE! GET IT, LET’S GO!!!” (mockingly)
Grant: “You gotta cut song!” (laughing)
Scott: (laughing) Yeah, and then you get stuck in a muddy field or whatever, you know…
Grant: I think from a performance point of view you have to almost…I find you almost have to…
Scott: You have to lower your standards.
Grant: You have to change the way you do things as well. It’s a bigger stage and theres more people and they’re farther away. So you have to almost make yourself bigger. You have to change the way you address the audience and stuff like that. So that’s been a learning curve for me, definitely.
Scott: And also, you can’t be as picky as you can at your own shows. Because we get so much time to soundcheck and we have the same guy doing our soundcheck everynight. Whereas, with a festival you don’t know what it’s going to be like. You just kinda have to be, “Well, lets get on and see what happens.”
Grant: Thats the glory of it.
Scott: Yeah, sometimes we would be playing at like 1 in the afternoon and then a couple hundred folk could turn up. Then you play later on in the day against someone else and there would be a lesser crowd. It’s just inconsistent.

aXis: Do you find yourself picking up more fans? People who haven’t necessarily heard of you or listened to you to closely before. Like random passers-by at the stage that are like, “Wow, these guys are great!”
Grant: Absolutely. Yeah, that’s all good stuff.
Scott: Yeah, it’s definitely all worked out. Even in the U.K. we’ve noticed a difference having done all those festivals in just ticket sales and things for our upcoming tour have been really good because of it. As you say, it’s not really the fans that know you that you need to please at festivals, it’s the people that don’t that you need to pull in.

aXis: Asides from the obvious volcano getting in your way, have there been other obstacles that you’ve found particularly hard to over come?
Scott: I mean a couple of those have been…There have certainly been disappointments with labels in the past. We’ve been through difficult times when we felt like we were never going to get signed to anywhere.
Grant: Well, you know in hindsight, obviously, with the benefit of hindsight, all of the times when it happened where we were led on a little bit then told that they couldn’t do anything with us was a good thing. You know cause either we weren’t ready or they weren’t the right for us. It doesn’t make it any less disappointing.

aXis: Maybe a little more rewarding in the long run.
Scott: Exactly, you know.
Grant: If you’re going to break up after that, then you know, there’s really not much hope for the band anyways.
Scott: I think you learn more that way and if it ever happens again, I think you’re ready for it.
Grant: No, I’d give up it happened again. (laughing)

aXis: (laughing) “It’s over, we’re done.” On the opposite side of that question has there been anyone or anything in particular that you found to be more helpful?
Scott: I mean, you know just people coming to shows, that really helps a lot. Friends who become allies & things. Our guitar tech being with us in one form or another for quite sometime now. He’s a great source of…I don’t know, encouragement? He can be a grumpy motherfucker as well. But he’s been good to us. Other people come & just do things for the band because they really like the band.
Grant: Yeah, it’s people you don’t ask anything of but they just want to be involved. They want to be a part of it.
Scott: We’ve met some great people who make films, you know, great photographers, great writers. It’s also nice to feel like people are behind you.

aXis: Let’s wrap this up on this one, but what’s next for you guys? Short & long term goals? New album?
Scott: Tomorrow we’re going to the theme park. That’s short term.
Grant: That’s short term, we’re going to Universal tomorrow. Long term is finish off here, then 5th of November we have a Europe & U.K. tour.
Scott: We don’t finish up until the middle of December.

aXis: So you’re getting to the end. Theres an end in sight.
Scott: There is!
Grant: Yeah, there is, definately. Well, Christmas…We’ve never been very busy over Christmas. It’s generally been…Apart from that one year we went to Australia.
Scott: We went to Australia on Boxing Day.
Andy: We drove to London…
Grant: We drove to London through the night on Christmas Day, that was pretty shit. But, anyway…Christmas this year is going to be quite relaxed.

aXis: You’re going to spend it at home with your families? Bet, you’re looking forward to that.
Grant: Yeah, can’t wait! And then…
Scott: ...start writing a new record.
Grant: A new record which we’re not really sure when it’s going to be out. But we’re thinking it’s going to be next year.
Scott: Let’s just start with 2012 if the world hasn’t ended.

aXis: Yeah, that’s what they’re saying.
Grant: It will have been written by then, so technically…
Scott: Hah, yeah, it will be fine.

aXis: Well,  we’ll let you guys get back to relaxing. Thanks all around!

A Winter Of Mixed Drinks, Frightened Rabbit’s latest release is available now on Fat Cat Records. You can learn more about the band by visiting their website: Myspace.com/frightenedrabbit or follow their twitter at: @frabbits

For more interviews and other aurally stimulating materials from Tiffany go to AdiosAmbrose.com!