UNQUESTIONABLY one of Scotland’s leading musical exports in the 21st Century, it has been nothing short of a pleasure to watch Frightened Rabbit grow from their tentative first steps as a solo project and into a fully-fledged world conquering band. Initially beginning in Scott Hutchison’s Selkirk home and slowly making its way from the shadowy darkness and into the penetrating glare of the world over a period of ten years, their career has been characterised by thought provoking, austerely beautiful music and the deep-seated love that their material has invoked from their audience.
Now just over a month away from their long anticipated headline set in the suitably beautiful and serene surroundings of Electric Fields, we spoke to the group’s driving force and founding member in Scott Hutchison about all that’s transpired over the last year or so and the surrealist nature of how far they’ve came.
An event that Scott has long been intrigued by, not only will the band’s voyage to Drumlanrig Castle-based festival for the very first time on the 1st September but it will also hold a special significance that seems to profoundly impact the long-time singer/songwriter:
“I’ve been kind of watching it grow from afar over the past couple of years but I haven’t had a chance to go due to not being in the country and stuff so it’s really exciting to not only go but actually be playing. That doesn’t happen to us very often, not ever… actually (laughs). I think we headlined one small festival in England before but this is the first time doing so in Scotland. It’s pretty great as we just opened for Band Of Horses and now they’ll be playing before us so that’s a nice thing to happen (laughs). I don’t even know what it feels like so I’m excited but obviously hoping that we don’t fuck it up and that we’re the right band for the people that are there and figuring out what kind of set to do. We’re not accustomed to being the festival headliner band so we don’t quite know how to approach it, might need to get some fucking confetti cannons or something (laughs). It’ll be amazing fun and we’re very very privileged to be asked to do it. I think Electric Fields will just be a balls out rock show and keep the momentum going.”
During the steady rise of the band over the course of their now prolific career, the fact that this deeply touching indie rock monolith of a group began life as the work of one man has never been lost on their audience or the group itself. Now that they’ve attained the status of festival headliner, it allows Scott to reflect upon just how momentously things have changed:
“It is surreal. When I’m trying to appreciate what I’ve got rather than being a spoiled bastard, I often think about what my goals were when I started out and they’ve been far surpassed so it’s important to remember that. I didn’t want for more than being able to fill Tut’s and that’s been done a few times over. There’s been luck along the way and I’m grateful for that but there’s a loyalty to the people that enjoy our music and the fact that a lot of bands don’t sustain a career for years and allow it to grow… I’m a lucky guy is all I can say (laughs).”
Released last year to near-universal plaudits, the band’s latest record Painting Of A Panic Attack was both of their most candidly relevatory and successful yet. In the time that’s passed, the band have been beseiged by a busy schedule but Scott notes but the acclaim that they’ve garnered to date means that they can dictate their own schedule more than ever before.
“Kinda. I suppose in the last couple of years, we’ve came to a point where we understood exactly how much touring and stuff we wanted to do and in a way- although it’s been totally fantastic and busy- we’ve done a little bit more on our terms. So there’s not the same kind of mental touring that you used to do which would absolutely knock you for six so it’s been the amount of stuff. Particularly this year as it’s just been little bits and pieces and catching up on places that we haven’t played like touring Ireland going back to Australia so it’s been really, really spot on. I’ve actually enjoyed it which isn’t always a given and I’m not one to complain about my job but once it gets too much, it gets too much and it starts to get detrimental towards your health and your general attitude.
It’s something that we’ve earned over 10 years and it does get to that stage where we’ve luckily got an incredibly loyal audience that has stuck with us and will continue to do so. You don’t have to haul your arse again and again to show face as that sort of devalues it. On the last tour we did LA four times in a year and there’s no need to do that at all and it just becomes tiring for everyone. You get to the point where everyone who wants to see you has seen you anyway and you’re just getting the most loyal fans so doing it this way is beneficial in a lot of ways and makes the shows a bit more special.”
As is the natural order of things, the arrival of a new body of work marks the reconfiguration of a band’s tried and tested setlist. Given the anthemic nature of many of Painting Of A Panic Attack’s standout tracks, he explains that the transition has been easy and came almost organically.
“It has! It’s always the most exciting part of it for us and it freshens it up. At the start, it can sometimes be a little bit of a dip as people have known those songs for 10 years and it’s hard for new tracks to get the same sort of reception but as the tour goes on, you start to get used to it and as the tour goes on, you start adding more new songs to the set as it seems like it’s really sort of settling in to everyone’s brain so it’s been great. There’s only so many times you can play ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’ until you hate it (laughs).”
In addition to the release of their most recent album, the period of political upheaval that the UK endured in the wake of Theresa May’s snap election was the catalyst for a surprise new track from the group. Composed and hastily released as the dust still settled, Scott told us the tale of how the potently honest ‘Fields Of Wheat’ came to exist:
“It was really natural actually. We were in Texas doing some writing so we’d actually been able to see it unfold without staying up too late and it was all done and dusted by 1am there but then got up to the news of this coalition… shite. Coincidentally, two of the guys were heading to the airport and Simon (Liddell) had this guitar part so I just sat down. I didn’t decide to write about it as you would have considered it, sat on it for a day and it might never have happened so it was like an hour after we got up that morning and checked our phones and made a reaction to it in a way that we were comfortable with. My hope is that you could listen to the song and not even notice a strong political reference if you were from another country and didn’t know about Theresa May’s field of wheat and it could still translate as a universal song. I really did feel the need and I don’t usually because we’re not a political band but I just thought it’s time for a lot of people to stop sitting back and I’ve been guilty of that as well so it was a natural reaction and we couldn’t sit on it for an album release or an EP release or it would’ve lost its impact.”
As previously touched upon, recent months have seen the group refuse to rest on their laurels and they’ve thrown themselves headlong back into the cycle of amassing new tracks. Although nothing is concrete as of yet, it seems likely that we could be hearing more from Hutchison and his bandmates in the near future.
“We just need to keep busy. Compared to writing for the last album we’re quite far ahead and there’s more bits and pieces flying around than there was at this stage last time so we might have a release to coincide with the American tour or a couple of new tunes but we haven’t really decided on that. It’s just part of the job to just keep putting stuff out and we’re in a privileged postion to get to make songs for a living so we’ll see.”
Frightened Rabbit headline Electric Fields on the 1st September with remaining day and weekend tickets available here.
