Mixed Drinks, bacon rashers and Songs of Praise: The return of Frightened Rabbit

If it were possible to plot the trajectory of a band in graphical form, Frightened Rabbit's would form an upward curve, growing slowly around 2006's Sing The Greys and then rocketing skyward since the follow-up. The Midnight Organ Fight stood out from the pack in 2007; a set of raw, compelling songs that sent the Selkirk natives well on the way to wider recognition.

After two years spent packing out sweaty venues wherever they lay their guitar cases, the newly expanded quintet are set to release the follow-up, The Winter of Mixed Drinks next week. UtR cornered drummer Grant Hutchison for his take on the new cut from 'The Frabbit'...

You recorded the album in Crail. Why this location, and what effect did it have on the end result?

It was actually just the demo-ing of the new tracks that was done in Crail but the location still had a big impact on the songs. There's definitely a nautical theme to a lot of the tracks and a feeling of testing yourself to the limit which the sea plays a big part in. Scott had a daily routine of walking along the beach until an idea came into his head and he would then turn round and develop it on the way home. He would then eat two slices of bacon from the local butcher and record a version of the song. Another reason for Crail was the access to a very kind friend's house in exchange for a bottle of wine!



How does The Winter of Mixed Drinks develop the themes of The Midnight Organ Fight? Do you see it as a continuation or a clean break?

It's definitely not a complete swerve from TMOF but it's by no means a break-up album. Some of the songs are about getting up and dusting yourself off and realising what's left after something like a break-up but it's turned out a lot more positive this time. Still far from happy but more positive! The subject of the record is different. There's no angst directed towards this one scenario and if anything it's even more personal as it's all about one character rather than a relationship involving more than one person.

Where did you take the samples you use on the record from?

We've sampled some bands who shall not be named for fear of being sued eventually! There's no plagiarism there but most of the people who are on the record know they are there so that's fine! The sample at the end of 'Man/Bag of Sand' was taken from a film that was on the TV when Scott was demo-ing in Crail and it just seemed to fit so it made it on to the record! There's also a tiny section of Songs of Praise on there too!

Since the last album Frightened Rabbit have become one of Scotland's most popular bands. Was there added pressure going into this?

There was pressure this time but it's not the first time we've been under pressure, it just came from a different source this time. When recording TMOF we were restricted by the small amount of time we had in the studio so we worked under pressure to do that too. I think it's more productive to have some kind of pressure whether it's time or consistency or even financial. I think it always brings the best out in a person if there's a bit of fear involved.

Despite the international touring, do you try to stay close to your roots? What do you make of Scotland's music scene since you broke through?

Scotland has always had a strong music scene. I think since we started it's become really strong with bands like The Twilight Sad, We Were Promised Jetpacks and Tommy Reilly making really good starts to what will hopefully become long careers in music. Also the emergence of Biffy Clyro from Glasgow's favourites to nationwide heroes has been great for Scottish music. We'll always be close to our roots and even now after the short time we've been touring internationally it's still great to come home and find that people here who have seen us maybe ten times are still coming out to shows and supporting us. There are also a lot of bands coming up to continue the current trend of quality like John Knox Sex Club, Three Blind Wolves and Woodenbox with a fistful of Fivers.

What advice would you give to bands starting out?

The best and really only way to gain experience is to get stuck in straight away. It was a long time before we actually said no to the offer of a gig and although you feel bad asking your mates to come and see you week in week out it's the only way to get your name out there. The next step is to find an enthusiatic booking agent who can stick you in a freezing van for four weeks, opening for bands you don't always like and making you wonder why you're in a band! That's the true test of how commited someone is to making something of their band. Not giving up says a lot for a band and spending years to get to where you want is not something we're afraid of and nor should any other band starting out.



You finished third in a recent scotsman.com readers' poll of Scottish bands of the Noughties, behind Biffy Clyro and Franz Ferdinand. How do you feel about that?

Extremely happy. We beat some pretty good bands and although we maybe shouldn't have come out on top of the likes of Mogwai and Belle & Sebastian it feels nice that people felt strongly enough to put us there!

Interview: Nick Mitchell

The Winter of Mixed Drinks is released on 1 March on FatCat Records.

Guest blogger: James Graham previews the new Twilight Sad LP

So pervasive have The Twilight Sad been over the past few years it's difficult to think of them as a one album band. Yet that's exactly what the Kilsyth quartet are - well, for the next three weeks anyway.

So, before the October release of the bleakly entitled Forget the Night Ahead, band frontman James Graham takes us through a track-by-track account of that 'difficult' second album....


Reflection Of The Television

This song wasn’t fully formed until we went into the studio. We had the vocal melody and a basic guitar line. It was one of those songs where you take it into the studio and you don’t really know what’s going to happen with it, which is pretty exciting and scary at the same time. Fortunately for us it turned out pretty good and as soon as it all came together we knew it was going to be at the start of the album. The drums are pretty huge and lyrically it revolves around the lyric "There's people downstairs, I’m more than a fighter you know" - take from that what you will.

I Became A Prostitute

This song was pretty much fully formed when we took it into the studio. We knew it would be the first single taken from the album. It was probably not a great idea to call it 'I Became A Prostitute' for stuff like radio, press etc. To be honest I don’t see what the fuss is, it is the politically correct term for a lady of the night. The title has no sexual connotations, it’s a metaphor for becoming something that you don’t want to become and there is nothing you can do about it.

Seven Years Of Letters
This was one of the first songs we wrote for the album and is the second single (19 October). It’s got our first guitar solo I think, well as close as we can get to having a guitar solo in a song. The lyrics in the song revolve around running away from things and people. It’s a song that we have played live for about a year now and always seemed to go down well at gigs, especially on our tour of America with Mogwai.

Made To Disappear
This song has the album title in the lyrics and really came together in the studio. I don’t really remember writing it, but it was always going to be on the record. This song probably has the darkest lyrics on the album.

Scissors
Scissors is an instrumental. Don’t really know what instruments are on it, it’s pretty intense and one of my favourites on the album, as I don’t sing on it. We felt it was important to have instrumentals that helped the album flow and so it was more than just a collection of songs.

The Room
This was originally untitled '27' from our The Twilight Sad Killed My Parents And Hit The Road EP for the two Mogwai tours we did. It was the first song written for this record and has taken many forms over its two years of existence. We knew it was a good song but it took us some time to realize that we just had to let the song speak for itself instead of trying to complicate it. It was written during a particularly dark time as well.

That Birthday Present
It’s the fastest song we have ever written and will probably ever write. It features Laura from My Latest Novel on violin. It’s the complete opposite to ‘The Room’ as it hits you between the eyes straight away with the noise. It’s probably one of my favourite songs to play live.

Floorboards Under The Bed
This started off as two separate songs. We decided to piece them together and it turned out to be one of the most claustrophobic songs we have. It starts of with me walking about the studio singing on my own and closes with a piano instrumental and noise. Laura also helps out again on the violin.

Interrupted
This was probably the last song we wrote for the album. It has overlapping vocal melodies and again was just an idea before it became its fully formed self in the studio. Again the lyrics are pretty dark, with lines about "burying people" and "feeding them to dogs". The main lyric is "you and I".

The Neighbours Can’t Breathe
This song was again taken from The Twilight Sad Killed My Parents And Hit The Road EP. On that it was a live version, it’s one of the first songs that we played live from this record and hasn’t really changed too much since then. We added some keys and changed the drum pattern a little. The song title is a lyric from the song and I think it’s the first time we have done that. The vocals have a different affect on this song to the rest of the album as well.

At The Burnside
This song was always going to finish the album. The lyrics revolve around a story that my dad told me and I related that back to my situation at the time. The drums are heavily distorted and I am pretty sure that Mark is hitting some fire extinguishers in the background. It opens and closes with a dark piano line. It was the perfect way to end this album in my eyes.

Words: James Graham
Photograph: Su Anderson

The Twilight Sad's second album Forget the Night Ahead is released on 5 October through Fatcat.