Frightened Rabbit

Tracks by Frightened Rabbit

	Keep Yourself Warm Appears on Fat Cat 1 » Powerful songwriting from Scotland's hot export. Log in to download tracks
	The Modern Leper (Live) Appears on Fat Cat 2 » Taken from the forthcoming live album recorded at Glasgow's intimate Captain's Rest, this powerful version of the original indicates what a force the band are live. Accordingly, the whole of 'Liver! Lung! Fr!' is well worth your attention. Log in to download tracks

Frightened Rabbit Profile

Though the past year has seen Frightened Rabbit finally step into public view, with more extensive touring and some recordings now publicly available, the past few years have largely been about the band quietly, committedly honing their sound, and cultivating their art. Now a three-piece comprising Scott, Billy and Grant, the origins of the band are rooted in 2003, when Scott began playing solo shows under the name Frightened Rabbit, mostly in support of fellow art-schoolers Shitdisco. Recordings were made on a tascam 4-track recorder, with Scott playing all the instruments (some more proficiently than others). Though looser, sparser, and certainly more lo-fi in terms of production values, their early demos still attest to a burgeoning talent with a defined personality, and a now familiar penchant for being able to nail a near perfect pop song.

In 2004 Scott’s brother Grant moved to Glasgow, contributing drums to certain recorded tracks, and playing live. Frightened Rabbit became louder and better. They burnt 50 copies of their subsequent demo, and sent some out to labels, resulting in three tracks being hosted on the FatCat MP3/demo website, and marking the beginning of a wonderful relationship. In 2006, Billy joined the band playing primarily second guitar, making Frightened Rabbit in the band’s own words, a wee bit better and louder still. That February they went into The Diving Bell Lounge studio with Glasgow based producer Marcus Mackay to record some songs over the course of a week. The intention was to record a better quality demo, but the resultant recordings ended up as the bands debut LP ‘Sing The Greys’, of which 1000 copies were pressed and released that May on home grown label Hits The Fan.

An incredibly accomplished live outfit (seemingly without any effort whatsoever), further live dates followed into 2007, including a brief but successful US jaunt, culminating in a sold-out show at The Mercury Lounge in NYC, before the album was even available in the US. After an intense spate of writing, rehearsing, recording, and remixing, and of course playing more live shows, ‘Sings The Greys’ was remastered by Alan Douches, and re-released in significantly revamped form by FatCat in Autumn 2007, along with debut single ‘Be Less Rude’. Rounding off the year with the incredible 'It's Christmas So We'll Stop' single, 2008 was another busy one for Frightened Rabbit.

The band’s second album, ‘Midnight Organ Fight’, was released in April '08, and was a progression in terms of songwriting, sonic depth, and as a fully realised entity. Recorded by Peter Katis (Mercury Rev, Interpol), ‘Midnight Organ Fight’ was conceived and realised in a much shorter time span than its predecessor, with the intention of creating a more coherent, ‘pop’ sounding album.

In July 2008, a live rendition of ‘Midnight Organ Fight’ was recorded in Glasgow, and mixed by Mice Parade’s Adam Pierce, entitled ‘Quietly Now ! - Midnight Organ Fight Live And Acoustic At The Captain's Rest’. The stripped-down instrumentation brings singer Scott Hutchison’s vocal delivery - now wrenching, now soaring - to the fore, showcasing the emotive lyrics and memorable melodies that have earned the band their passionate following.

‘Quietly Now ! - Midnight Organ Fight Live And Acoustic At The Captain's Rest&rsquo was released in March 2009.

The Skinny says the following of the new album: 'If The Winter of Mixed Drinks is a mainstream breakthrough for the Frabbits, it'll be because of their slowly building reputation for endearing songcraft, not because they've gone Full Snow Patrol. Mercifully, they've turned away from that road. The Midnight Organ Fight was written in the midst of a difficult break-up for Scott Hutchison. The Winter of Mixed Drinks is less nakedly emotional than Midnight Organ Fight, presumably because Scott's life is now more bleary-eyed than teary-eyed. But while Winter's comparative stoicism means there's fewer potential anthems here, there's also less for cynics to object to; think Sing The Greys, with better songs.' (http://www.theskinny.co.uk/article/98425-first-listen-frightened-rabbits-the-winter-of-mixed-drinks)

 

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