Frightened Rabbit Come Out From Their Hole

The Winter Of Mixed Drinks - Frightened Rabbit's third album - may be a sonically warmer record than its predecessor The Midnight Organ Fight, but both are marked by their heart-rending lyricism. For the Scottish indie folk-pop group, melancholy and bliss seem eternally intertwined, as our bleakest moments often prove to be the most revelatory. "I think the depressing times are just, hopefully, the period before things get better," says frontman Scott Hutchison. "It doesn't matter how bad things can get, there's a point where it can get worse and then there has to be a brief break from that. And in a lot of Scottish music - like Belle and Sebastian - there's humour to be had at the very worse points in life, and I think that's something that I've tended towards as well. I think it's quite a natural Scottish thing to do," he grins.
 
Whereas The Midnight Organ Fight was heavily inspired by a relationship break-up, the vibrant Living In Colour - a defining track on The Winter Of Mixed Drinks - encapsulates the hope entwined in new beginnings and shaped the way in which Hutchison approached the writing of the band's third album. "Life had gotten better, personally and professionally as well," Hutchison affirms. "Going into the record, I was more confident in what I was doing and just more comfortable as a person. So it changed the way that I wrote, and it changed the lyrics and the way the music sounds as well. It's a little bit more outwardly joyful and uplifting; I think I've never written in that kind of way before. I definitely wasn't going to make another album like the last one, so it was really refreshing."
 
Hutchison moved to an isolated seaside town in Fife to write The Winter Of Mixed Drinks and its poignant first single,Swim Until You Can't See Land. "That phrase was the kick off for the album - I was thinking about how although life had been a lot of things that were positive, there were also a lot of things coming off the back of quite a long tour and trying to get back to the point of what I was doing,"says Hutchison.
"A lot of the concept in that song and consequently the album is about leaving the past behind; the idea that you can let go of all that stuff and what an essential release that is; to forget about all the stuff that's happened and move forward. So that song is really about just testing yourself as a human being and seeing what on earth comes out at the end."
 
Frightened Rabbit have expanded into a dynamic five-piece during the space of their second and third albums. "The growth of the band has been quite slow and been a natural and organic progression," says Hutchison, reflecting on the journey that's unfolded since his solo shows in 2003. "I've always wanted us to be a four of five piece band, but it hasn't always been possible, so I think it's now finally reached the stage where we envisaged it would be at five years ago. It's taken a while, but I'm really happy with how it's all turned out over time and made sure that the people that we got on board, first of all, wanted to be there and were working for the right reasons as well."
 
The Winter Of Mixed Drinks has been met with the same level of acclaim that was bestowed on The Midnight Organ Fight, which has resultantly transformed their lives. "Things have changed a lot - we've been able to tour places that we never thought we'd be able to," Hutchison reflects. "This band became a full time job, which is not a given when you start a band, so a lot of the things that we hoped to achieve as a band have been achieved and it's become less a serious hobby and more an actual job, so everything has changed in the last few years... but definitely, for the better."
 
Frightened Rabbit thrilled Australian audiences earlier this year with performances at Laneway Festival, support gigs with Echo & The Bunnymen, as well as at their revered headline shows. Returning for their second Australian festival within a year, Hutchison is looking forward to playing at venues almost five times larger than those on their previous tour. "We've been moving up venue size very slowly and gradually over the past four years and it's something that you feel at this point ready to do," Hutchison considers. "Skip The Youth and The Loneliness And The Screamare my favourite songs and have become my favourite to play live."
 
As the band name is derived from a nickname that Hutchison's mother gave him as a child, the frontman has spoken in depth of his struggles with social awkwardness - one that many of us can, undoubtedly, relate to. However, like most socially-awkward musicians - performing one's songs up on stage is,essentially, the only place that Hutchison feels completely at peace. "I've never really felt that awkward on stage, certainly not as much as I do in social situations, you know," he ponders.
 
"The way that I seem to deal with it is it seems a lot easier to be detached and talking to a group of people, rather than talking to one person. It's one-on-one conversations, especially with a stranger, that terrifies me and I'm not very good at it and I stumble. But when you've got a room full of people that enjoy what you're doing, I think that makes the whole process a lot easier, so it's strange that I've never found that too daunting a task."
 
Across Frightened Rabbit's three albums, Hutchison has continued to delve into the depths of our human struggles and emerged - stronger than ever - as a potent singer-songwriter. "One of the main things is that I feel like I can write with an album in my head and try and tie the whole thing together," Hutchison muses. "I'm a big fan of that format and it's something that I'd like to do on the next record. I think I learned a lot in terms of studio practice as well, and I'm getting more confident working in the studio."
 
FRIGHTENED RABBIT bring their mesmerising live show back to Melbourne when they play The Hi Fi Bar this Monday August 2. Tickets from thehifi.com.au, 132 849 and ticketek.com.au. The Winter Of Mixed Drinks is out now through Pod/Inertia.