(Note: When an opportunity to interview Frightened Rabbit singer Scott Hutchison arose in advance of the band’s April 19 show in Tempe, I knew my friend Casey, the man behind the great blog Crumbler, was the man for the job. His impassioned response to Pitchfork’s review of the band’s new album is worth your time, as is his outstanding interview here.)
Scott Hutchison answers the phone in Amsterdam, which he is visiting on this day for the first time. He has come to play a show with Frightened Rabbit, the band he started as a solo act in 2003 and has since developed into one of the most compelling acts in indie rock. Amsterdam has lived up to his expectations: “Booze is a cunt,” he tweets a few minutes before I call him. “Brain no worky.” But by the time he picks up the phone he seems to have shaken the cobwebs: He is cheery and thoughtful, gamely answering questions about his band’s excellent new record, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, and the somewhat bizarre critical response it has drawn. Frightened Rabbit comes to the Clubhouse on Monday, and it’s a show well worth seeking out. Arizona was an early adopter of Frightened Rabbit; according to Hutchinson, it’s the first place that ever requested an encore.
Below Hutchinson talks about moving beyond break-up songs, creating his rap persona and being misunderstood by Pitchfork.
Crumbler: So you guys are heading to Coachella next week. Do you like playing festival shows, or do you prefer the clubs? Scott Hutchison: Well, each presents itself with a different kind of challenge and atmosphere. The big shows that you play in the afternoon, a lot of the audience might not have heard your music before. That in a way is a bit more fun. When you play in the clubs, you have an audience from the start. But when you play at an afternoon festival, that feels like more of an achievement — to win a crowd over in the space of 40 minutes. I love them both, though. They have their pros and cons.
I saw you in a particularly sweaty club in Arizona a couple years called the Rhythm Room. Midnight Organ Fight had just come out, but everyone in the pit knew all the words (see video at left), and you guys came out to play an encore. I remember you saying that you don’t usually play encores — is that still the case? The reason back then was that no one had ever called us back before. Now we do plan for it. I do remember that show — it was a surprise that people wanted to hear more.
On the heels of their November release of their second full-length album, Shutter Release (Mush Records), Michael and Jared Bell of Lymbyc Systym are going out on a West Coast tour that starts Thursday (Jan. 7) and includes a Jan. 13 stop at Sail Inn in Tempe.
I spoke with the brothers Bell, who got their start in Phoenix, via telephone during the holidays, a conference call for which Jared bypassed the usual publicity/management route and set up himself. They discussed being a musician in Phoenix, how they replicate their sound in a live setting and more.
SMS: Are you guys still in Austin and Brooklyn? Michael: I lived in Austin up until two and half months ago.
SMS: Why did you move? Were the logistics too hard? Michael: It was more about New York being the best city ever. Jared and I can rehearse now, which is amazing. It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to do that without someone having to fly somewhere else. So now we have all of our gear here. New York is a great city. I was craving more of the big-city environment. For myself, too, just as far as pursuing drum-type stuff … New York, L.A. or Chicago are the top places to be as far as working on your art.
Jared: Being two people makes it a lot easier. If we had a third band member, it would have been impossible to make an album. With just two of us, it wasn’t so bad. Really, I’d say the only challenge is that we couldn’t physically play music in the same room. But the way we write an album … we both have a hand in everything. I do a majority of the melodic stuff and Mike does a majority of the rhythm stuff. But we don’t really write by getting together and jamming. We write more by sharing ideas and going back and forth. Being in separate cities wasn’t too much of a complication for that. We’d just call each other, but it’s awesome now. It’s really easy to take it for granted, just to play in the same room. But on the whole, I would say there weren’t that many challenges as it might seem.
SMS: You guys grew up in Phoenix. Did you feel like you had to move to grow artistically?
A story I wrote on No Knife advancing Saturday’s show can be found here. But there was plenty from my interview with Ferguson that was left out. So I figured I’d present it here, save for our geek talk about spring training and fantasy baseball. (Ferguson plays in an adult baseball league with former Rocket from the Crypt bassist Pete Reichert.)
Did you guys envision doing anything beyond this?
“I guess it’s still too early to say either way. But we were gonna do one secret show here in San Diego in April for all the people that were unable to get tickets to any of these Jimmy shows or the Casbah anniversary show last month. Tickets for these (Jimmy Eat World) shows went so fast, there were so many people that unfortunately weren’t able to snake a ticket. … I can’t say for sure, but we are, as of now, technically scheduled to do one more show.”
How often have you been practicing? “We started back in July or maybe August for that Casbah show. But it’s not consistent, not every week since July. It’s just kind of whenever people’s schedules allowed. We rehearsed maybe seven or eight times before that first show to make sure we were solid and felt comfortable playing those parts again. Of course, (singer/guitarist) Mitch (Wilson) and I, specifically guitar-wise, had completely forgotten everything.”
Had you messed with any No Knife songs since you guys took hiatus? “No, although in my little pop-song records, I’m still the same songwriter, so I’ll still use some of the same chords and same chord progressions. Although, No Knife tunes higher than any other band I’ve played in. We all tune up to F. So it sounds a little sharper. Some people have described it as ‘candy coated’ sometimes or whatever they wanna say because there’s a weird little unique sharpness to the songs. I sometimes play the same chords and it’ll remind me of the songs … but, no, I haven’t messed with any of that stuff.”
You guys toured with Jimmy Eat World when Clarity came out. What do you remember from that tour? Was it a long tour? “I don’t remember … we did so many little tours together and they all kind of rolled into each other. I don’t think it was some three-month-long tour. I think we did maybe six weeks with them and took a break then maybe three or four more weeks. I don’t really remember. I just remember there was a solid and automatic chemistry with all those guys immediately. When Static Prevails had come out, I was into the band because they recorded out here in San Diego with Mark (Trombino). I swear to God, and I told all my friends this … even playing together in these little tiny basement shows … we would play shows in people’s garages before or after the actual club show and even just playing these tiny shows in front of 25 people, there was something about Jimmy Eat World that I just knew. They had it. There was something about these guys … I just knew they were gonna go places. Therefore, I was just so stoked to be a part of it from the early days. Those guys have not changed one bit.
“We had so much fun. In the Clarity year, I brought my friend Eric out with us. At the time, he got this brand-new digital video camera. We documented about … I think we have 32 hours worth of tape. I don’t have a mini DV recorder or playback machine and he took his camera with him and he’s living in Argentina. I know he has half the tapes in storage and I was able to snake like 15 or 20 of them. None of it has ever been edited, none of it has ever been seen by the Jimmy guys. I’m sure they’ve totally forgotten about everything. We had so much fun on those tours. … They haven’t changed at all and their audience has only grown and grown and grown. It’s cool to see bands finally get the success they deserve, like true success.”
I had the good fortune last week to talk with Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate, Steve Wynn and the Miracle 3) about his newest group: The Baseball Project (see previous post).
We talked music and baseball – what could be better? – and about the origins of the group, which includes Scott McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows, the Minus 5), Peter Buck (R.E.M.) and Linda Pitmon. The Baseball Project’s debut, Vol. 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails, is better than thumbing through The Baseball Encyclopedia – it’s full of sharp wit, colorful storytelling and wonderfully crafted songs that strike a perfect balance of criticism and romanticism of the game.
