Glasgow Guardian caught up with Frightened Rabbit drummer, Grant Hutchison, about their current tour, his time as a student at the University of Glasgow, his feelings on Scottish independence, and their plans for the future…
Frightened Rabbit headlined Daft Friday 2011, rocking our very own debates chamber. Grant, who studied at Glasgow, reminisced: ‘Daft Friday was great – we loved it. I spent a year at Glasgow Uni doing French, Classics and Psychology but it wasn’t for me – all I’ve ever wanted to do was music. I moved to Glasgow from Selkirk to start uni, which turned out not to be for me. Still though, Glasgow is home 12 years on and as a place it means a lot to me.’
Growing up with brother and Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott in Selkirk, Grant reckons their Scottish home plays a big part in their music: ‘Scotland influences our music a lot. Folk culture in Scotland is strong and i think it must be in every musician. It’s in our blood really – especially lyrically. There’s a dark twisted humour to everything… T in the Park is definitely an important box for all Scottish artists to tick. We’ve worked our way up the stages, we started on T break and at the summer – our fourth time at T, I think – we were on the Radio 1 stage.’
Caught up with a hectic touring schedule, there hasn’t been much time at home recently for the lads, but Grant insists that they’ll be back – eventually. Although admittedly not a great follower of the goings-on at Holyrood, there’s a certain sense of nostalgia for their home, which is why Grant’s planning on voting for Scottish independence in the upcoming referendum, providing they are back in Scotland next Autumn: ‘I’m certainly hoping to be home in time for the referendum, but at the moment I’m not sure how it will go… Personally, I’m all for independence – but that view comes from my heart rather than my head. I don’t really know too much about he politics behind it but I’m sure we’d prosper.’
Their current tour, which comes to Glasgow this month, will bring them home for a few nights, ‘We’re absolutely looking forward to our homecoming shows. I can’t wait – very much looking forward to a night in my own bed. I’m counting down the days at the moment… We spent two weeks touring with the National, and now we’re doing our own headline tour. The National were a great bunch. Really lovely people. We found them quite inspirational – touring with them has certainly been a great influence on our music.
‘We’ve just been taking each day as it comes but we want to start writing soon – we’re still in the midst of touring so not started writing anything yet – because the last release took a bit longer than it should have. Hopefully it’ll be out the year after next.
’I just try to take a step back for a minute and remember we’re doing something pretty special.’
