A great night was had with the band being on top form and demonstrating their ability of re-writing their own material as discussed below. One of the highlights of the night was a friend borrowing 50p from the drummer of the support in order to to buy “The Midnight Organ Fight” on 12″.
Enjoy.
Basic Text: On Monday I spoke to We Were Promised Jetpacks about their recent US tour with the Twilight Sad, you guys were on that too weren’t you?
Scott Hutchinson: Yeah, we did the first half of that. It was amazing, it felt like a big school trip as we’re all mates. I don’t think there’s anything better you can do than tour with your friends, it just made everything so much easier and I just love that band. I love The Twilight Sad as well, it’s nice to see those bands every night and watch the shows develop and stuff, watching people lose their minds.
BT: Did you play with any other bands whilst out there or was it just you three?
SH: That’s it, a 3 band bill, it was kind of nice and tidy. It’s nice when you get to play with local bands and you discover something really good but yeah, it was just us 3.
BT: Were they pretty good turnouts? You have quite a good reputation out there with Pitchfork singing your praises.
SH: A lot of sold out shows, it was really quite surprising! I think the sold out shows were the majority, San Francisco and LA were my favourites.
There was definitely a sort of time when America was very much ahead of the game, as far as liking us went anyway and I think you put your finger on it when you said Pitchfork and stuff like that, it has a lot to do with it.
BT: It’s got a massive influence Hasn’t it?
SH: It really does, and at least one person has been kind enough to champion the band
BT: One of the things I do admire about the band is your ability to rewrite your own material, for example the acoustic album/day trotter session. Is it something you make a conscious decision to do or is it something you do on the spot?
SH: I think with any touring band, you just get tired of some of your material and doing something like the acoustic stuff or day trotter session, it’s a nice opportunity to re-ignite your love for a song, which has previously become a little bit worn and boring. But that’s just the way it goes, I think that it’s really essential for me to be able to breathe new life into them because you hammer them night after night and it if you don’t do something different with it then…. I don’t know. I always love seeing bands do different versions of their songs anyway, it means that you’ve seen something that only happened that night maybe and that’s what the live experience is about.
BT: Because you don’t want to go to a show and hear the entire album as it is on record.
SH: I’d rather not, I know some people do, but that’s not what we’re about.
BT: How different of an approach do you take to writing each album? Because there’s quite a lot of difference between “Sings the Greys” and “The Midnight Organ Fight”, for example “Sings the Greys” was done as a three piece wasn’t it?
SH: We were still a 3 piece when we did “The Midnight Organ Fight”, Andy came on after we’d done the record.
The writing approach has always been the same, it’s definitely I go hide away, write material and attempt to try and do a lot of the arranging. With the last record we just did, there was a lot more room and space to do what you want actually, I’d say it was a much more relaxing experience. So I think that the writing has never changed but the way that we apply the instrumentation for the record has changed. It’s expanded and I think that has a lot to do with the band expanding as well, so yeah I think I’ve always said that I want the song to be the most important thing, if you don’t have that, you’ve got nothing. Everything that works around that can change you know, I’d just like to go back to the last question, all the instrumentation could change however it wants, it would still have the song at the core and you’ve got a strong foundation to work from. I’d always start with the song
BT: Is the album a much more mellow affair then, because it seems like the single is?
SH: It’s calmer and that’s a natural thing as well. I didn’t feel like it was something bursting out of my chest or something this time around and as such it’s a much more level and hopefully mature album than the last one. There was so much, almost, perhaps angst you might say on the last record that just had to be sung.
BT: It is quite an angsty record in places isn’t it?
SH: Yeah, but this one is much less so and I’m glad about that, it;s a better record for it
Billy Kennedy: It’s much more rewarding than the previous one
BT: Would you say you write songs to make yourself happy or to make other people happy?
SH: It’d start with myself, I’d take something to the band and if the band are happy with it then it’s a go-er, so if the band’s happy with it and we get a good positive majority vote then the chances are that there’s something in it. So I try not to think too much about what everyone else may think but I’d be lying if I said I never ever thought of our audience, because I do, because there’s an expectation and something that’s deserved, from us as well. It’s a two way street, people put into your band. For example you come from Derby, and that’s enough of an effort for me to think that I have a responsibility to continue working hard and not disappoint.
BT: I recently did an interview with Empire! Empire! (I was a lonely estate) who described themselves as “sad music that will make you happy when you are sad”, despite the lyrical content and tone of the album (Midnight Organ Fight), it’s still quite uplifting isn’t it?
SH: People often say that. In spite of the fact a song could be dark in places, I always try to put an upward look at the end, so that it ramps up musically and even in the tone of it, maybe get slightly more optimistic. I always feel the end of the song is where you can say “Well yeah that was shit but actually it’s going to be alright, it’s ok” and you have that opportunity to put a nice little stop on a song and I think that way people don’t come away from the record feeling bogged down. I never wanted it to feel like a “Dear Diary” entry, I wanted it to be open and I don’t think it’s too Heart on Sleeve, and with the new one as well it’s hopefully enough of a distance so that it’s not too “LISTEN TO ME!”.
BT: So that it’s not sounding clichéd in anyway?
SH: Exactly, hopefully anyway!
BT: Any particular influences on the making of this album? Has much changed in terms of what you’ve been listening to?
SH: Definitely things like Brian Eno, Sigur Ros, that kind of stuff and TV on the Radio, I’ve been into them for a long time but until the last record I didn’t really have the room to.
I do like nicking from other people so I’m not really that ashamed of it
BT: Plagiarism is an art form!
SH: Exactly! What I try and do is get the essence of what I like about a song and translate it into one of ours, also essentially what we’re doing is trying to sound like other people and failing miserably.
BT: But at the same time making it sound original.
SH: Precisely I guess whatever we do we’ll continue to do.
BT: The new single has a string arrangement by Hauschka, how did that come about? Him being a Fat Cat artist as well, was it more yourselves or the label? Did you meet him during the writing/recording?
SH: I knew I wanted strings on it and there are places where I think they’d be really nice, it’s not something I want to make a habit of but I thought for this record it was just right and I really like his music. The label put us in touch and he was really up for it, because his music is quite experimental and very very left of the centre, he was quite excited about the prospects of working with a pop record, I didn’t want to just put swayed strings all over it, as you can do that with a keyboard, I wanted something with character and I think he’s done that.
BT: Is it just the single he did arrangements for?
SH: There’s two other songs, I don’t want to go over the top but he’s definitely added to the record, a lot.
BT: What with the recent addition of Gordon, the band just seems to be one that grows and grows in size. Was the new material written with Gordon in mind?
SH: I don’t arrange or record with anything in mind really, I just do what’s right. We don’t record as a band, we record everything individually.
BT: Was it more for live limitations then?
SH: Yeah, a record last forever and that’s why you have to get it right live. You have to get it right for that particular point in time and for that night, it’s a much less detailed process so I think what you can do is you can try and make your record exactly how you want it and then you can try your best live, as there’s no way we could afford to take a quartet out on the road with us every night, it’s not going to happen but we can still try and get the essence of the size of the song and try and translate it, hopefully!
BT: I’ve had a request of a couple of friends actually, they saw you in Leicester earlier in the year and was intrigued by your background story to the song “Snake” and how it isn’t actually about your penis. They were wondering where snake is now?
SH: If I was to write a song about my penis, it wouldn’t be called “Snake”, that would be a bit ambitious I think! He might be at my ex-girlfriend’s parents house, but I don’t own him any more. He got fleas and had to be put down, he’s dead, fucking dead.
BT: Last question, any intentions of another Christmas song this year? It’s getting close!
SH: Not this year.
BT: Any planned for any other holidays?
SH: Maybe A Hanukkah song or something like that?
BT: That’d be amazing!
Frightened Rabbit’s new single “Swim Until You Can’t See Land” is out now on Fat Cat Records, with the album “The Winter Of Mixed Drinks” to follow in March next year.
