Their success seemingly happened overnight, but as The Fratellis singer and songwriter Jon Fratelli explains in this exclusive interview, the Scottish trio are just three old blokes that took their time. By Nick Milligan
What were the highlights of your last trip to Australia?
Byron Bay was really great. There’s nowhere in Scotland that looks like that. We’ve got some really beautiful places, but nothing like Byron Bay. We were just happy to be there – so excited. We didn’t get the chance to come out to Australia for our fi rst record – we’d had a couple of opportunities. I had no idea [Australia] was so far away. It’s like two long flights in a row. When we got off the first plane, I thought, ‘Oh, we must nearly be there.’ But it was like another eight hours!
A lot of [Australia] is quite a Celtic place. I’m not sure if many people realise that. The people and the gigs in Australia felt the same as people from Ireland and Scotland. You don’t get that very often – not anywhere in Europe. You get it a little bit in New York, because a lot of people from Ireland and Scotland have moved there. It’s hard to put your finger on – I don’t have a great explanation for it, but you can feel it. We’d look out into the crowd and there would be two or three Scottish or Irish flags. Even though you like to travel around the world, you do like to look for your little piece of home wherever you go.
How surreal is it to fly to a country you’ve never been to and hear a massive crowd sing your lyrics?
It makes it all worthwhile. We do what we do and at no time has it ever been a let down. You wait all your life for a certain thing and work towards it, and when you get there and find that it’s not what you wanted. But being in this band has never been a let down. It’s a strange thing – the world is a big place. It’s amazing how we communicate – you can fly to a country and have people you’ve never met before sing your songs.
Your first album, Costello Music, was made only nine months after you formed. If you made the album today, are there many things you would have done differently?
No, not really. There’s a couple of songs that wouldn’t be there. Not because they’re bad songs – I don’t think there’s a bad song on that album. It’s just a different time. Life moves very quickly. Sometimes in a band you can fi nd yourself touring a record that feels ten years too old for you. It feels like you were ten years younger when you made it. Here We Stand (their current album) was a reaction to that. It was exactly the record that we wanted to make at this point in time. I’m proud that we didn’t stick to the formula of what we did before. It probably would have worked again, but I’m proud that we went the other way. We’re far happier with [Here We Stand]. Not because we think that it’s better, but it’s definitely more ‘us’.
Do you get restless when you’re not writing new songs?
Constantly, yeah. A lot of people in bands are younger than we are. I’ve definitely got a feeling of making up for lost time. We were a little bit older when we got it. I don’t want to waste any time. I like to write in the same places though. I’ll write on the road to keep at it, but there’s never anything major written on the road. I’m more comfortable being in the one place – it could be anywhere in the world, as long as it’s the same place.
Had you been in many bands before forming The Fratellis?
Yeah, a good few. Baz (Wallace, bassist) and Mince (Gordon McRory, drummer) had been in a lot of bands as well. It’s probably the reason why when we started this band it didn’t take very long for things to happen. We knew instantly that [The Fratellis] were going to do something. We knew why bands failed and didn’t work. We could hear what was on the radio and what was being a success. We had a sneaky feeling that we were on to something good.
Do you write your lyrics from personal experience or are you drawn to writing about other people?
It used to be [about writing about people] but these days it seems easier to write about yourself, vaguely. I’ve always been quite vague. It’s not that I find lyrics inconsequential, but I don’t think they’re as important as melodies. As long as [the lyrics] are interesting, I’m quite happy.
When you write the songs, how completed are they before you bring them to the rest of the band?
They’re pretty complete, but we’ve been playing together for two or three years. A stamp is put on them by other musicians. These days I’m happier to not take control of that stamp. I think in the beginning I was far more rigid about things.
You guys have played some massive festivals around the world, one of which the main stage of Scotland’s T In The Park. What goes through your head when you’re performing in front of 80,000 people?
We’ve done T In The Park two years in a row and to be honest, it just passes you by. I can’t tell you anything about it. It’s too big. Especially being a home festival for us, it’s the only time I felt nervous. I’ve never been able to enjoy it yet, because the set just passes you by. I hope we get over that, because it’s nobody’s fault but ours. Hopefully if we play it again I can remember it.
What are The Fratellis’ plans for 2009? Another album?
No, not this year. That’s going to be it for a while. It’s about moving on to the next thing. I’m definitely going to do some stuff that’s non-Fratellis related.
I read that your very first show was O’Henry’s bar in Glasgow. Was it a success?
It’s still our favourite gig that we ever did. It was definitely the most exhilarating. From the moment we started we had this determination to not let anybody fuck us over or fuck us around. Some other bands feel the same, but they still give their money away to promoters and stuff. Obviously you’ve got to do that when you’re bigger – there’s no way of getting around it. There’s a thing in Glasgow – I’m not sure if it’s the same in other cities – but a promoter will put on a gig and get four bands to play. For one of those bands to even get on the stage they have to sell at least 25 tickets minimum at 5 quid a go. You have to hand over all that money to this promoter and he’s getting the same money off the three other bands too. By the age of 25, 26, we were fucking sick of it and decided to never do that again. So we put on the gig ourselves and promoted it ourselves – it was in this basement of a pub. It was a tiny little place and it was as loud as hell. But we did it ourselves and did what we said we would do. That’s still my favourite gig we ever did.
You can catch The Fratellis at Newcastle University’s Bar On The Hill on Friday March 6, 2009, as a part of The Big O Tour. Don’t delay!