Interview: Frightened Rabbit

**Let’s talk about the upcoming record – _Pedestrian Verse_. The title is taken from the lyrics of the song ‘State Hospital’, but what exactly do the words ‘Pedestrian Verse’ mean to you?**

Well, I like the fact that as a title, for me, it was a kick-off point. For the lyric book that I ended up writing all the lyrics for the record in, I wrote ‘Pedestrian Verse’ on the front cover as a starting point. I thought if I was gonna call the record that, or at least working-title it like that, you can’t call your album ‘Pedestrian Verse’ and then write a bunch of shit lyrics, or you’re gonna get called out on that.

Also, I was trying at the time, certainly at the start of the writing process, to focus my attention on other peoples’ lives, and in that sense, that would be the pedestrian: the person that walks by in the street. I was getting intrigued in challenging myself to write in the same way about someone [else], rather than about my own life. As is the classic case, the further you get down the band route, the less interesting your life is to write about. So, I started looking to other people – i.e. pedestrians. I think it summed up what I was trying to do.

**You’ve said that the band has stepped up its game on this record – in what ways do you think this has manifested itself?**

Lyrically, it’s denser: I’ve definitely hit my stride with the lyrics on this one. I’ve put a lot more time and thought into them than any other record that we’ve done. It just feels more complete and I think that we – as a band – started working together, rather than just me writing the songs and giving them to the band. We started writing the music together, and as a result there’s so much more energy. We did live takes in the studio, which we’ve never really done before. I think it’s a really big turn for us with this album, and I hope that that’s audible. I feel we’ve made a massive leap forward with the creative process.

**Can we expect a similar sound or style to your _State Hospital_ EP on the new record? Or are there going to be some surprises?**

I think it’s different. ‘State Hospital’ is obviously on the record, but the other four songs are there because they didn’t fit on the album. I don’t think they fitted the tone of the album, either. They were probably among the most morose and darker-themed songs that we had from those sessions. I think there’s a lot more positivity on display in the main body of the full-length album. So yeah, it’s different – we chose ‘State Hospital’ as the crossover because it felt like a good bridge between the last record and the new one, but it doesn’t really say everything about what to expect from the new album.

**You decided to travel to Wales to record the album. Why?**

Well, the studio’s good. We’re always dictated by a couple of things, and first and foremost the studio has to be right. A lot of great bands have done work down there in the Monnow Valley. It’s also remote. I think if we were ever to attempt to write a record in the middle of Glasgow, or the middle of London, it would be a total fucking failure, ‘cos we’d end up going out and getting drunk all the time. It’s not like we have drinking problems, it’s just very difficult to stay focused.

When you’re in a place like that, where there’s nothing around you, all you can think about is the record, and you live and breathe it. So that’s always an important factor for us – to be removed from society and just be in a little bubble, focused on the album.

**Did that isolation influence the style of the music?**

I think it does, I don’t know exactly how. I think that’s probably more in the writing process. When we were writing we were in quite remote places in Scotland, and I think that does lend something. I’m just not quite sure what it is. It might be like a longing, or a sadness, fuck knows. I think wherever you are, you’re influenced by your surroundings, and it’s a very subtle thing, but definitely, it’s there somewhere.

**You played a bunch of small shows in the harder-to-reach Scottish Highlands. Do you think being Scottish is a big part of your identity as a band?**

It’s absolutely intrinsic. First and foremost, there’s the initial touching point with the band where I sing in my own accent. There’s something about that which makes the whole thing much more genuine and honest. It lends a certain gravitas and a plainness to what we’re doing. I guess lyrically there’s a lot of classic Scottish miserablism, which is tinged with humour as well. We’re lucky in that the way has been paved for current bands like ourselves and **Twilight Sad** by these bands like **Mogwai** and **The Delgados** and **Belle And Sebastian**: they’ve almost created this Scottish identity in music and we’re just on their coat-tails. But I’m happy to be on those coat-tails, it’s great.

**What do you want _Pedestrian Verse_ to do for Frightened Rabbit?**

Well, I would always like to step up, step forward, for every album to become more successful than the last. If it’s not, then you’re doing something wrong in my opinion. More importantly, hopefully it will be heard that it’s a creative step for us, and we’re sort of a re-energised band, I guess. I just hope that it brings us months and months of touring, lots of work, and lots of amazing shows… and that’s all I can hope for. I try to be sort of pessimistic about these things, and then you get nice surprises.

_Pedestrian Verse is released on the 4th February on Atlantic Records._