Six months after being tipped in these here pages for greatness, The Fratellis know they’ve truly made their mark as they meet Clash once again the day after their appearance on the Jonathon Ross TV show.
In that time they’ve left in their wake a string of hit singles (forever destined as indie-punk dancefloor classics), a Number Two album and a slagging match with big-haired mini-goths The Horrors.
As 2007 stretches before them like a big bottle of ice-cold Irn Bru just waiting to be devoured, the trio convene to quietly ponder and muse on life so far in the crazy Fratelli world…
What were you doing this time last year?
Jon: We were still arseing around going, ‘We’ve got a record deal!’ We didn’t really seem to do very much for ages. We did that one gig with BRMC. We didn’t do much until January.
Mince: Who knows what we were doing? We must have been supporting.
Baz: We done some gigs. We supported BRMC this time last year. Sometimes it’s so busy that it’s dead hard to remember everything.
It would be great if you could just make three albums a year and a couple of tours. I would be so fucking happy.
You must have started 2006 knowing that it was going to be a hard working year. Did you have any goals that you set yourself?
Baz: No, we just wanted to get it done.
Mince: Get the album out as quick as we could.
Baz: It was frustrating explaining to people what we sound like and the ‘what can we expect from the album’ patter.
Jon: Unless you’ve got a really good command of the English language you just end up going, ‘It’s dead good’, then you just get bored of it and you want to just let them listen to it.
Looking back, do you think 2006 has been the best year?
Jon: Ever? I think the best year is the year you were born. It’s brilliant; you get away with everything! Your last year is probably the second best one. Musically it’s been great, cos I’ve done an album.
Baz: For me it’s been great. I was speaking to my mum today and she was like, ‘Do you realise you’ve done just about everything you’ve ever wanted to do since you were wee in less than a year?’ I suppose when you think about it like that…
Jon: I feel like musically we’ve only just scratched a little bit… This band is so young musically. We got ourselves together really quickly cos of the circuit that we played, but I just realised lately that good bands take a little bit of time to get to their best. Loads of bands just now, their first album’s the best one and then it falls away. Look at Led Zep and stuff. Even though they were great on their first, second and third, but when it got to four and five they were super great. I just feel like we’re gonna be one of those bands that starts out good and just gets better. I’m really excited to get the music. I’m not excited by anything else right now, like, at all. They try and ask about videos and shit, touring, this and that and whatever, and none of it is like putting your music out.
You were signed after 9 gigs…
Mince: It wasn’t really 9 gigs, man.
Baz: I don’t know where that came from. There was more.
Jon: I don’t think it was loads more though.
Baz: It was always a big deal because I was the only one with a car!
Jon: You can count them on one and a half hands, two and a half maybe.
Baz: I disagree. There were twenty-odd gigs.
Jon: I don’t remember that.
Baz: When you hear that we were signed after 9 gigs it makes us sound a little pathetic, I think.
Jon: I don’t think so at all. It was just circumstance. It’s just the way it was; it wasn’t our fault. Were we gonna turn it down because we hadn’t played much?
Baz: What I mean is if it was only 9 gigs and that’s it but there was 9 gigs and loads of other shit. There’s more to it than just do 9 gigs and get signed.
Jon: I dunno man. There’s nothing wrong with not playing that many. Oasis played hardly fuckin’ any.
Baz: More than 9 anyway!
Jon: I know 9’s probably wrong…
Baz: When you hear it was 9 gigs I just think that it’s got less substance.
Jon: Than if you played for two years?
Baz: No, not for two years.
Mince: Apparently Simply Red only did one gig and then the second gig they were playing to 10,000 people.
Baz: Aye, and it shows.
Mince: They’ve got a good reggae number!
Whether it was 9 gigs or not, there’s still that ambiguity that surrounds those stories and the various tales of how you all met and the band was formed. Do you think that all good bands should have a bit of mystery about them?
Baz: Aye.
Jon: No.
Mince: I don’t like knowing too much about a band sometimes.
Do you find that if you don’t say things then people will say stuff about you anyway?
Jon: Of course they do. What can they say? There’s nothing really much to say about what happened before all this. It’s not really that important.
Have you experienced any intrusion in to your private lives yet?
Jon: Little bits. Probably more so in Glasgow. When somebody realised that there was little bits that the newspapers might be interested in. It’s weird. You don’t really think about it and then something comes up.
What have you read about yourself? Have you got to watch where you go out drinking?
Jon: No, it was nothing like that. You could just be on the internet and there’s people that know you from ten years ago and they come onto our website and start trying to be smart arses and spout stuff about you. ‘I know this and that…’ and it sets other people off on a little trail about finding stuff that you did before. It’s my fucking business.
What’s the biggest obstacle that comes between you actually making music?
Jon: Well, to do it in a certain way there’s a lot of other shit that goes with it, that goes with being in a band. It would be great if you could just make three albums a year and a couple of tours. I would be so fucking happy. I’m not unhappy, but it’s a bit of a wake-up call having so much other stuff that goes with it that isn’t particularly musical or creative or that keeps you stimulated.
Baz: You need to get through it to do what you want to do.
Jon: Eventually I would love us just to work by those rules: churn out three albums a year and do two or three tours and that was it. But it’s not really like that.
Mince: They want to sell you for as long as they can.
Jon: Fair enough, cos we wanted that, but there’s definitely a downside.
Is getting so many albums out satisfactory because you are making the music for yourselves or is it for other people?
Jon: It’s to make us happy. It’s the only time I’m happy. It’s like when people go home to relax – I play the guitar or I play the piano and make music. It just pure makes me happy, until all the other stuff gets in the way.
We’re gonna be one of those bands that starts out good and just gets better.
There was a quote that said you don’t like making depressing music. Is it more fun to make fun music?
Jon: That’s probably just because somebody asked us at the time, but it just seemed to have worked out that way. I don’t know why, there’s no big reason. On this album, it just happened that there was 13 songs that were all up. It might not always be as cheery as that. I don’t think it will.
Do you find that sometimes you have to get up on stage and play these up songs when you’re not really feeling up?
Jon: Aye, I’m a depressive, man! Sometimes it’s hard…
Baz: What you think is hard now, man, you think back a couple of years ago to when you were wishing you could fucking do something.
Jon: Never on stage. Not when you actually get up there. Maybe till five minutes before you play you’ll be like, ‘oh fuck’, and as soon as you get up there you’re fine.
There was another quote that said you don’t like writing about real life and that music should be about escapism. What do you find yourself writing about?
Jon: Again, that was probably just an answer that I gave that day. It’s just how those songs worked out. I just find it easy to write in that way, so I just naturally do it. All fucking rock and roll is made up. It’s like, ‘Johnny B Goode’ was all about Johnny, wasn’t it? Nothing really changes. There’s not many people who can write about real life in rock and roll. There’s people that do little bits of it but they don’t do a whole career out of it. I don’t think we’re that different from other bands.
Has the success of the singles surprised you at all?
Jon: I dunno if they’ve been that successful.
Mince: You don’t really get that excited about it, man. It’s one of those things that your family gets excited about and they phone you.
Baz: My mum phoned today to say that she was proud that we were nominated in the Spirit of Scotland Awards. Paolo Natini won but she was pure dancing around the house! As long as you’re happy…
Jon: I was more bothered with the album doing good.
The video for ‘Whistle For The Choir’ was filmed at night on the mean streets of Glasgow…
Jon: They weren’t that mean though. They were fine. It was too wet. It just kinda drizzled the whole time and they’re always like, ‘This is great, it’s gonna make it dead atmospheric’, and I’m like, ‘Aye fuckin’ right!’ It was seven in the morning and we’d started at six the night before and I’d just lost all interest at that point. I suppose it looks good afterwards but it just got kinda boring. I just wandered around a lot. I’d used up all my moves within an hour! I’d looked up at the sky and stuff and was like, what else am I gonna do? They were like, “Be yourself”, and I was like, ‘That’s not gonna be interesting!’
Have you experienced any negativity from anyone for being Scottish in this industry?
Baz: You get the odd smart arse calling us “Scottish bastards”; we’ve had that a couple of times.
Jon: Nobody can understand a word we say anyway so it’s fine!
Baz: It’s just narrow-mindedness. They still see Scotland as a fucking small place, a suburb of England.
Jon: I dunno. Scots have a got a tendency to feel fuckin’ victimised a little bit. It’s a bit wrong sometimes. We do alright for a wee country.
Do you get recognized on the street now?
Jon: I got followed in Glasgow on Tuesday. All the way through Buchanan Galleries, the whole length of the shopping centre. Before he could make his move I pretended I was on the phone.
What do people tend to say?
Jon: They just like to say that they loved our album and they were a fan… and they like my dress sense and think I’m fuckin’ gorgeous! No, they just tell you they like you.
On the days when your schedule is busy and you’ve got a lot of work to do, do you find it hard to get out of bed in the morning?
Jon: Baz does. If you told him there was a million quid across the other side of the road in a bag marked ‘Baz’ and he had to be there in five minutes or it would go I bet the fuckin’ cunt would stay in bed.
Baz: If it’s important enough, people will wait; that’s my theory.
Mince: I’m always punctual, man.
Jon: You are, that’s the thing!
Baz: Mince the punctual stoner!
Mince: Yeah I get up nice and early.
What are the special qualities that The Fratellis offer?
Jon: We write songs that are kinda obvious but not in a shabby way. We’re good and people know we’re good. They can see. There’s a lot to be said for just being a good band. There’s not that many of them around. There’s a lot of bands around and a lot of songs, but there’s nothing to grab on to or get into. I just think that we’re doing something that’s not really in a way been done… It would take me a long time to explain it!