Frightened Rabbit are a four-piece band from Selkirk, Scotland, now based in Glasgow. Essentially the work of songwriter/frontman Scott Hutchison, Frightened Rabbit play intense, emotional guitar-rock, categorized by Hutchison's raw vocals —which are often pushed into a keening, faltering falsetto— and predilection for writing songs about heartbreak.
"If people were to perceive me through only listening to my songs," Hutchison has said, "they'd think I must be fairly miserable."
The band has been cited as leaders of a vague 'Scottish emo' scene, which includes other bands like The Twilight Sad and We Were Promised Jetpacks.
Frightened Rabbit began as Scott Hutchison's side-project in 2003. Rather than performing under his own name, Hutchison took on a band's name, and took his chosen handle from childhood memories. His mother often noted "this 'frightened rabbit look,'" Hutchison explained, "that I was just totally weary and anxious to be around other children. Socially maladjusted, even then."
Hutchison grew up playing guitar, and spent his teenaged years playing in high-school bands covering Jimmy Eat World and Foo Fighters, writing songs of his own was something Hutchison "didn’t even have the notion that [he] could actually do." Until, one day, in 2003, a song came forth.
"I didn't decide to start writing songs," recounts Hutchison. "I just wrote a song; it kind of appeared from out of nowhere. And that broke the dam, so to speak."
From that very first song, Hutchison has written songs about a singular subject: heartbreak. "It seems everything has stemmed from that one source of inspiration, from that same place. They're all from the angle of heartache and anxiety. That first song [that I wrote] was about relationship I was having at the time, which is obviously the theme of [[i]The Midnight Organ Fight[/i]] as well. It's the thing I seem to most write about."
Hutchison spent three years home-recording and assembling the sad, sad songs that would populate the first Frightened Rabbit record, 2006's Sing The Greys. Made with his brother, Grant, whilst they were students at the Glasgow School of Art, Hutchison thought of his band as a "hobby" even after they'd released their first record.
2008's The Midnight Organ Fight was the first Frightened Rabbit to gain them attention outside of the UK. The set served as an emotional bloodletting, as Hutchison aired the ugly details of a failing relationship. "I've laid out a significant portion of my life on this record," he admitted.
With lines like "it takes more than f**king someone you don’t know to keep warm" and "you're the sh*t and I'm knee-deep in it," the savage of Hutchison's words was reminiscent of Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat. Still, the songwriter saw universality in his frank confessions. "Almost everyone in the world as had their heart broken, at some point of their lives," he said.
Frightened Rabbit followed The Midnight Organ Fight with the explanatorily-titled live recording: Quietly Now! Midnight Organ Fight Live and Acoustic at the Captain's Rest.
In 2010, Frightened Rabbit released their third LP, The Winter of Mixed Drinks. A brander, bigger, louder-sounding record, it cemented their status as an established, important indie act. "We wanted to go bigger with this one; it’s not necessarily something we want to do in the future, but with this one we were able to use strings and horns," Hutchison told The Vine.
After two albums of staunch Scots miserablism, the set was their most upbeat and optimistic. "It's turned out a lot more positive this time," Grant Hutchison told The Scotsman. "It's by no means a break-up album. Some of the songs are about getting up and dusting yourself off and realizing what's left after a break-up."
This biography was provided by the artist or their representative.
