“With the previous records Scott [Hutchison, vocals] would take it separately and write the songs and then come to the band with the songs essentially fully formed,” he says. “I’d put my drums on top of that but in terms of the song structures and the melodies, they were all there, not to be touched.”
The critically lauded record is a further demonstration of Frightened Rabbit’s heartstringing folk rock, yet it also marks a progression in the band’s sound. Hutchison details what prompted the revised songwriting approach.
“When it came to start writing songs for the new record I think [Scott] felt that he was starting to repeat himself. He’d essentially figured out a formula of how to write a Frightened Rabbit song. We’d been touring as a group for long enough that he felt comfortable opening up to all of us, so we all chipped in and we all went away together to write the songs, which was amazing and I really enjoyed that process.”
Despite everyone’s excitement about the interactive songwriting arrangement, Hutchison reveals that they did face some growing pains.
“It made for a little bit of a slower start to this record because it’s a very different process. I didn’t know how to go from playing drums over fully formed songs, using five or six different elements of a song to draw inspiration from to create a drum part – to go from that to playing along to one guitar and a half sung melody was difficult and frustrating.”
Offering creative suggestions can put people in a vulnerable position, which often leads to stubbornly defending their ideas. Hutchison admits it took time and patience to fully establish the altered creative dynamic.
“I think we had it in our head that we’d all sit in a room together and the songs would just happen [but] we’ve never been a band that jams or anything like that. For Scott to relinquish that control that he previously had was a process as well. Initially there was a lot of him having the final word, which changed. I think he realised if you’re going to open it up, open it up completely.”
Aligning multiple creative voices is not easy and it takes some trial and error before a harmonious method can be discovered. Hutchison indicates that technology was useful for facilitating the group songwriting efforts.
“We built songs using samples of what we’d recorded ourselves. We’d take a guitar part and we’d basically loop it or chop it up, copy and paste it and shift it around on the computer. Then [we’d] sit with that for a few days and go back to it afterwards and try to play it together as a full band and see how it was sitting.”
Enduring and overcoming their initial creative struggles ultimately pushed the band into previously untouched territory. Hutchison believes that their perseverance generated some of the strongest Frightened Rabbit material to date.
“On this record you can hear individual people and their parts and their input. That’s what I think has created this more expansive sound, one that people might say we’ve been aiming for each time but we’ve really just miscued slightly. With every record you should try to achieve something that’s different enough that it keeps people interested and it keeps you interested as well.”
Pedestrian Verse has gained a greater commercial response than the three LPs that preceded it, which affirms the band’s constructive experiments. Despite the effort to stylistically evolve, Hutchison suggests that their identity is well intact. “We’re still Frightened Rabbit, we don’t want to come out with some sort of minimal electro record that no one’s going to understand… we might have to take a few more drugs before we get to that.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
