Jon Lawler - The Fratellis (01/14/2014)
A career spanning six years and a quick hiatus in between, The Fratellis have established themselves as one of the heavyweights of the indie-rock genre thanks to their infusion of blues and garage rock and dipping both genres into their own ubiquity. From the release of their three albums, The 59th Sound spoke to Jon Fratelli, about The Fratellis reuniting, their upcoming Australia tour and their latest album since their reunification, ‘We Need Medicine.’
The genesis of The Fratellis name has often been shrouded in ambiguity. There are many myths that the band got their inspiration from the criminal Fratelli family in the 80s classic, The Goonies. With other stories less conspicuous, yet the origins of the band’s name are so mysterious that even Jon was unclear on the Goonies story.
“I’m the absolute last guy that would know. It seems ridiculous, but I just know that the day we met each other, we sort of left a bar twelve hours late. We had name before we even had a note together, but even at the time, I heard of the name from the three of us, but it definitely wasn’t me, so it must have been one of the others who came up with it. But I didn’t even ask where it came from, I had been in enough bands at that point where you change the name every two weeks. We hadn’t played yet, so we had no idea if we were any good, but we had a name.”
Wrapping up their recent US and European tour, their recently invigorated fans have marvelled at the response to the bands return after rejoicing at the news of their reunion. Touring for nearly year across the globe, Jon spoke on the astonishment on the reaction the band has received during their touring.
“Well, from where I’m standing it’s been pretty good. Up to this point, we’ve done a year really. I mean this is getting on to the end of March, so not long from a year of a fair amount of touring. We’ve probably done as much in the US as we’ve done in the UK and it never ceases to amaze me the reaction you get when you go certain places. We’re lucky, because if your able to find an audience in the first place and then give them enough that they keep coming back, then your sort of in a really lucky place. I actually like to keep in mind that we have any sort of audience as a foregone conclusion. So we’re just revelling in that fact at the moment that we get to go out and play and travel the world. Again, its very cliché but we’ve always wanted to be able to do all those things.”
He continues on the bands reunion and he sentiments on how long The Fratellis have been on the music scene.
“It’s like a marriage, I guess. If you were to take any marriage or couple and place them in a ten year period, because we are only nine years old. Which I didn’t know, I got ‘happy’ message from one of the bands that said ‘Happy ninth birthday,’ which made me react thinking, ‘Shit! Has it really been nine years.’ It kind of depressed me actually, that it was nine years ago. But I bet if you were to take anybody over that space of time, from the beginning to the end of that time, they would be having the exact same response. There would also be the subtle things that change that person as well. But I think we’re okay, I think we’re doing okay. We’re not that aggressive with each other, which helps most of the time. We’re more passive-aggressive instead, which is way we probably split up in the first place.”
With the release of ‘We Need Medicine.’ The album saw The Fratellis take a bluesier stride to their tone. While the band are known for their indie-rock fixture, the blues were always heard in their tracks although in a much smaller-scale. Jon spoke of the inevitability of revolutionizing their sound and the constant strides musicians and acts must take for the unforeseen future.
“That something that just has to change over time. It's impossible to hold that sort of change back, it just has to come. The only conscious thought with the record at all, was that we just really needed to play live. It’s hard to describe what that change is, but you know it when you got it. When we got back together and started playing three to four shows, we just wanted to see if anybody cared really and you realise that after you sold the shows, then your going to have some sort of life after that. Then you think about making a record, but what was most about those shows, was that we were leaning heavily on the songs from the first record and not from the second. Then it really tells it own story, people just couldn’t really find much from that second record that we wanted to play. So the only thought was that if we make a record, we need to make something we won’t get bored of and will hold the audience’s attention in the unforeseen future. We definitely been doing that, like I said we’ve been playing for almost a year now and at least in the last six months, every gig that we’ve played, we have played every single song from the new record and we also played every single song people want to hear, I imagine when they come to see us. But all of them work live, they need something that you can get your teeth into and I think we’ve managed that.”
Taking three weeks to produce, ‘We Need Medicine’ mirrored the production of their two predecessors. Perhaps this practice when of manufacturing an album illustrates The Fratellis greatest personality when compared to other musical acts. As other bands would finetune an album before its release, it creates the issue of perfection and this pursuit of precision can become the band’s folly, chasing an imagined, perfect tone and composition that might become unattainable in the eyes of the musicians. As for The Fratellis, Jon explained of the right feeling when producing a record and the bands overall method when making a record.
“Well it was exactly the same as the first two albums. We’re not really the kind of band that spends endless amounts of time in the studio. I mean were not even the band that spends endless amounts of time doing takes. From what I remember, it’s always been that way and we do a really short number of takes and spend as little time in the studio as possible. When I say three weeks, I think really we only played together, recording-wise really for two weeks. I don’t think it was any longer than that, after that of course you fiddle around with it. Our process, if you can even call it one is to get in an out of the studio as quickly as possible. But that isn’t for any reason other than you just lose the energy. We’d definitely lose it if we continued on, we just finish quickly and we do that well. So we just like to keep these things as short as possible to get the maximum amount of effect really.”
The music scene, like all forms of the entertainment industry is often fickle. Consecutively, this unpredictability causes many acts to continuously change their approach to get hold of new fans but also attempting to keep their original. Jon went on to explain the difficulty of this irregularity and the band’s method of coping with the new musical landscape since their recent split and reunion.
“We couldn’t possibly, we just couldn’t possibly accommodate the new album, we didn’t know how to for a start. I don’t possess the skill to be able to do that and really you just have to tell the truth really. My truth is that I have a certain taste in music that I would call traditional. I haven’t brought or listened to a new record, I can’t even say if I’ve ever done it. Because even at 16, I was really sort of waking up to rock music I guess. Even at that age, I was listening to bands in my dad’s record collection. So I’ve always grown up that way, so accommodating the new record to what’s out there now is impossible, because I don’t know what’s out there. All we really do and what I definitely do is to make record that I would want to hear and I don’t always succeed. But I feel that if you get a little bit closer to that each time, then that’s the job you strive for your entire life. I sort of have this vision of possibly making this entire record of music I want to hear, maybe in my 60s, if I’m allowed to live that long. But all that stuff about accommodating is just not something you should worry about, like is it modern enough, is it going to fit? We didn’t worry about it when we had a record that was a hit, so we are certainly not going to do it now.”
Jason Cheung
The Fratellis Tour Dates
THURSDAY 3 APRIL BRISBANE, THE TIVOLI – 18+
www.ticketmaster.com.au
FRIDAY 4 APRIL MELBOURNE, PRINCE OF WALES – 18+
www.oztix.com.au
SUNDAY 6 APRIL SYDNEY, THE METRO – Licensed All Ages
www.ticketek.com.au
The genesis of The Fratellis name has often been shrouded in ambiguity. There are many myths that the band got their inspiration from the criminal Fratelli family in the 80s classic, The Goonies. With other stories less conspicuous, yet the origins of the band’s name are so mysterious that even Jon was unclear on the Goonies story.
“I’m the absolute last guy that would know. It seems ridiculous, but I just know that the day we met each other, we sort of left a bar twelve hours late. We had name before we even had a note together, but even at the time, I heard of the name from the three of us, but it definitely wasn’t me, so it must have been one of the others who came up with it. But I didn’t even ask where it came from, I had been in enough bands at that point where you change the name every two weeks. We hadn’t played yet, so we had no idea if we were any good, but we had a name.”
Wrapping up their recent US and European tour, their recently invigorated fans have marvelled at the response to the bands return after rejoicing at the news of their reunion. Touring for nearly year across the globe, Jon spoke on the astonishment on the reaction the band has received during their touring.
“Well, from where I’m standing it’s been pretty good. Up to this point, we’ve done a year really. I mean this is getting on to the end of March, so not long from a year of a fair amount of touring. We’ve probably done as much in the US as we’ve done in the UK and it never ceases to amaze me the reaction you get when you go certain places. We’re lucky, because if your able to find an audience in the first place and then give them enough that they keep coming back, then your sort of in a really lucky place. I actually like to keep in mind that we have any sort of audience as a foregone conclusion. So we’re just revelling in that fact at the moment that we get to go out and play and travel the world. Again, its very cliché but we’ve always wanted to be able to do all those things.”
He continues on the bands reunion and he sentiments on how long The Fratellis have been on the music scene.
“It’s like a marriage, I guess. If you were to take any marriage or couple and place them in a ten year period, because we are only nine years old. Which I didn’t know, I got ‘happy’ message from one of the bands that said ‘Happy ninth birthday,’ which made me react thinking, ‘Shit! Has it really been nine years.’ It kind of depressed me actually, that it was nine years ago. But I bet if you were to take anybody over that space of time, from the beginning to the end of that time, they would be having the exact same response. There would also be the subtle things that change that person as well. But I think we’re okay, I think we’re doing okay. We’re not that aggressive with each other, which helps most of the time. We’re more passive-aggressive instead, which is way we probably split up in the first place.”
With the release of ‘We Need Medicine.’ The album saw The Fratellis take a bluesier stride to their tone. While the band are known for their indie-rock fixture, the blues were always heard in their tracks although in a much smaller-scale. Jon spoke of the inevitability of revolutionizing their sound and the constant strides musicians and acts must take for the unforeseen future.
“That something that just has to change over time. It's impossible to hold that sort of change back, it just has to come. The only conscious thought with the record at all, was that we just really needed to play live. It’s hard to describe what that change is, but you know it when you got it. When we got back together and started playing three to four shows, we just wanted to see if anybody cared really and you realise that after you sold the shows, then your going to have some sort of life after that. Then you think about making a record, but what was most about those shows, was that we were leaning heavily on the songs from the first record and not from the second. Then it really tells it own story, people just couldn’t really find much from that second record that we wanted to play. So the only thought was that if we make a record, we need to make something we won’t get bored of and will hold the audience’s attention in the unforeseen future. We definitely been doing that, like I said we’ve been playing for almost a year now and at least in the last six months, every gig that we’ve played, we have played every single song from the new record and we also played every single song people want to hear, I imagine when they come to see us. But all of them work live, they need something that you can get your teeth into and I think we’ve managed that.”
Taking three weeks to produce, ‘We Need Medicine’ mirrored the production of their two predecessors. Perhaps this practice when of manufacturing an album illustrates The Fratellis greatest personality when compared to other musical acts. As other bands would finetune an album before its release, it creates the issue of perfection and this pursuit of precision can become the band’s folly, chasing an imagined, perfect tone and composition that might become unattainable in the eyes of the musicians. As for The Fratellis, Jon explained of the right feeling when producing a record and the bands overall method when making a record.
“Well it was exactly the same as the first two albums. We’re not really the kind of band that spends endless amounts of time in the studio. I mean were not even the band that spends endless amounts of time doing takes. From what I remember, it’s always been that way and we do a really short number of takes and spend as little time in the studio as possible. When I say three weeks, I think really we only played together, recording-wise really for two weeks. I don’t think it was any longer than that, after that of course you fiddle around with it. Our process, if you can even call it one is to get in an out of the studio as quickly as possible. But that isn’t for any reason other than you just lose the energy. We’d definitely lose it if we continued on, we just finish quickly and we do that well. So we just like to keep these things as short as possible to get the maximum amount of effect really.”
The music scene, like all forms of the entertainment industry is often fickle. Consecutively, this unpredictability causes many acts to continuously change their approach to get hold of new fans but also attempting to keep their original. Jon went on to explain the difficulty of this irregularity and the band’s method of coping with the new musical landscape since their recent split and reunion.
“We couldn’t possibly, we just couldn’t possibly accommodate the new album, we didn’t know how to for a start. I don’t possess the skill to be able to do that and really you just have to tell the truth really. My truth is that I have a certain taste in music that I would call traditional. I haven’t brought or listened to a new record, I can’t even say if I’ve ever done it. Because even at 16, I was really sort of waking up to rock music I guess. Even at that age, I was listening to bands in my dad’s record collection. So I’ve always grown up that way, so accommodating the new record to what’s out there now is impossible, because I don’t know what’s out there. All we really do and what I definitely do is to make record that I would want to hear and I don’t always succeed. But I feel that if you get a little bit closer to that each time, then that’s the job you strive for your entire life. I sort of have this vision of possibly making this entire record of music I want to hear, maybe in my 60s, if I’m allowed to live that long. But all that stuff about accommodating is just not something you should worry about, like is it modern enough, is it going to fit? We didn’t worry about it when we had a record that was a hit, so we are certainly not going to do it now.”
Jason Cheung
The Fratellis Tour Dates
THURSDAY 3 APRIL BRISBANE, THE TIVOLI – 18+
www.ticketmaster.com.au
FRIDAY 4 APRIL MELBOURNE, PRINCE OF WALES – 18+
www.oztix.com.au
SUNDAY 6 APRIL SYDNEY, THE METRO – Licensed All Ages
www.ticketek.com.au