The approach that The Fratellis had for their third album was simple – writing and recording music for the sake of writing and recording music.
It was the simplicity of that fact paired with the itching of playing live shows that reunited Jon, Barry, and Mince Fratelli following a four-year break. Despite the time apart, The Fratellis had no problem picking up where they left off without any shortage of chemistry or energy. The band released their third album We Need Medicine last October and have been touring steadily in support of the record since. The reactions from fans have been positive – particularly surrounding the live shows.
Last week, before The Fratellis’ first Vancouver show at Venue, I had the opportunity to chat with Jon Fratelli about their latest record, regrouping as a band, and his musical influences.
asapmusicblog.ca: I was trying to figure out if The Fratellis have previously played Vancouver.
Jon Fratelli: We were just talking – we haven’t played any club shows here, but we were just debating whether we had played a festival. The fact that we can’t be certain probably says more about us than anything else. If we have, it would have been in 2008 or so.
A: Based on my Wikipedia research, you guys have not played in Vancouver but you did play the Virgin Festival in…
JF: Is Calgary nearby?
A: It was Calgary, yes!
JF: Because we flew from Seattle and it didn’t take very long, so I thought we had just flown from Seattle to Vancouver. Obviously we didn’t, so we went to Calgary instead – that makes sense now.
A: Yeah, I was trying to figure it out, because I felt like you guys would have been here before!
JF: Yeah, it’s strange sometimes the places that you go to and you realize you hadn’t been to that often. Even actually in Europe, we actually spent more time touring the US than we did even in Europe, you know? It was strange, just before Christmas we went back to Europe and it had been the first time we had been to Europe since 2007, we think. Very odd sometimes – it’s strange to us because we’re sort of available to play, it’s funny how these things don’t sort of work out that way, not sure why.
A: To test your memory again, what was the first song in your recollection that inspired you to become a musician?
JF: I only know the first song that made me want to write my own songs. It probably would have been ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ by Bob Dylan. It’s funny how fortune works out because it was on a tape, a sort of greatest hits tape – that was the first song on Side B. When I bought the tape, for some reason it wasn’t wound, so it started on Side B. If it had, the first song I would have heard would probably have been ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ I think, if it was in order that would have been it.
I might not have at that point have been that inspired by that, but it wasn’t – it was because the tape for some reason was wound the opposite direction and I couldn’t be bothered rewinding it. I just put Side B in and the first song on Side B was ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ and I remember thinking, ‘Great, that seems like a job.’ I can’t say for certain whether that’s the absolute first one, but I remember it being a big deal.
A: Prior to the release of We Need Medicine, the band broke up for about a four-year period. When you guys regrouped, it went back to the roots of rock’n’roll where the focus was on the joy of performing live as well as writing for yourself. What have been some of the most memorable moments since regrouping?
JF: It’s really just being able to go out and play to people – it’s kind of a dull answer. I know we’re meant to have these sort of fabulous memories and it’s all meant to be… everything these days is “awesome”, isn’t it? Everybody calls everything awesome. To be honest, I just sort of get a kick out of being able to have people to play to. That’s not to be underestimated because I remember even up until recently what it was like to not have anybody to play to, so I’ve really just enjoyed that side of it.
To be honest, that side of it to me was my only reason for wanting to do it again was just to go out and play and keep it really simple, just go out and play to people – it’s a nice way to spend your time and just get a thrill out of that. I think we have had nights that stand out in our memory and it’ll be different for the three of us, but just the general being able to go out and play – that’s kind of enough for me, to keep me going.
A: During your time apart, the three of you worked on separate musical projects. So having that experience and going into working on We Need Medicine, did you draw from the [solo] work that you had done?
JF: When I said that about having people to play to, even if that wasn’t the case and nobody knew anything about us or me, I would still be in my bedroom writing songs and recording. So whatever name you put on it, it makes no real difference to me, it’s all the same. To me it’s the same sort of route, ever since I was fifteen or sixteen, you hopefully get more proficient at it, you hope as time goes on you’re more and more able to connect to something the way that you’re trying to. I made two records – three records actually, in that time. It makes no difference to me what they’re called or whose name is on it.
A: You guys have a busy tour schedule coming up. You’re currently touring Canada and the US, then you’ll be heading to Japan and Australia, and in the summer you’re doing a bunch of festivals in Europe. When you do manage to get a day off, where do you find yourselves?
JF: On days off? We don’t really spend much time together on days off. They’re a prized thing, a day off is a prized thing. This little run we’re on just now is a really easy one, we did most of our major touring last year. I tend to lock myself in a hotel room on my day off, I don’t want to speak down of it. You spend so much time together that you don’t want to spend your days off together.
A: In a previous interview, you mentioned that We Need Medicine is an album that is consisting of songs that the band enjoys playing live. Does the set list that you guys play on tour stay consistent, or does it change on a nightly basis?
JF: We’re getting to the point now where we can change it more than we used to be able to. One of the real frustrating things about us previously is we only really had those two records to choose from – you can only play songs that people know. Now that we have this third record and then we’ll have the fourth one under our belts, it gives us choice. I personally need that choice, otherwise I’d be completely bored – I get bored very easily. I have a very short attention span.
We needed a record this time around that we could play everything from it live because we didn’t get that with our second record, consequently, we don’t play a lot of that record live… not anymore. With this record, we do play every song from this record every night, because it suits the need to be played. There’s enough in these songs to keep us, definitely to keep me, interested.
A: Vancouver is a big hockey city, so we are quite familiar with ‘Chelsea Dagger’, which is the goal song for the Chicago Blackhawks. How does it feel in having a hockey team and their fans embrace the song in such a manner?
JF: If I say I don’t care, I mean that in the nicest possible way. I just don’t care, it makes no difference to me – it’s just another song, I don’t pretend to understand. I think people just use these things because it’s easy – one person starts using it and then other people start to use it.
A: I know that you don’t listen to a lot of current music, but I was wondering what artists are consistently on your playlists that you don’t tire of listening to?
JF: Dylan is on a sort of continuous loop with me. I guess the people I like the most are the people who have long careers and varied careers and that you can dip in at so many different periods of their career. I’ll always get that with Dylan and I’ll always get that with Springsteen. Pink Floyd were my first sort of, almost my first love. You never lose that – there’s no such thing as second love really, is there? They haven’t been as important to me as Dylan has, but they were the first, so they’ll always be there. Now I’m completely lost to think of any more. To me, I’ll never be able to discount The Beatles or The Rolling Stones either. They’re very obvious, but maybe I’m just obvious.
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We Need Medicine is available now. For more information on The Fratellis and their tour dates, please head over to: http://thefratellis.com.
