Fatherson interview: 'Scottish music is cathartic, rather than depressing'

Spending an evening in Glasgow with a rock band who grew up there is like hanging out with local heroes. Friends and fans are constantly walking over to say hello or offer them a drink. They know every place, and everyone. It’s a night that starts out with a few pints in the pub and ends with dancing to Beyonce’s “Crazy Right Now” in an underground dive bar. That’s who Fatherson are. They want you to have a good time – and you do.

Having just released their third album, Sum of All Your Parts, Fatherson have been friends for longer than they’ve not been friends. They formed the band when they started secondary school in Kilmarnock ­– a small town just outside Glasgow. They estimate that of the 400 days they spent recording this album, in a studio they built themselves, about 11 of those were spent apart from one another: “We were speaking our own language, like this three-headed monster,” drummer Greg Walkinshaw says.

There’s no pretence or posturing with them. Over dinner, bassist Marc Strain contentedly nurses a pornstar martini, because that’s what he feels like drinking. The rest of us stick to red wine. A few times during the meal they insist we do shots of coffee tequila.

The three of them ­– Walkinshaw, Strain, and singer/guitarist Ross Leighton ­– had a clear idea for what they wanted Sum of All Your Parts to be. Fortunately, and perhaps unusually for the music industry in 2018, their management and labels just let them get on with it.

“It’s so easy to get nervous as a band, to think you need to have certain things on your record. But we thought ‘Fuck it’, this is good enough to keep us doing what we want to do,” Strain says.

“You need to be able to justify your music to yourself,” Leighton agrees.

“I would like a four-bedroom flat though,” Strain throws in.

One moment that helped launch the band’s career was when the late Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit saw them play a local gig, and got them a support slot for a HMV’s Next Big Thing show when they were 16. Strain says Hutchison left an “indelible legacy” on every band that has, or ever will listen to his music.

“We’ve had references to Frightened Rabbit since we started this band,” Leighton says. “It’s such a tragedy that Scott’s not with us anymore. Midnight Organ Fight was my breakup album.” He adds a self-aware: “It’s everyone’s f***ing breakup album… It’s a modern classic. And people thought that well before Scott passed. That didn’t change people’s views of his music. Everybody thought it was an incredible record well before that.”

“Midnight Organ Fight has been the best thing to come out of Scottish music in the last 20 years,” Walkinshaw adds. “We have reference points to Pedestrian Verse [Frightened Rabbit’s fourth record] on this album, too. I’d seen them countless times live, and Grant [Hutchison, Scott’s brother and the drummer for Frightened Rabbit] blew my mind every time I saw them play. The things he would do, and the way the band performed together, how personable they were with the crowd, the songwriting… All that was inspirational for us.”

Sum of All Your Parts is a “happier” record than 2014’s I Am An Island or 2016’s Open Book (they credit new relationships as having something to do with that). Yet the new album still manages something only Scottish bands seem capable of: a kind of anthemic, uplifting instrumentation contrasted against wry, often dark or introspective lyrics.

“A lot of bands will joke that it’s the weather, and that’s why you spend a lot of time in your house playing guitar or something,” Strain says. “But I think we have this incredible wealth of identity to draw on. We love so many bands that have been before us. It’s a cliche to talk about that community but, there really is one in Scotland.”

“It’s cathartic, rather than depressing,” Leighton adds of that Scottish “sound”. “I also think we don’t take ourselves too seriously. There’s a certain pocket of bands from here with very similar outlooks. I never find much music from England that has a lot of reflection. And with every Scottish band that’s a very common thing. It’s a self-awareness, that ties bands from different genres together.”

“We wanted to have fun on this record,” he says, “and make music that we really love. I think we’ve done it more on this album than on anything else. I really hope that comes through, because that was what it was all about.”

They didn’t feel any strong urge to start raging against Brexit on their third album. Leighton believes there’s more to talk about in music than politics and ideology, and he wanted Fatherson’s record to hit a few different notes.

“I think it’s kind of terrifying that someone might hear a single point of view on a song and that’d be their single ideology for then on,” Strain says. “There’s nothing wrong with expressing your views in music, but when you start getting mixed in with those kinds of things, you need to be careful with how people interpret it. Because you’re putting yourself in this position of responsibility.”

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Fatherson seem to be careful about not putting too much pressure on themselves to be successful. They’re ambitious, certainly, and they want more people to hear their music. But they’re not harbouring any secret dreams of fame and fortune.

“Thing is, we never started out wanting to be famous, at least not that much,” Strain says with a shrug. “I’ve got my two best pals. We’re also very fortunate because the family around our band have a very similar view of our music as we do.”

“We don’t have a desire to be rich,” Leighton says. “What’s been wonderful over the past year though is that none of us have had to have a shite job while we were working on the album. We can afford to buy a wee pornstar martini if we want to. Or a wee glass of wine. We get to enjoy each other’s company, have this amazing connection with fans, and hopefully continue making music for at least another couple of years.”

‘The Sum of All Your Parts’ is out now. Fatherson tour the UK from 2 October