| Best new band, official: The Fratellis |
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| "our drummer and bass player had put up ads in a music shop looking for bandmates – and we kind of got together by mistake through those ads" |
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I heard a rumour that NME last month proclaimed The Fratellis as 'the best new band in Britain', which is rather irritating, because we were proclaiming them that six months ago, but I never got round to running an interview with them in which to make such proclamations formal. I’d like to say I was holding out for the album release before running the interview, but the truth is I just never got round to it, despite first chatting to the band just as they headed out to SXSW back in March. It was a foolish thing to do, because now you'll all think we've just jumped on The Fratellis bandwagon, as set in motion by the NME.
But we were there first. Were the NME there when The Fratellis stormed the Levi's Ones To Watch night at the Camden Barfly six months ago? Were they there when the band packed out the basement of Glasgow's Nice 'n' Sleazy to a joyous, sell-out home crowd? Actually, chances are they were, but that's not the point. We're taking the credit for the buzz around this Glasgow based trio, and that's that.
Actually, the buzz around the Fratellis was pretty loud before either we or the NME started raving about them – in fact, they seem to have been buzzy since day one. "It all happened very quickly", frontman Jon Fratelli admits. "We only seemed to play a few gigs, and suddenly lots of people wanted to know about us. Graham Lowe, Kasabian's manager, had just got a job at Island Records and he heard about us. He came to see us, and pretty soon after that we got signed. We didn't do anything – we hadn't sent in any demos or anything like that – and suddenly these big record labels were coming to us, buying us loads of drinks, and taking us out to all these swanky London bars. And then we were in the Island Records office doing a deal – it all happened so quickly, it felt like the whole thing was done in the time it took us to raid the Island CD cabinet".
For a new band to gain such quick success won't be very encouraging for those indie bands who have been gigging hard for years awaiting their big break, though The Fratellis do offer hope for those aspiring musicians currently recruiting band mates through laser printed notices in their local record shop.
"We're the best advert for placing adverts there is. Both our drummer and bass player had put up ads in a music shop looking for bandmates – and we kind of got together by mistake through those ads. Again, it was that simple".
You might say that The Fratellis have had more than their fair share of luck so far, though it should be stressed that their quick rise from first gig to major record deal to rave reviews from esteemed music media like NME and CMU was not all down to chance. Their incredibly refreshing, incredibly catchy, incredibly upbeat brand of indie rock was pretty essential.
"There's too much depressing stuff going on in the world for people to be making depressing music", Jon says, when I tell him what a breath of fresh air their debut EP had been. "I have a real problem with a lot of guitar bands. We wanted to make music that was happy and exciting. I love the Flaming Lips – I saw them live once and it was the best fun gig I'd ever been to. Surely it's more fun being in a band where you make everyone happy?"
If you haven't yet heard The Fratellis' music (and if you haven't, that means you haven't been listening to the CMU radio show, which is a shocking admission) then we suggest you do whatever it is necessary to do to get yourself a copy of their debut album ‘Costello Music’ which is out on Monday (actually, you can preview the whole thing right now on their MySpace – http://www.myspace.com/littlebabyfratelli).
And if you can, try and track them down when they next play live, because they really do gig well. And what better way to spend an evening than with the "Best New Band In Britain"? Just remember who said it first, alright?
Some The Fratellis plugging:
The Fratellis' album 'Costello Music' is released on 11 Sep 2006 on Universal Island.
chris@unlimitedmedia.co.uk - published sep 2005
