If arsing about was an Olympic sport, The Fratellis would be heading to Beijing in August instead of travelling to Australia to play Splendour In The Grass. During the promotion of their 2006 debut Costello Music, the Glasgow rock trio would systematically invent stories about the band to keep themselves amused. The trickery aggravated numerous journalists, but with more than 1,500,000 sales of the album to their name, The Fratellis laughed all the way to the bank.
“Probably the best stories were the fact that we were all Italian brothers and that Fratelli was my mother’s maiden name,” Barry Fratelli laughs. “It’s a load of shit.”
That one is still on your Wikipedia site as being true.
“Yeah, but my Gran could go in and change Wikipedia, you know what I mean? When you’re doing interviews all day long, you tell the truth in the first four and then you start to wander. By the time you get to nine and 10 you’d be talking absolute nonsense.
“It probably damaged us at home to be honest, because no one wanted to interview us after that since they couldn’t get a straight answer out of us. We made a conscious effort to be better this time. You end up spending too much time answering questions about the lies you made up rather than the music, which is what you were supposed to be talking about in the first place.”
Speaking from San Francisco while on a US promotional tour to promote second album, Here We Stand, Barry’s positive outlook reflects the upbeat cheer of new Fratellis tunes such as Shameless and Look Out Sunshine. Their way with catchy choruses has seen the band appearing on soundtracks for films such as Hot Fuzz. The Fratellis were personally invited by writers Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright to lend tunes to the 2007 British cop comedy.
“I’ve been a Spaced fan since it first came on TV and I loved Shaun Of The Dead, so I’m a huge fan of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright,” Barry explains. “Simon Pegg was a fan of the band from really early on as his wife is from Glasgow. We did a New Year’s Eve show in Glasgow and someone told us that Simon Pegg was there, so I think our involvement came from that. We were at this test screener up the back of the theatre pissing ourselves laughing. Who knows? Maybe some of the bits were kept in the movie because we were laughing so hard. I wouldn’t say we had sway, but we were a bit pissed when we went to it and probably inclined to laugh.”
Another high profile Fratellis fan is Roger Daltrey of The Who, who stated, “If The Who had come from Scotland they’d have been called The Fratellis” when introducing the band at his Teen Cancer Trust benefit gig.
“The Who for me are the be-all and end-all of rock‘n’roll and always have been since I was fucking 10 years old. To get somebody that you respect and love that much respecting you and your lot fucking blows me away. It’s a fantastic thing. To have the opportunity to work with the charity he’s a patron of is a great thing and we’re doing a lot of work for the Scottish leg of it. We definitely owe a lot to The Who and it’s nice to (I know it sounds wanky but it’s the truth) give a little back. To be working with your favourite band on a thing like that is cool as fuck and I still don’t believe it sometimes.”
Whenever The Fratellis become irritated by trivialities, the story of Glasgow youngster Calum Macleod puts their position back in perspective. The band dedicated Here We Stand to their 12-year-old fan, who died of meningitis in October and was buried wearing his Fratellis T-shirt.
“We’d heard about Calum Macleod, since his aunt works beside my sister in Glasgow and some of his mates had emailed us through the website. It wasn’t until we spoke to his mum that it completely flawed me and the rest of the boys as well. He was so young and he was struck down in a matter of two weeks. It was pretty much overnight and it completely blew me away. He was buried in his Fratellis T-shirt and they played Chelsea Dagger at his funeral. It definitely grounds you and makes you take stock of what you’ve got. We’ve met his family and helped raise awareness of the Meningitis Trust, but it makes you take a long hard look at yourself when you’re pissing on about things that don’t matter.”
Big on promoting rock forebears rather than contemporaries, Barry isn’t a fan of fellow million-selling Brits The Kooks and Arctic Monkeys.
“Different strokes for different folks, man. It’s just not my bag, baby. I missed the whole Arctic Monkeys thing for some reason. I didn’t see them coming and before I knew it they were everywhere.
“They’re fucking talented guys man and... That’s a lie actually. I was about to say that I wish I was as talented at their age, but I was,” Barry laughs. “I think The Kooks are absolutely pish to be honest, but that’s the beauty of music – everyone’s entitled to their own opinion.”
Unlike some fleeting scene stars, there seems little doubt that The Fratellis are in the music business simply to deliver solid rock songs. According to Barry, job benefits such as groupies are an illusion.
“I’ve never seen a groupie man, they don’t exist. Youngsters who want to live that rock dream should stay in school, because groupies don’t exist!”
Here We Stand is out now. The Fratellis perform at the sold out Splendour In The Grass, Byron Bay, Sat Aug 2 and Sun Aug 3.