The Fratellis - Gone Today or Still Here Tomorrow?

The Fratellis debut album 'Costello Music' has already gone platinum, live shows are selling out in minutes, and fourth single Whistle for the Choir is currently getting solid radio play. Pretty good for three Glaswegian lads who met while working at a fairground that had "seven shitty rides and never got any further than St Andrews," according to songwriter, lead vocalist and guitarist Jon Fratelli. Jon took time out of a mental touring schedule (120 shows already this year, and counting) to have a blether with The Skinny. What we wanted to know was – is there any substance behind their style?

"We always have been a band that's about the songs, not the style. Unless you've got decent songs, you're not going to get far and you'll end up miserable." Jon continues in a thick Glaswegian accent, "People have accused us of being manufactured by the label, especially since things have happened so quickly after we signed with Island. But if you wanted to put together a band you wouldn't pick us - we look fucking terrible half the time."

Peculiar then that they've been nominated for a Scottish Style Award. "Oh my God, that's wrong. Everyone knows that Franz Ferdinand are Scotland's most stylish band. I don't know – maybe we're stylish because we've got no style."

It has seemed like a suspiciously speedy rise to fame since The Fratellis formed in March 2005, but Jon disagrees. "I don't know what the rules are on these things, but we've spent a lot of time playing in dives to crowds of only ten to fifteen. We've had to put up with a lot of shit to get here, wherever here is."

Their punchy, hook-laden songs, complete with infectious openings and catchy choruses, are perfect for the radio. The Fratellis have been accused of cashing in on the success of similar bands, who have proven the marketability of the 'indie-pop' sound, such as the Arctic Monkeys and Kaiser Chiefs, with some critics adamant that they won't last. "If you haven't got a second record in you," Jon fires back, "well you're fucked; you're a fucking disgrace and should have never got a record deal in the first place. Next up we're going to release a double album, just to get past all those difficult third album problems."

These are ambitious claims, but Jon elaborates: "I'm obsessed with making records, and I don't want us to be a band that breaks, then puts no time into the second album and it turns out crap. There are loads of bands around like that right now, and that's not going to be us. We're not going to disappoint."

That's what you'd expect them to say, and there's not much that can be done to silence the growing hoards of music critics condemning their sound as derivative. Every new band has its influences; it's just that The Fratellis wear them very proudly on their sleeves. Jon describes their sound as "an extreme version of 50s rock and roll. [...] I've always thought of us as a soundtrack to an invisible burlesque show."

Wow, umm, okay then. The band also love playing live: "On stage we give everything we've fucking got, but we don't stage dive and shit, or put on a huge show; we just play it the only way we can play it; it seems to be enough because we watch the crowd and they're knocking lumps out of each other, generally just causing fucking havoc. We're almost like a backing band for that as well."

It's not like The Fratellis are the only band attempting to break through in the current indie-friendly music climate. The reason they're being so vehemently criticised by some music journalists could be because their music isn't intense, layered and almost impenetrable, or possibly it's because they've managed to get the success so many others with a similar sound are still craving - Dirty Pretty Things anyone?

The British press is notorious for hyping a band to fever pitch one week and forgetting they exist the next, but this didn't happen with The Fratellis. "I don't feel like that band at all. Albums come out covered in stickers with all these amazing quotes; on ours the only one we had was from the NME (who called them "the best new band in Britain") and they're really the only magazine that's done the whole hype thing. If there is big hype it'll start somewhere and travel around, coming from all different sources, and we haven't had that at all. We get a lot of press right now, but we're a band on tour and our album is doing well - so fair enough."

So how does Jon feel now that they are flavour of the month? "We don't mind the media. If the worst that happens is that you do some interviews and get your picture taken, then Jesus man, it's not that bad is it? As long as we get to play an hour set a day, we're happy."

What about the less glamorous side of the press – the tabloids and their rumour mills? "It's kind of bizarre. I always figured before that happened someone would ring you up and say: 'Right, today's the day you've become tabloid'. We don't care because there's not that much to write unless you're into doing naughty things to donkeys. Even if you're in a band that does copious amounts of drugs, that's not even a big deal anymore."

In a recent live performance for BBC Two Scotland's The Music Show, many people including The Skinny observed that the band appeared tired, and several tabloids have reported that The Fratellis are taking a month off due to exhaustion. "That's bullshit. We've been busy but we're no more tired than anyone else. When you're doing it constantly every three or four weeks, you do hit a bit of a brick wall. We're alright just now though."

So if it wasn't the press that broke The Fratellis, how did they get so popular so quickly? Most likely it was the constant radio airplay, a kind of support that has only intensified over recent months, as evidenced by their impressive record sales. To those who don't see The Fratellis lasting this isn't an indication of quality, though. They would instead argue that most songs played on the radio satisfy a certain easy to digest format, and are crap anyway.

So we're back to the original question - whether or not The Fratellis have any substance to go with their style? They've had chart success, but for the most part the charts are filled with the short, easy to appreciate music that makes it onto the radio. What about music industry awards like the Mercury prize then? It's an eclectic enough list, but the winners are notorious for never doing much else, a similar fate to that predicted by some critics of The Fratellis. Last year it was Anthony and the Johnsons (who?) and then this year the Arctic Monkeys, who get lambasted by the same allegations of 'pop-indie-shite' as The Fratellis.

Both The Fratellis and Arctic Monkeys gained massive followings before the press really caught on, so maybe we should be ignoring the press and prizes, instead just trawling the web and MySpace to judge for ourselves – music on the internet is a lot cheaper (see 'free').

Jon Fratelli wouldn't have a problem with that: "I don't really know my way around the Internet. What else do people use it for but porn? If they want to download our stuff illegally, fair dos, because if they like it then they'll come and see us play live. We're not total mercenaries."

Regardless of whether or not The Fratelli's release a second album, their critics doubt anyone will be paying attention. This is possibly because their critics (predominately independent media sources such as Sound Generator, Drowned in Sound and Pitchfork - conspicuous for their lack of Fratellis coverage) despise them for being so popular, achieving the success desired by supposedly more talented artists who have been toiling away for years. What if sources such as these had covered The Fratellis when they were playing the smaller venues in Glasgow before they were famous? What star rating would they have received then?

Or is it that these critics have been part of the music industry for so long that they are obsessed with the bands that broke when they were teenagers, that were condemned by published journalists years ago? In ten years will today's teenagers be listening to the next big thing, calling it crap because they are nowhere near as good as The Fratellis?

It is interesting to note that this album has gained nothing but praise from the mainstream press, calling into question credibility on both sides – do the mainstream press hand out favourable reviews simply because an artist is popular, and do independent sources routinely condemn the popular to retain their musical integrity?

Music reviewing conjecture aside, The Fratellis' take on the pop-indie genre is not revolutionary but it is unique, and it takes rare skill to write so many songs packed with infectious hooks, catchy lyrics and bouncing, rollicking beats. Any album with four singles and counting must have some something, and while it might be immediately accessible surely songs with broad appeal shouldn't necessarily be considered bad, especially with such brilliant lyrics whose true meaning become apparent with repeated listens, the wee stories created by Jon having a real resonance with contemporary Scottish culture. Hopefully if you are a fan you've already got tickets for their two shows at the Glasgow Barrowlands, since they both sold out in minutes.

"You're meant to be cool about these things but fuck that, for people to be so excited, well we're as excited as they are. That venue man, it's been getting closed down for years' and I hope it never happens. If it does, maybe we'll buy it. I'd probably have to fucking live in it as well. Imagine that, spunking all your money and living in the Barras."