Upon discovering that I had landed the opportunity to ask Barry Fratelli from The Fratellis questions, I immediately began researching my subject as any writer would. I stumbled upon a recent interview with Barry, in which he basically confessed to lying to music reporters because they in turn lie about him and his band. All the excitement I had felt only half an hour ago slowly evaporated as I started to wonder what I was getting myself into.

The interview started, and to much to my relief Barry was actually a decent guy who gave me more than just one word answers. When it comes to their debut album Costello Music, Barry cannot stand the music he and his fellow band members created. He blames producer Tony Hoffer for morphing their music into something that it just wasn’t. “That album was foreign right from the start. We became a different band about two months after the album came out, and we realised that the album didn’t fit with us as a band.”

According to Barry, Tony Hoffer put an ‘American pop sheen’ over their music, concentrating on making the album a commercial success rather than producing music of a good quality. The Fratellis had only preformed a handful of live shows prior to working on Costello Music, so they had not yet discovered a unique sound that comes from playing together exhaustively.

He is, however, a lot happier with his band’s latest album Here We Stand. Barry believes that the true essence of The Fratellis has finally been encapsulated. Having been put off of producers in general, the band decided that the only way they were going to make the album they wanted was for them to produce it themselves. “We really just wanted an album that would capture the sound of us playing in a room,” says Barry in his almost-impenetrable Scottish accent.

The band’s lead singer Jon Fratelli writes the majority of the songs for the band, with Barry and drummer Mince Fratelli helping Jon out when he is short of inspiration. Although Jon may be the songwriter, Barry is adamant that he will not be told what to do. He will play the guitar how he feels it should be played and not the other way around.

Last year the band got what I though was an incredible once in a lifetime opportunity to be the supporting act for The Police on their Reunion Tour. But of course Barry sees things differently. “It was a great experience, yeah. But they weren’t really the band for us. I mean, we were playing at baseball stadiums in America, performing for people who had earplugs in.”

Yes, it seems that as The Police have started to get older, so too have the crowds that they pull. The audience was far too placid and snobbish for Barry’s liking. Throughout the conversation I had with the bass guitarist I could not seem to get a reaction out of him. That was until I asked him about finally coming to Australia for Splendour In The Grass and select sideshows in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. “I am very excited about coming over. We have friends in Australia so I can’t wait to catch up with them,” says Barry with a slight emphasis on the word ‘very’.

By this stage I was a bit more at ease chatting to Barry, so I asked him about the interview I had read earlier where he blasts journalists. “It just gets tiring being constantly fucking asked where we got the name of our band, you know? I mean, yeah, we got it from movie The Goonies, but what fucking difference does that make? We just want people to write about our music,” he says, almost sadly.

To conclude the interview, I ask Barry what he considered to be the band’s biggest achievement so far. He proceeds to tell me how The Fratellis played on a recent episode of The Jools Holland Show that airs on BBC, which he assures me is the most popular show in Britain. Much to Barry’s amazement one of his all time favourite musicians was also on the show that night. It was none other than Robert Plant. Other than his brush with a living legend, Barry is pleased that he and his band don’t let their record company determine their music.

“As a band, you can’t let the record company tell you what to do. Otherwise you will sound the same as every other band that’s out there right now. Most music now sounds the same to me. It bores the shit out of me.”

He may have been the most challenging person I have had the privilege to interview so far, due to the “you’re wasting my time” vibe I got from him, but his candidness is something to be admired. His band may be doing phenomenally well, yet Barry can still see things for what they’re worth.

Here We Stand is out through Universal Music. The Fratellis are bringing their roguish charm to the following stages this winter:

Thursday July 31 – Capitol, Perth – Sold Out
Saturday August 2 – Splendour In The Grass – Sold Out
Monday August 4 – Hi Fi Bar, Melbourne – Sold Out
Tuesday August 5 – Hi Fi Bar, Melbourne – Sold Out
Wednesday August 6 – Metro Theatre, Sydney – Sold Out