Owl John

Owl John is a solo musical project by Frightened Rabbit vocalist and guitarist Scott Hutchison, formed in 2014. Regarding Owl John and his decision to release a solo record, Hutchison noted, "It was approximately 10 years ago that I started a band called Frightened Rabbit. In that time I've dedicated so much of my life to that good wee band with a stupid name, I felt it was time to indulge [Owl] John."^[1]

Hutchison recorded the project's sole album, Owl John (2014), alongside his Frightened Rabbit bandmate Andy Monaghan and the band's touring guitarist Simon Liddell.

History

In January 2014, whilst touring in support of Frightened Rabbit's fourth studio album, Pedestrian Verse (2013), vocalist and guitarist Scott Hutchison expressed his desire to record solo material without the band, stating: "The process has to be different, otherwise I’m just going to make a Frightened Rabbit-sounding record, which I really don’t want to do."^[2] The idea for a solo album stemmed from Frightened Rabbit's label, Atlantic Records: "It was actually the idea of the label to make it rather than me. I thought we were going to get off tour and go straight back into writing another album, and the guy at the label knew things weren't really quite right. He basically was like, 'We'll pay for this record. Go away, make a record and indulge yourself.'"^[3]

The following month, work began on the album, on the Isle of Mull, with bandmate Andy Monaghan producing, alongside Simon Liddell.

Released on 4 August 2014, the self-titled album debuted at number ninety-nine on the UK Albums Chart,^[4] and number seventeen on the Scottish Albums Chart.

Discography

• Owl John (2014)

References