• News

• All

Nov 05, 2018 By Charles Steinberg Owl John

Back in May, Scott Hutchison, 36-year-old frontman for Scotland’s Frightened Rabbit, was found dead of apparent suicide after he was earlier reported missing by the band. His final release in his lifetime was Dance Music, a really fantastic debut album released in April by supergroup Mastersystem, which featured Hutchison alongside his brother Grant Hutchison (also Frightened Rabbit’s drummer) and brothers Justin and James Lockey of Editors and Minor Victories. Now Mastersystem has shared a video for the album’s “Old Team,” which the band are calling their final single. The video features footage from the band’s first and only tour. Watch it below.

For any fan of Hutchison and Frightened Rabbit, the video could be painful to watch. But it’s important. “Old Team will be released November 30 on vinyl (limited to 500 copies). All proceeds will be going to the Scott Hutchison foundation.

The band issued this statement about the video: “This footage was shot during the first and last Mastersystem tour. The great thing about it is it just shows a bunch of fellas, having the best time, ripping the piss out of each other, laughing and doing some shows. There’s something fucking brilliant about this…something free of the pressure that bands can turn into… That’s what Mastersystem was about, just a record, a band built from going back to how we all started, throwing riffs and cords around until it sounds something like a tune. No fuss.

This was Scott’s favorite tune on the record, and the spark that lit the paper that led to the whole Mastersystem album. It was always in our plans to be THE single off the record.

We’re very fucking proud of it, which is why we’re honoring our original plans to put it out. It will not be a thing to propel Mastersystem forward into new places, but serve as a monument to all involved and to all that listened….That we made a class record we all believe in.

Cheers for listening. Justin, Grant, James and Nick.”

In April we interviewed Hutchison about the Mastersystem album.

Frightened Rabbit released five studio albums: 2006’s Sing the Greys, 2008’s The Midnight Organ Fight, 2010’s The Winter of Mixed Drinks, 2013’s Pedestrian Verse, and 2016’s Painting of a Panic Attack. In 2014 Scott Hutchison released a solo album under the name Owl John.

You can also revisit our 2016 interview with Hutchison on Painting of a Panic Attack and our 2014 interview with Hutchison about the Scottish Independence Referendum.

Back in May we posted three tributes to Hutchison after his passing:

Read Michael Hall’s tribute.

Read Paul Bullock’s tribute.

Read Mischa Pearlman’s tribute.

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.