The Fratellis Don't Have Time For Debauchery

The Fratellis may have a name that Jarvis Cocker referred to as "sounding like a family-run firm of ice cream manufacturers," but the Scottish band are far from shilling frozen treats.

Instead, they're riding a wave of fame brought on by the use of their jangly single "Flathead" in the newest iPod commercial.

"I'm not that precious about lending our music to it," says singer/guitarist Jon Fratelli. "It's just an advert.

"I'm not going to go on my high horse and say we're facilitating corporate music or whatever. I have no care if we end up only being recognized for that one song, because there's bands that'll go out to America and Canada and not get anywhere. They'll go there five times a year and still play to 150 people or less. So if we can go out there and have our audiences be bigger because of 'Flathead,' I'm sure anyone with a good set of ears will know that there's more to us than that one song, you know? We're not going to hate it or be ashamed of it because it was on an advert."

More proof that The Fratellis aren't set to be one-hit wonders is the fact that they received the British Breakthrough Act at this year's Brit Awards. This was something of an upset, as most believed The Kooks or Lily Allen were favourites to win, not three young rockers from Glasgow. So, what was going through their heads when their name was announced?

"The champagne, mostly," Fratelli says with a laugh. "I think somebody actually showered us with champagne — they wasted about three bottles in the space of 11 seconds.

"I can't remember what we were actually thinking, though. We were happy that it was one of the only awards that was voted for by the public and not, you know, whoever votes for the other ones. The award isn't the kind of thing that we pay that much attention to, really, but I would never disrespect it since it was a fan-voted thing. That made it mean more to us than it would otherwise."

Even with the loads of champagne, it doesn't seem that The Fratellis got up to any major antics at the show. In fact, says Fratelli, that whole raucous image "has never been something that interests me particularly."

"We have our late nights, but we don't seem to have too much time for debauchery. If we could fetch some, that might be very nice, but there never seems to be any time for it. I think there's a lot of bands with too much time on their hands."

Those groups that Fratelli refers to (not by name, though; they're wary of such statements since their NME-publicized "feud" with indie goth-punks The Horrors) are typically the ones that end up splashed all over the back pages of U.K. tabloids like The Sun, a scene that The Fratellis want nothing to do with.

"We still end up in the papers, but usually by mistake," Fratelli says sheepishly. "It's usually the photographer's fault when they point the camera at your face and you end up losing your head at them, then loads of them end up swarming you like a pack of wolves, and next week, you're in a picture screaming and shouting at them.

"It's really not that flattering when you're in the paper shouting. You can't help but look terrible. And then your mom sees it and gets annoyed at you and asks why you're sticking your fingers up at people and why you're quite obviously shouting 'Fuck you' to photographers. But me, I try to behave and not have things happen because of one crazy night."