These Disastrous Times: A Personal Reflection of the Tragic Passing of Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchinson

The recent sad news regarding Scott Hutchinson of Scottish band FRIGHTENED RABBIT has deeply moved the Distorted Sound team. As some of us on the editorial team also experience some problems with mental health, our album reviews editor Eddie Sims felt compelled to pen some thoughts surrounding the whole event…

I discovered the music of FRIGHTENED RABBIT properly, for the first time today. The innocence that they front hides a raw and fragile underside that makes their music such impassioned listening. Given my love for the emotional charged energy that so many bands bring it’s almost criminal that I didn’t listen to them sooner, but given everything FRIGHTENED RABBIT, and their frontman Scott Hutchinson, have been through there was weird sense of duty to bring them into my musical library.

The tragic recent events have effected me more than I want to admit, and it’s odd and almost unjust because of how little I knew about the band beforehand. This situation is another incredibly frank reminder that the biggest killer of men under 45 is ourselves. Suicide is a plague among men and it’s something we’ve known about for a while now, yet these events still happen. Chester Bennington, Chris Cornell and Justin Lowe are all recent examples and as you go back further the list simply grows. People we look up to as heroes who we forget are as fragile as we all are.

I think the reason this has hit me so hard is because I understand the want to just run away, to be alone, to just not be. That’s a feeling too many of us feel, and thinking about someone feeling enough pain to remove themselves from their loved ones lives is a bleak thought.

It’s not surprising, nearly all of the best songs ever written are based in some sort of extreme emotion, either good or bad. People seek solace in finding other people with the same struggle, and artists find release in the creation of their work, but this is sometimes not enough. For Scott it wasn’t enough, and it’s horrible to know that he felt like this was his burden alone to bear.

For the artists out there, if your music is something that you find solace in, please continue to create. Just promise that if it gets too much that you’ll reach out, that you’ll find someone. For those who don’t have that outlet, remember, there is always someone to talk to, and if that doesn’t work spill your pain onto paper, get it out and away from your mind.

The final song on FRIGHTENED RABBIT‘s Pedestrian Verse is a painful listen given what’s happened now. The final moments are filled with such tragic hope that it resonates even stronger now than it must have done when they first released it. Oil Slick is the metaphor used by Scott for his emotional words, but he forgets that oil can be cleaned. I hope Scott‘s at peace now, he deserves it.

Please remember that there are so many charities and helplines out there that are available to talk and help you through issues. If you don’t know who to turn too, or want to just get some anonymous help through tough moments, please don’t hesitate to call one of these numbers:

Samaritans: 

116 123

Mind:

0300 123 3393

Music Minds Matter:

0808 802 8008