Scott Hutchison: Frightened Rabbit frontman who channelled his sense of alienation and desolation into songs

The Scottish singer-songwriter admitted he was ‘drawn to the negatives in life – I dwell on them and they consume me’

Frightened Rabbit’s name came from a maternal nickname in recognition of Hutchison’s diffidence – he described himself as a ‘chronically shy’ child (Rex)

Scott Hutchison’s talent, charisma and wit as a performer with the Scottish indie-rock band Frightened Rabbit ran parallel to serious mental health issues. With one of the biggest shows in their 15-year history five weeks away, the 36-year-old was found dead two days after going missing.

Hutchison was due to lead Frightened Rabbit at the Meltdown Festival on London’s South Bank next month after they were invited by curator Robert Smith of The Cure. He never hid the fact that he suffered from depression but would reassure fans who contacted him about their anxieties via social media that “there’s always hope”. He also co-founded a project with indie and alt-folk singers and musicians to raise awareness of such problems.

Shortly before his death Hutchison revealed in an interview with noisey.vice.com that he felt uncomfortable discussing his illness, preferring to channel his sense of alienation and desolation into songs. He estimated his state of well-being at the time as “pretty fine, middling, a solid six out of 10” but admitted he was “drawn to the negatives in life – I dwell on them and they consume me”.

The trait was conspicuous in the lyric to “Floating in the Forth”, the standout track on Frightened Rabbit’s 2008 breakthrough album The Midnight Organ Fight, an intensely personal, thematic set which drew on the end of Hutchison’s relationship with Shell Jubin. The song started with his singing: “Am I ready to leap? Is there peace beneath the roar of the Forth Road Bridge?”, only to conclude: “I think I’ll save suicide for another year.”

Hutchison (second right) and Frightened Rabbit released five albums (Rex)

A week before his body was found on the banks of the Firth of Forth, Hutchison confessed he had “been 90 per cent of the way” through the lyric “in real life”. He felt “gratified and heartened” to know he was still “alive and feeling good about [performing the song]” yet wondered how his parents felt hearing him articulate suicidal thoughts when Frightened Rabbit played in Glasgow.

Hutchison was born and grew up at Selkirk in the Borders before attending Glasgow School of Art to study illustration (he designed the artwork for the group’s recorded output). Frightened Rabbit’s name came from a maternal nickname in recognition of his diffidence – he described himself as a “chronically shy” child – and was intended as a solo project in 2003. As he found he was a strong singer as well as a fine guitarist, it expanded into a duo featuring Scott’s brother Grant.

Their debut album, Sing the Greys, was released by the Hits the Fan label in 2006. Frightened Rabbit grew into a three-piece, signing to Fat Cat Records and releasing the bleak, beautiful and critically acclaimed Midnight Organ Fight (its title a euphemism for sexual intercourse), which Hutchison wrote in its entirety. The Winter of Mixed Drinks, Pedestrian Verse and Painting of a Panic Attack followed, by which point they were a quintet and recording for the fabled Atlantic label. On tour in North America, they appeared on TV’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Hutchison became a whisky connoisseur, having first drunk it in his teens to give him the confidence to ask out a girl. At 19 he worked in a Glasgow shop which specialised in the spirit, later self-mockingly telling Q magazine how he schmoozed customers with talk of “hints of Caramac bar” and “the smell of mossy bark”.

Despite moving to Los Angeles in 2014, he continued to collaborate with British musicians. He formed the occasional band Mastersystem with members of Editors and Minor Victories, their album Dance Music spawning the single “Notes on a Life Not Quite Lived” this year.

Hutchison previously participated in a Scottish collective, The Fruit Tree Foundation, whose 2011 album First Edition aimed to “challenge perceptions of mental health problems by creating great art”. He also released a solo set under the name Owl John in 2014, but his first love remained Frightened Rabbit who recently toured the UK to mark the 10th anniversary of their cult album.

Scott Hutchison, singer, songwriter, guitarist and artist, born 20 November 1981, died 10 May 2018