FRIGHTENED Rabbit have rediscovered their more intimate side, and it's helped them crack the Top 10.

Pedestrian Verse hit the charts last week, ahead of the band playing a sold out Barrowland gig next Thursday.

The record marks a change for the Selkirk group, with songs written by the whole band as opposed to just singer Scott Hutchison.

"I was developing patterns of working that I wasn't happy with, and it felt like we were losing steam," explains Scott.

"It was very obvious to involve everyone else and refresh the process."

And the rest of the band were delighted to get more involved.

"Recording wise, this time we were definitely a band in a way we weren't before," says Scott's brother Grant, the group's drummer.

That change would seem to sum up just how Frightened Rabbit have grown. Originally it was just Scott, but when debut album Sing The Greys was released in 2006 they were up to a three-piece.

Follow-up The Midnight Organ Fight saw guitarist Andy Monaghan join the crew, and the record was a hit with critics in both Britain and America.

The Winter of Mixed Drinks in 2010 continued that success (and brought Gordon Skene to the band), but after Organ Fight brutally detailed a relationship breakdown Scott feels he retreated with his writing, some-thing he was keen to avoid with Pedestrian Verse.

"On the last album I didn't feel like being close to the listener, but this time I realised that's probably what people liked about us in the first place, that intimacy. Going back to that has helped us."

Yet with the new writing style and signing to major label Atlantic Records, it hasn't all been plain sailing over the past three years. Now, though, things are on a more even keel.

While Scotland has adored the band for years, and gigging has earned them fame in America, the rest of the UK has just started to discover them.

However, Scott is setting no limits on how big the band can get.

"Saying 'I want to reach this level and no higher' is unhealthy," he says.

"It's about making the best album you can first, but at the back of your mind you don't want to end up working in a pub because I want making music to be my job."

l Frightened Rabbit, Barrowland, February 28, 7pm, sold out