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Adding folksy flair to the Glasgow scene, Scottish rockers Frightened Rabbit have brought acoustic guitars and a decidedly alt-country influence to the land that birthed the likes of Belle & Sebastian and Franz Ferdinand. A mellow quartet clad in plaid, the band is a far cry from the outlandish Scotsmen depicted in Trainspotting. With a penchant for American folk and brotherly ties (frontman Scott and drummer Grant) to cement the sound, Frightened Rabbit has more in common with grunge-grass outfit the Avett Brothers, as opposed to the stereotypically punky UK-ers. Perhaps this difference explains why the band has achieved greater popularity and commercial success in the United States than Europe or the UK. Or could such American flocking be attributed to Frightened Rabbit’s last album, The Midnight Organ Fight’s 8.1 Pitchfork rating? Is it Scottish accent fetishism?

Regardless, Frightened Rabbit proved their folk-pop appeal during the band’s performance last Thursday at the Courtyard Café. Beginning with a rousing rendition of “The Modern Leper,” the critically acclaimed opener to The Midnight Organ Fight, the band started a set that sadly clocked in at just shorter than an hour. Audience receptivity heightened with the noisy opening chords to “I Feel Better,” the video to which was recently nominated in a contest for UK’s MTV2. After rounding out the set with a few standouts from their melancholic debut Sing the Greys, the Scottish lads concluded with the tragically defeatist, brutally frank “Keep Yourself Warm.” The hushed audience stared in rapt attention as Scott dejectedly crooned, “It takes more than f***ing someone to keep yourself warm.”

Luckily for buzz, the band’s frontman and founder Scott Hutchison took a pre-show break for a casual chat on the Union’s cozy couches about life on the road and Scottish appeal.

buzz: What’s been your experience touring in the U.S.?

Hutchison: This is our fourth full tour. Everyone is into the band a lot more over here than in the UK and Europe. Coming over here is a huge surprise since no major publications in the UK support us all that much. There’s a lot of popularity and enthusiasm for the band over here. It’s about romance and ancestry. There’s an idealistic notion of Scotland and Scottish music that people like to tap into.

buzz: In your opinion, what genre best captures Frightened Rabbit’s sound?

Hutchison: At its root, it’s folk music. But because of my pop sensibility, I would say its more ‘folk-pop’ than anything.

buzz: You started out as a solo act, and now you’re up to four members. Are you still looking to recruit?

Hutchison: I guess it depends on how our next record turns out. The trend has been one new member per year for the past four years. If we need more, we’ll add one or two. If we don’t, I’m totally happy with how it is now.

buzz: How did it feel when Pitchfork dubbed The Midnight Organ Fight the ‘best album of the year thusfar’ when it was first reviewed?

Hutchison: That was one person at Pitchfork. The UK Pitchfork is not a big deal. Them saying that is no different, has no added weight than a fan coming up to us after a show and saying how much they loved us.

buzz: What are your main musical influences?

Hutchison: We have FM radio in our van, so definitely popular radio. The Band, Bob Dylan, TV on the Radio, Ryan Adams, especially Gold and his Whiskeytown records. Wilco is one of my favorite bands of all time. I like American country music, but not Kenny Rogers necessarily.

buzz: Do you have an all-time favorite album?

Hutchison: It’d have to be a tie between Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Soundgarden’s Superunknown.

buzz: What do you make of the bands Frightened Rabbit has been compared to?

Hutchison: One I don’t like very much is our comparison to the Counting Crows. Sometimes people see things in music that you don’t intend to be there. It’d be nice to be compared to something like Neutral Milk Hotel or Wilco.

buzz: Any thoughts on the contemporary ‘Glasgow scene’?

Hutchison: It would be nice to be included in that. I think we’ve digested different sources from all those bands. However, we’re no longer the ‘new thing’ around town. Right now, it’s The Twilight Sad and We Were Promised Jetpacks.

buzz: Any last words for Champaign-Urbana?

Hutchison: Get the record. Buy it. No wait — download it for free. I don’t care about that; I was a student once.