If you already know something in regards to the Chicago indie-rock band Ratboysit in all probability issues their likeability. Ratboys are a likeable band. They’re likeable as a result of they make actually good music, and they’re likeable as a result of they’ve made actually good music persistently over the course of 11 years and 6 albums. (Their newest, Singin’ To An Empty Chairarrives February 6.) However they’re additionally likeable as a result of they work exhausting, they journey just about wherever and all over the place, they usually do their jobs with kindness and professionalism. They’re likeable the way in which your mailman is likeable.
The “Ratboys are likeable” narrative is the bedrock of Ratboys’ media protection. And that’s all nicely and good. However let’s be frank: That is boring. And I’m satisfied it doesn’t inform the entire story. What, as an illustration, is unlikeable about this band? Why doesn’t anybody ever ask about that? What are these folks hiding?
“Oh, that’s such query,” Ratboys singer-songwriter Julia Steiner replied once I introduced this up throughout a current telephone dialog. Her voice was brilliant, sunny, and heat. I might use one other phrase to explain her tone, an adjective that begins with “L.” However I received’t.
“Holy crap,” she continued. “I want the fellows have been on the decision as a result of nothing’s coming to thoughts.”
So, you’re saying the fellows are the unlikeable ones within the band?
“They’re in all probability fairly unlikable,” Steiner mentioned. She was joking. It was fairly charming. And in addition actually lik- ah, Jesus Christ.
“No, God, I’m making an attempt to assume. I imply, I positively have fixations on artwork that most individuals wouldn’t tolerate. Within the van, I generally pressure the fellows to hearken to… nicely, really I don’t pressure them. I’ve discovered my lesson about that. I like listening to point out tunes and I’m fairly obsessed to possibly an unhealthy diploma with the 2019 movie Cats. I like terrifying uncanny valley artwork, however that’s not unlikable.”
No, Julia, it’s not. A fixation on a campy cinematic catastrophe, once more, is sort of charming! It’s like in a job interview once you ask somebody, “What’s your worst trait?” And the particular person says, “I work too exhausting.”
“Yeah, that’s form of a cop-out reply,” Steiner admitted. “I imply, that is one thing that I speak about with my sister. I introduced it up together with her yesterday, I’m like, ‘Man, I’m the least mysterious particular person on the planet, so it’s exhausting for me to form of construct that up. I wouldn’t even actually need to attempt artificially.’”
This was going nowhere quick. I hadn’t but gotten round to Singin’ To An Empty Chaira hyper-catchy pop-rock report with some significantly darkish overtones. Darker, in truth, than any Ratboys album but. It was recorded at a cabin within the “driftless space” of southwestern Wisconsin, a area that sounds foreboding on paper however in actuality is a scenic panorama composed of inexperienced rolling hills, lakes loaded with pontoon boats, and small cities outfitted with bountiful go-kart tracks and drive-in burger locations.
Which explains why Empty Chair (at the least musically) is hardly a Bon Iver-esque isolationist downer, however relatively a sonic growth of Ratboys’ normal mixture of crunchy emo-pop and punky alt-country. The music contrasts with Steiner’s introspective lyrics, which dwell on the challenges of interpersonal communication whereas veering into therapy-speak. (The title alludes to a psychiatric train by which a affected person speaks to an imagined particular person.) Steiner had an unnamed estranged cherished one in thoughts when she was writing songs just like the album’s eight-minute centerpiece “Simply Need You To Know The Reality,” the place she appears to handle a member of the family: “When you left residence / we cleaned out the home / stumbled on some skeleton / that none of us knew shit about / if I advised you I used to be okay / nicely that will have been a lie / so, I blocked your phone / with out sayin’ goodbye.”
That is heavy material, and I’m not shocked when Steiner says that she’s extra open within the tune than she’s been in actual life. “I’m working my manner towards with the ability to say this stuff with out an open-E guitar and a big-ass band behind me,” she advised me.
Are you making an attempt to speak with this particular person with this album?
Yeah. I imply, my plan has been to ship it off, you already know what I imply? Get a CD copy and put it within the mail. Not simply by itself, that will in all probability be fairly psychotic, however with a brief letter simply bridging the hole and saying like, “Numerous these songs are about us, and I hope you want them and hearken to them.”
It feels somewhat bit egocentric to have this album as a communication software for me, however life is brief and I’m keen to attempt. I’m keen to go to nice lengths to restore a damaged relationship, in order that’s the place we’re at. I hope I don’t hen out.
You talked about going to remedy. How has that influenced you as an artist?
It’s only a degree of construction and readability that I actually respect. The particular factor that I bought out of this was this train that I attempted, the Empty Chair Approach, and it actually unlocked this tune, “Simply Need You To Know The Reality,” which is the emotional centerpiece of the album. It’s the principle confrontation, if you’ll, or the firmest gesture of extending a hand.
I used to be actually struggling in writing that tune. I had that little hook, and I had this concept of type of chronologically venturing by way of these totally different snapshots of my life and shifting from the previous to current and seeing how the scope of all the things led us to the place we’re. However I used to be getting in my very own manner loads, taking pictures down concepts earlier than they even have been fleshed out. My therapist advised this Empty Chair Approach concept, and was she wasn’t pushy about it. She simply proposed it and mentioned, “Make of this what you’ll.” And I gave it a go and recorded myself and listened again. And that basically did assist me unlock the, Godstory of my life, for lack of a greater phrase.
Has that introspection induced you to take a look at older songs you’ve written and notice, “Oh, I used to be really writing about this“?
I’m nonetheless making an attempt to determine that out about a variety of stuff. I’ve had this impulse previously as an English main to need to ask a author a few particular line like, “What was your intention? What did you imply right here?” And I’ve realized on the opposite aspect of it, writing creatively or poetically in any sense, that’s the worst query to ask a author as a result of they usually are nonetheless undecided. So that’s how I consider a few of our older songs. I’m ready for them to disclose themselves.
I used to be joking about this earlier, however does it ever get annoying to be talked about as this good Midwestern rock band?
We had a little bit of a second, the 4 of us, I feel, on the final report. I don’t keep in mind which outlet it was, however somebody known as us “that charming little band” or one thing, and we have been like, “What? That’s such a backhanded praise.” I might simply encourage folks to hearken to the songs and there’s some heaviness and weight there and grit.
I used to be pondering of the trajectory of Ratboys, and it’s been this gradual and regular climb, the place each report appears to do some higher than the final, nevertheless it’s by no means a dramatic shift. It jogs my memory of R.E.M. within the Eighties or The Nationwide within the aughts.
Or Spoon.
Sure, precisely. Clearly, you haven’t any management of that. Nevertheless it does appear to go well with the band’s character.
Type of, yeah. I imply, we’ve totally embraced the gradual development method. If we hadn’t, we might be actually driving ourselves insane at this level as a result of once you need or anticipate some type of rapid life-changing success and also you don’t get it, what are you left with? Simply whole disappointment.
We come from a background of enjoying in basements for nobody. Actually nobody. Perhaps that is the rationale folks hold saying we’re this charming little underground band or no matter, however we nonetheless have the mindset when folks come to our exhibits and we don’t know them, it’s such a win. We love band observe and love enjoying these songs by ourselves, and so any viewers that comes simply to listen to the music is a bonus. We’re going to have a good time it doesn’t matter what and the truth that folks come out to see us is all we might need.
Clearly, we might have cherished to been in a position to begin enjoying larger rooms sooner. We’re not making an attempt to remain small eternally. And, truthfully, none of us make a residing from this band, in order that’s our aim. In an ideal world, we might have extra eyes on us and have the ability to hold enjoying, promoting extra tickets and promoting extra information and have the ability to maintain ourselves. Bu we might by no means anticipate that to occur, go viral, any of that bullshit. It’s simply so out of our management.
Have you ever ever had a second the place you thought, “We’re about to explode,” and it didn’t occur?
It form of felt like on our third report, Printer’s Satanthat we have been going to have this breakout second. We actually felt that that report was an enormous level-up and one thing new, and we had an enormous tour booked and all that. After which all the things simply went away with COVID, which isn’t a narrative distinctive to us in any respect. You may’t management the timing and the way in which the world spins.
I’ve been pondering loads currently about bands, and what it means to have a band identification. Clearly, bands have all the time existed. However within the mainstream, it looks like the pendulum has swung thus far in favor of solo artists for a very long time. And now I’m wondering if it’s swinging again a bit. Ratboys have been a band for greater than a decade. However you possibly can have simply as simply billed yourselves as “Julia Steiner” and performed with the identical musicians. And possibly that will have even been higher advertising within the 2010s and early 2020s. However you didn’t do this, which makes me assume you additionally care about bands. Why is that?
I haven’t thought of this in a very long time, however this brings again a reminiscence when — a protracted, very long time in the past — Dave (Sagan, the guitarist) and I have been within the place of needing to alter our band title. On the very starting we have been simply Ratboy, no “S,” and we bought despatched a threatening e-mail from one other Ratboy and we would have liked to determine what to do. And we deliberated a lot on totally different concepts. My dad on the time was like, “Why don’t you simply go by your title?” And I used to be, for no matter motive, very proof against that and we ended up simply including the S.
It’s humorous to assume again as a result of we didn’t actually have a band again then, it was simply me and Dave. However from the very starting, even earlier than Marcus (Nuccio, the drummer) and Sean (Neumann, the bassist) got here into the fold, I actually noticed the worth in Dave’s contributions and wouldn’t need to shine the sunshine on myself. It’s exhausting to elucidate, however Dave offers this actually tangible but additionally unconscious construction for the songs. And he’s simply as a lot a Ratboy as I’m.
As a music fan, I’m so obsessive and nerdy about The Beatles and parsing a tune out and fascinated about what every particular person is doing at any given time. Similar goes with Wilco, who’re one in all my favourite bands ever.
Wilco is an effective instance of what I’m speaking about. The songs imply one thing totally different coming from a band than from “Jeff Tweedy,” even when that distinction is considerably subliminal.
I hope this Geese phenomenon — clearly Cameron Winter has a solo report and all the things — however Geese is such a kick-ass band and the factor that occurs after they all play within the room collectively is so particular. We noticed it at Pickathon final 12 months. And hopefully youngsters notice that that’s the factor that’s so transcendent right here. Clearly, it’s what they convey uniquely, but additionally it’s the story of band in a room rocking your face off.
Singin’ To An Empty Chair is out 2/6 by way of New West Information. Discover extra data right here.