When did Ratboys start? What/who have been your main influences that have led to your sound?
I (Julia) had been playing music and writing songs on my own since around the age of fourteen. It's not that I hadn't wanted to collaborate with others or start a band, but the time and circumstances just weren't right. Then, on the first day of my freshman year at Notre Dame, I met Dave, and we pretty much struck up a friendship right away and started playing music together in the dorms.
By the end of that school year, we decided - very much on a whim and without really discussing what we were doing - to work together to record five songs I had written between 2008-2010. We got started at school and then returned to our respective homes during spring break to put it all together separately, this thing that became the RATBOY EP, which we put up on bandcamp/facebook on April 1st, 2011.
From that point on, we called the project 'Ratboy,' which is a nickname my friends gave to me during a lunch-table conversation in freshman year of high school. People seemed to enjoy the songs, and so we decided to start playing shows that summer. We haven't really stopped doing so, save a year (2012-2013) when we separated to study in different countries.
It's been a slightly winding road - at one point we were intimidated into adding an 's' onto the end of our name by a fellow Ratboy in Upstate New York who told us he was 'almost on Jimmy Kimmel' - but everything's brought us here, which is right where I want to be.
As far as influences go, right when we first met Dave and I each made one another a mix CD, which turned out to have a quite a bit of overlap (lots of beck, radiohead, st. vincent). What was cooler, though, we showed each other a lot of stuff the other wasn't familiar with - I distinctly remember Dave introducing me to The Books and The Dodos and The Microphones and Algernon Cadwallader and subsequently this whole nationwide DIY thing that had been going on for years that I hadn't known about. In December 2010 we went to a show at Strangelight in Chicago (ft. Snowing & 1994!), and I remember feeling SUPER energized by the experience of being in the crowd for that show. I showed him Chad Van Gaalen and Air and Broken Social Scene for good measure, and we were off and running.
It's a funny question, about influences, because I get it a lot, but it literally changes every day. Every day. There are certain voices & expressive perspectives that stick with you forever - core influences I suppose. But I so firmly believe that that category is never closed. The moment I heard the Yes Album, for instance, my life as an artist changed forever. No joke, no drama, it just did. Right now I'm experiencing that sort of revelatory obsession with Kim Deal. Everything she's ever made or been involved in, I'm sopping up like a sponge right now.
We listen to anything and everything on the road, though, and I can't wait to watch this answer change again and again.
Is there a particular story behind naming the record AOID? (Void with an upside down V right?)
There is a story! During the summer of 2011, Dave came down to visit me in my home state of Kentucky for a few days. We decided to go on a little country drive one afternoon, and during our wanderings, we came across this huge county fair completely in the middle of nowhere. Like, the entire landscape was rolling hills of farms, and then BAM! There were ferris wheels and roller coasters everywhere.
It was very surreal, very strange, and we knew we had to stop and spend some time here. We paid $3 or something like that for a ticket in, and upon entry our hands were stamped with this neon blue stamp that looked like it was meant to spell 'VOID,' but I guess it was glitched and spelled out this seemingly nonsensical 'AOID' word instead.
We were so confused, but so happy. The stamp was bright blue, I mean like it seemed to radiate in the sunlight of that moment. We were so perplexed by the turn our day was taking, so Dave grabbed his phone and took a photo of my fist. From then on, there was some sort of unspoken pact between us that we wanted to use that photo for the cover of our next release.
Progressing from the Ratboy EP to AOID there is obviously a difference in the scope of sound; do you plan to add anything further to your sound in the future (more vocals, keys etc?) or do you feel settled with your current setup?
You're correct in pointing that out - for the EP, I played only acoustic guitar and Dave recorded the percussion not by playing a full kit, but by individually tracking each component.
When we went to record the LP (in autumn 2014), we again approached the project with very little deliberation, but we had played enough shows at that point so that Pat (our good friend and drummer at the time) was able to lay down his drum parts on a full kit first thing.
I also recorded my guitar parts on both acoustic and electric guitars for the LP (I had only just recently purchased my danelectro and fender amp at the time), which was a great exploration of the instrument for me.
Now that I've switched over to playing the electric live full-time, the next record will probably have more of an emphasis on that and will include acoustic guitar more sparingly (and thus in more deliberate spots). We're planning to arrange // revise the new songs more as a group, so the next recordings will hopefully have more of a forceful full-band sound. Writing vocal harmonies is one of my favorite things to do in general, so I want to write songs that allow me to play around with that as much as possible.
We're not planning to add any new members or instruments to the line-up at this time, though. Excited to see what we can do in the coming little while.
AOID is the first record Topshelf have put out on cassette; was it a goal to have the record out on as many different formats or are you just fans of cassettes?
It is! We're so proud of that. It was funny, we emailed them asking to put the album out on cassette, and they said something like, 'We've never done that, but if you're down to be the guinea pigs, let's do it!' We were so stoked, because some of us collect cassettes, but mostly because we wanted to hear the songs in as many different formats as possible, and to give anyone out there the opportunity to do the same.
We also came up with the idea to create different album art for each medium of the release. The CDs have a the photo of my fist on the front, while the tapes have a line drawing of the fist and the vinyl has a painting and collage on the cover. Dave's an insanely capable artist, so it's been a fun challenge for him to illustrate the different covers.
Having members in other bands like Dowsing and The Normal Years is it difficult to prioritise time between bands or musical ideas for each band or is it easy to keep it separate?
It's actually been quite easy to balance everything between the bands, which doesn't totally come as a surprise but which I also am careful not to take for granted.
The guys in Dowsing are our close friends and are also very careful planners, so we're able to put our heads together to plan our tours so that they correspond rather than conflict. For the past 9 months we've had a sort of routine that when they hit the road, we stay home and work, write and plan. Then, when they return, we hit the road and they take up our routine or hit the road for their other projects.
Will (our bassist, who plays drums in Dowsing) is a road dog, and is thankfully down with his life of constant travel. Next year, upon the release of Dowsing's new full-length, we're planning to join forces and hit the road together. It's gonna be dope & WILD.
The Normal Years is taking a little break right now, but I'm very much looking forward to (hopefully) recording a full length for that project once Drew returns from the trip he's on. He's written 12+ fantastic songs for it, which I think people will really love.
When is the Ratboys/Donovan Wolfington UK tour gonna happen? Thats what I (and I'm sure many others) want. Don't disappoint me now!
Oh man. I want this to happen more than you do. Maybe next summer? With Dowsing & Kittyhawk too?
Who have been your favourite bands to play with? For fans of Ratboys who would you recommend checking out?
Ohhhhh man this is such a great question and a list that grows bigger all the time. Right when Dave and I put out the EP, like the same week I think, our friend Kyle Lang put out an EP called 'Demonstration' under the name Easter. Those four songs will always stand out as hugely special to us and will continue to inspire me to write good songs until I croak. Playing shows with Easter is a rare treat, and we always look forward to it.
Monobody is making fascinating music in Chicago right now. This year we played with our friends Sundials and Spraynard and Donovan Wolfington which was DOPE. About to hit the road with Woozy from NOLA, and we love them.
Nathan K from Ypsilanti. Single Player from Champaign. Pierre from Minneapolis. Mimisiku from Denton. Runaway Brother from Cleveland. Soft Fangs from Brooklyn. Arizona Landmine from Ames. Prince Daddy & The Hyena from Albany. Meridian from Cleveland. Our good friend and collaborator Seth Engel makes music under the name Options, and his latest release is in my top five for 2k15.
^ This list is definitely not exhaustive. The best part about touring is not only playing a show every night, but seeing a show every night. So so so much fun.
Do you have any immediate or future plans?
Well, tonight I'm going over to my friends Anthony/Evan/Johnny's apartment to watch a movie called 'Still Flowing' by this Australian rapper named Raed. They've been considerably hyping it for like months now, so that should be something...
Dowsing's leaving for a short run here in a couple days, so I'm planning to stay home and work and write songs in their absence. We're doing that run with Woozy down to the Community Records Block Party in NOLA - that's in mid-October.
On 10/29 we're playing a 'Halloweed' show here in Chicago at Quenchers. Dressing up as Sesame Street and playing a full cover set in costume. Planning that out...
And then we're in the midst of booking a three-week tour to the west coast of the USA in november. My brother and sister live in Portland, OR, and I'm really looking forward to visiting them there for the first time.
After that, we'll lie low until January when we're planning to head to the southeast with The Island of Misfit Toys!
2k15 is a bountiful time, and we love it.
Oh man. It's strange, I've never really given the concept of a 'ratboy' much thought before, it's just a name I was given and find funny. It's me! You gotta see me scurry around sometime, then you'll know.
Listen to Ratboys here: https://ratboys.bandcamp.com
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