Ratboys

At the dawn of time, a diminutive scientist in the basement of a sewer lab in rainy downtown Chicago mixed up his test tubes: the experiment was doomed! When the smoke cleared and the sound died down once more, the man was floored. His pulse quickened as he realized the terrifying truth that he had created the world’s first super-species … the Ratboy was born.

Eons later (in 2010), two young souls were lucky enough to come together and access this secret once lost to man. After they met at the beginning of their freshman year at Notre Dame, Dave Sagan and Julia Steiner not only learned of the crushing power of the Ratboy, but they also discovered that they both liked listening to music and playing it together (among other things like eating pasta served in bread bowls, but that’s for another time).

On a whim in March 2011, Dave and Julia decided to record five songs they had been playing for a while. Julia recorded her parts in the chapel of her dorm, Breen-Phillips Hall, and Dave recorded his parts in his basement bedroom in Oak Forest, IL. They released this EP, called RATBOY, on April Fools Day. It was hilarious!

The EP was met with zero violent riots or protests, so Ratboy felt satisfied. But, there was anger lurking across state lines. A musician in Upstate New York who went and still goes by the name Ratboy approached the Notre Dame Ratboy in a dark email alley. His only surly demand: that Ratboy change their name. After many passive-aggressive exchanges and then ignoring the issue while more than a few moons passed, Ratboy(s) was finally forced to make the switch. They were almost “Watboy.” They were almost “Batroy.” But in the end, they were “Ratboys.”

After playing their first show at Kyle Lang’s house in June 2011, Ratboys went nuts and started playing live pretty often. They played at the annual Big Show, which is something you need to see to believe. In the fall of 2011 they also opened for Maps and Atlases at Subkirke in South Bend, Indiana and played Midwest Fest in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. The drive to MwF involved navigating the backroads to the venue with no directions or live phones. Kurt Le slept while Jeff Dent put on podcasts about science.

Ratboys spent the next few months writing and working on new songs, and learning at college. They meant to record a few times, and finally got down to it eventually. Their new EP, AOID, will be released through Swerp Records in summer 2012, which is rather exciting.

As for the future, Dave is studying architecture in Rome, Italy and Julia is studying English in Dublin, Ireland for the 2012-13 school year. The band, thanks to the bionic energy and tenacity of the Ratboy spirit, however, will forge ahead. Maybe the Queen of England would enjoy a bit of live rat music to accompany her afternoon tea? We can’t rule it out.