Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Boosting Your Self Esteem With CITIZEN RAT
Transcript
- 0:16Speaker 1: Again with him.
- 0:20Speaker 2: Well, I'm d'Artagnan, a nice sing and I play rhythm guitar.
- 0:24Speaker 3: I'm Brendan and I just played guitar.
- 0:26Speaker 2: Just just yeah, he's a bit more than just a guitar,
- 0:29Speaker 2: but that's all right. And yeah, so we playing Citizen Rat.
- 0:32Speaker 2: Just a Sunny Coast heavy band. I don't know what
- 0:36Speaker 2: to call us, noise ma plug yourself.
- 0:40Speaker 4: Yeah, very nice, guys, thanks for joining us today.
- 0:45Speaker 5: It's pleasure to speak with you.
- 0:47Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah too.
- 0:49Speaker 4: So we're here today to chat about the new single
- 0:52Speaker 4: you guys are dropping very soon, which is also your
- 0:55Speaker 4: first single of twenty twenty five, in the form of
- 0:58Speaker 4: a little tune called shut My Man. But it doesn't
- 1:01Speaker 4: come out till this Friday, guys, and I'm guessing.
- 1:03Speaker 5: You've been sitting on it for a while.
- 1:05Speaker 4: So how does it feel to have something that sounds
- 1:07Speaker 4: so fucking good and not be able to share it?
- 1:11Speaker 2: So, yeah, it's a bit frustrating. It's exciting though, because
- 1:15Speaker 2: it's like we've kind of been told not to share
- 1:19Speaker 2: it with basically anyone. Yeah, so even like our closest
- 1:23Speaker 2: mates haven't heard it yet, so apart from a couple
- 1:26Speaker 2: of as.
- 1:26Speaker 3: I may have shown or two.
- 1:27Speaker 2: Yeah, we've snuck a couple across the board, but we're
- 1:30Speaker 2: not allowed to so rule. Yeah, yeah, exactly so, But yeah,
- 1:38Speaker 2: we haven't been sitting on it for a massive amount
- 1:40Speaker 2: of time like we have with other stuff in the past.
- 1:44Speaker 2: But yeah, it's definitely pretty exciting. I guess we're recorded
- 1:49Speaker 2: like four months ago, four or five months ago. Yeah, yeah,
- 1:53Speaker 2: it's been a while, but we weren't like in a
- 1:55Speaker 2: massive rush to get it blatantly mixed a master thing
- 2:00Speaker 2: like that. So yeah, it's only been sitting there USTERD
- 2:03Speaker 2: for maybe a month. So it's some people sit on
- 2:06Speaker 2: stuff for years. That's frustrated as everyone.
- 2:10Speaker 5: Yeah.
- 2:12Speaker 4: Who, so I've heard it, and you've heard it. Probably
- 2:14Speaker 4: twenty of your mates have heard it, but haven't heard it.
- 2:18Speaker 4: Tell us about the song musically and what are you're
- 2:20Speaker 4: going for with it.
- 2:23Speaker 2: I don't know what do you reckon musically?
- 2:26Speaker 3: You wrote it, I did.
- 2:28Speaker 2: Write the progression and stuff like that. I don't know.
- 2:32Speaker 2: It's kind of like it's kind of funny with writing,
- 2:34Speaker 2: like it's almost like a gamble. You don't really we're
- 2:38Speaker 2: not necessarily going for a specific sound. It kind of
- 2:42Speaker 2: I write everything on an acoustic, and then I take
- 2:44Speaker 2: it to the band and then I've got like this
- 2:47Speaker 2: skeleton of a song that sounds like garbage, and then
- 2:50Speaker 2: these guys make it incredible basically, so they just add
- 2:53Speaker 2: all of the flavor. And I don't really know how
- 2:56Speaker 2: I'm even going to sing a song until our drummer
- 2:59Speaker 2: plays it, because it's like, all right, he dictates the intensity,
- 3:03Speaker 2: you know what I mean. So so yeah, I don't know,
- 3:08Speaker 2: like it ended up being like this kind of like
- 3:11Speaker 2: like it went through so many rewrites as well from
- 3:14Speaker 2: when you first brought it to us that it's kind
- 3:16Speaker 2: of a completely different chorus.
- 3:18Speaker 3: I mean, I think part.
- 3:19Speaker 6: Of the reason we've picked it to be the first
- 3:21Speaker 6: single is it's kind of almost the best representation of
- 3:25Speaker 6: us as a band at the moment in a way. Yeah,
- 3:29Speaker 6: it's probably the most Yeah, it's got a lot of
- 3:31Speaker 6: the stuff we try to go for, and it's probably
- 3:34Speaker 6: one of the more out of all the songs we have,
- 3:36Speaker 6: it's probably the most us I would say, Yeah, at
- 3:39Speaker 6: least I feel about it that way.
- 3:41Speaker 5: Absolutely on that case, guys.
- 3:44Speaker 4: The press release says that you've spent the last couple
- 3:47Speaker 4: of years tearing apart and rebuilding a sound like sounds
- 3:51Speaker 4: like a lot of effort.
- 3:51Speaker 5: To go to you, guys, what does that actually mean?
- 3:56Speaker 6: It just means we're shit, and you accept it. So
- 4:04Speaker 6: it just took a really long time to like figure
- 4:06Speaker 6: out what we actually wanted to do in a cohesive
- 4:09Speaker 6: way that made sense for everyone.
- 4:10Speaker 2: Yeah, because I think all four of us have like
- 4:12Speaker 2: such varying influences as well, So trying to like create
- 4:17Speaker 2: a sound that both feeds into like it feeds into
- 4:22Speaker 2: all of our influences, but it also doesn't sound like
- 4:25Speaker 2: complete garbage is like this balancing act that's like it's
- 4:30Speaker 2: literally like walking on a tightrope. It's like Brendan and
- 4:33Speaker 2: I are more into the proggy kind of sound, but
- 4:35Speaker 2: I like a lot of noisy, kind of weird shit,
- 4:38Speaker 2: and like our drama hilariously listens to a lot of
- 4:41Speaker 2: folk music but just drums like an absolute animal. And
- 4:45Speaker 2: then our bassist is into like the heavier kind of
- 4:47Speaker 2: side of things. So we've like, yeah, kind of created
- 4:51Speaker 2: this amalgamation of all of our kind of influences and
- 4:56Speaker 2: just done it as best as we can without it
- 4:58Speaker 2: sounding like complete garbage. And trust me, it has sounded
- 5:01Speaker 2: like garbage. At times, but we Yeah, it's just it's
- 5:05Speaker 2: just rett rewrite until we're like, okay, this is where
- 5:08Speaker 2: it needs to be kind of thing. So and I
- 5:11Speaker 2: think we're we've landed on this really kind of full
- 5:14Speaker 2: sound like, yeah, I don't know, I'm pretty excited about
- 5:18Speaker 2: where it's gotten to.
- 5:20Speaker 3: Yeah for sure.
- 5:21Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 5:22Speaker 4: So when you someone says that you tore it apart
- 5:24Speaker 4: and rebuilt, you sound like, did you just sit there
- 5:27Speaker 4: and discuss it and like have have meetings about it
- 5:30Speaker 4: where you wanted to go or did you get there
- 5:31Speaker 4: and jam it out or like how did you how
- 5:33Speaker 4: did you figure out which direction?
- 5:37Speaker 6: Well, I think that this is part of the problem
- 5:39Speaker 6: why it's taken so long, as we didn't really talk
- 5:40Speaker 6: about it. It's just been us jamming and kind of
- 5:44Speaker 6: yeah writing and then being unsatisfied or dissatisfied sorry with
- 5:49Speaker 6: where you know, songs were, and then coming up with
- 5:52Speaker 6: new ideas and then yeah, it just it was a
- 5:55Speaker 6: very natural thing, which is cool in a way, but
- 5:58Speaker 6: it's not so cool in the that it took us, like, yeah,
- 6:01Speaker 6: two years to get to this point where we kind
- 6:04Speaker 6: of have it figured out and yeah, it's yeah, it
- 6:08Speaker 6: was a very kind of painful brick by brick process.
- 6:11Speaker 2: I'd say there was definitely some painful moments. I mean
- 6:14Speaker 2: it was also like now that we're kind of at
- 6:16Speaker 2: the other end of it, it's we've got this sound
- 6:19Speaker 2: that we're all like pretty stoked with, and even with
- 6:22Speaker 2: the newer stuff that we've been working on, it feels
- 6:24Speaker 2: like it's happening easier. So we've kind of got like
- 6:28Speaker 2: this kind of idea and we're not trying to just
- 6:31Speaker 2: go for one sound like so it's like we might
- 6:34Speaker 2: have a song that's rage against Machini kind of like
- 6:37Speaker 2: this rap rocky kind of thing, like what shut my
- 6:40Speaker 2: Mouth is, but then we might have like some country
- 6:43Speaker 2: rock songs and some more grungy stuff, and we're not.
- 6:46Speaker 3: Like psychedelic type stuff as well. Yeah psychedelic moments.
- 6:50Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, not trying to specifically go for a specific sound,
- 6:53Speaker 2: but just like try to create something that is quintessentially
- 6:58Speaker 2: citizen rap if that makes sense.
- 7:00Speaker 5: It's yeah, it will run with that.
- 7:06Speaker 4: One thing I love about shut my Mouth there is
- 7:08Speaker 4: the fact that you've reversed tradition by changing only one
- 7:11Speaker 4: word to give the song a completely different outlook like
- 7:14Speaker 4: most bands would write it and shut your mouth. You've
- 7:16Speaker 4: actually turned it on yourself and it's made it a
- 7:19Speaker 4: whole different song.
- 7:22Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely intentional it is now, Yeah, I
- 7:29Speaker 8: mean it's yeah, it's a lot of I mean a
- 7:33Speaker 8: lot of the song is just rooted in self doubt and.
- 7:40Speaker 2: Trying to just like navigate the world and feeling like
- 7:43Speaker 2: every corner I take is the wrong decision. And so
- 7:48Speaker 2: it's just I know that, like in my heart, I'm
- 7:52Speaker 2: like doing the right thing, you know what I mean,
- 7:54Speaker 2: But then it just I've got this self doubt thing,
- 7:58Speaker 2: and that's kind of like the base of the song
- 8:01Speaker 2: is very much around that, just this overthinking like stress
- 8:05Speaker 2: of oh no, like why am I anxious right now?
- 8:07Speaker 2: What have I done wrong? When it's like I think
- 8:09Speaker 2: back on the day and I know I've done nothing wrong,
- 8:12Speaker 2: but then my brain's telling me, nah, you did this wrong,
- 8:15Speaker 2: you did this wrong, you did this wrong. But that's
- 8:16Speaker 2: just like complete fabrications. So it's yeah, I don't know,
- 8:21Speaker 2: it's it's kind of hard to even explain.
- 8:24Speaker 4: I'm more confused now than what I was when we started.
- 8:33Speaker 5: It's sort of touched on this before, but shut my Mouth.
- 8:35Speaker 4: It's the first in the planned string of singles that
- 8:38Speaker 4: you're going to release during the year so that they
- 8:40Speaker 4: all stand later, or they all building towards a bigger picture.
- 8:44Speaker 2: The intentions to get an album out, so hopefully get
- 8:48Speaker 2: eleven or twelve songs, but it's going to be a
- 8:51Speaker 2: long I wouldn't expect that to be out this year.
- 8:54Speaker 2: It's going to be a long path, and it's going
- 8:56Speaker 2: to cost a lot of money and all that kind
- 8:57Speaker 2: of stuff. So it's not happened quickly, but I think
- 9:01Speaker 2: it will happen.
- 9:02Speaker 3: We just need eventually. We're just we're taking it a
- 9:04Speaker 3: single at a time. Yeah, moment.
- 9:06Speaker 2: We still like each other at this point in time,
- 9:08Speaker 2: So hopefully if that trajectory stays the same, I reckon
- 9:11Speaker 2: we'll be all good.
- 9:16Speaker 4: You mentioned before, like the different sort of influences instead
- 9:19Speaker 4: of going into each song, So is it difficult for
- 9:22Speaker 4: you to choose which one to put out next then
- 9:25Speaker 4: that they're both all taken difference sort of different path.
- 9:29Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, Like I think our next single is quite
- 9:34Speaker 2: drastically different to this one.
- 9:36Speaker 6: Like yeah, yeah, I mean, I don't know how much
- 9:38Speaker 6: we're allowed to say about it.
- 9:39Speaker 2: Yeah, we won't talk too much about it, but it's
- 9:41Speaker 2: definitely a pretty decent sonic shift. But I think it
- 9:47Speaker 2: still feels like if you like this song, you're gonna
- 9:50Speaker 2: like that song, and vice versa. So they like they're
- 9:53Speaker 2: still cohesive with one another, but it could definitely and
- 9:56Speaker 2: it still sounds like us because my voice is weird
- 9:58Speaker 2: as fuck, but they yeah, I don't know.
- 10:04Speaker 6: It still sounds like a Citizen Rat song, but it
- 10:06Speaker 6: sounds like we're definitely pulling from a different part of
- 10:10Speaker 6: someone's influence.
- 10:11Speaker 2: Yeah, someone of the influence.
- 10:14Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 10:14Speaker 5: Yeah.
- 10:15Speaker 4: There's a quote in the press release that describes Citizen Rats.
- 10:19Speaker 4: If the Gussie and the Bronx had a love child
- 10:22Speaker 4: raised on self doubt, resilience, and introspection, it would sound
- 10:26Speaker 4: like this. But that is one of the best descriptions
- 10:30Speaker 4: I have ever heard.
- 10:31Speaker 5: Who was responsible for that?
- 10:33Speaker 3: I don't even know who the Bronx are.
- 10:39Speaker 2: That wasn't sight, that's actually that line is actually a
- 10:42Speaker 2: combination of a whole bunch of people. So we we
- 10:46Speaker 2: reached out to a few people and basically said, can
- 10:50Speaker 2: you describe Citizen right to us? And so we got
- 10:52Speaker 2: all of these answers back and we kind of amalgam
- 10:55Speaker 2: made it them together. Well, our manager Anthony did, and
- 11:00Speaker 2: I love that for Gazi's in there like.
- 11:01Speaker 5: They're I've got pissed myself laughing.
- 11:04Speaker 4: When I was reading through that, I'm just like I
- 11:06Speaker 4: was actually starting to get a mental picture of it.
- 11:11Speaker 2: That's kind of cool because it is kind of funny,
- 11:13Speaker 2: like and that's that's kind of it goes back to
- 11:16Speaker 2: this song and it goes to us as people like
- 11:19Speaker 2: we do when it comes down to it, Our songs
- 11:21Speaker 2: are incredibly serious, but they still maintain a decent amount
- 11:27Speaker 2: of humor. Like if you listen to the lyrics and
- 11:29Speaker 2: shut my mouth, like, there's quite a lot of humor
- 11:31Speaker 2: in there despite it being this song about feeling like
- 11:35Speaker 2: a complete fuck up, you know what I mean. Like
- 11:38Speaker 2: there's like these funny lines like the clowns and the
- 11:42Speaker 2: sewer have taken my brother like and like like yeah,
- 11:45Speaker 2: it's there's like you look at them, if you were
- 11:48Speaker 2: to put them, look over at them one by one,
- 11:49Speaker 2: you'd be like, man, this song is stupid as hell,
- 11:51Speaker 2: but like it all fits together nicely, and then the
- 11:54Speaker 2: chorus hits and you're like, well shit, there's the seriousness,
- 11:57Speaker 2: you know what I mean, And that kind of reflects
- 11:59Speaker 2: on us as people as well, like we are like
- 12:02Speaker 2: how would how did you say it the other day?
- 12:04Speaker 2: Like we we.
- 12:05Speaker 3: We take our we take our like music seriously, but
- 12:08Speaker 3: we don't really take ourselves seriously.
- 12:10Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, exactly so.
- 12:13Speaker 5: And right on the street too.
- 12:15Speaker 4: Boys just put on a pretty good live show too,
- 12:18Speaker 4: Is that correct?
- 12:23Speaker 2: Right? We try we try to be fairly energetic and
- 12:27Speaker 2: have a bit of fun with each other on stage,
- 12:28Speaker 2: and yeah, I mean we love being up there. I
- 12:32Speaker 2: just end up smiling the whole time. I'm just having
- 12:35Speaker 2: the sixth time I look at Brandan playing a solo
- 12:37Speaker 2: and I'm just like, I'm like stank faced the whole time.
- 12:40Speaker 1: You know.
- 12:42Speaker 2: Yeah, if no one in the crowd is doing it,
- 12:44Speaker 2: at least I'm there digging it.
- 12:49Speaker 4: As they say, the proofs and the pudding guys. So
- 12:50Speaker 4: we've got any shows coming up where we can test
- 12:53Speaker 4: this word?
- 12:54Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we actually have a crap of shows coming up.
- 12:58Speaker 3: Casually getting there.
- 13:01Speaker 2: You go, there we go. So we're playing Solbar on
- 13:04Speaker 2: the fifteenth of March, we got We're heading out to
- 13:06Speaker 2: Wombath for bone Idol. On the twenty second of March,
- 13:09Speaker 2: we got Old Bundy Tavern. On the twenty ninth of March,
- 13:13Speaker 2: Griza in Brizzy on the nineteenth of April, Double Barrel
- 13:17Speaker 2: on the Sunny Coast on the third of May, and
- 13:19Speaker 2: playing Ipswich at Benjie's on the fourth of May. So
- 13:23Speaker 2: we've got a little mini regional tour coming up to
- 13:25Speaker 2: celebrate the song and playing with some honestly really fucking
- 13:29Speaker 2: sick bands. So oh yeah, I'm so excited for some
- 13:32Speaker 2: of that. Some of the lineups like they'll be announced
- 13:34Speaker 2: pretty soon, so yeah, I'm super pumped about it.
- 13:38Speaker 5: It's going to be great, very nice.
- 13:40Speaker 4: Before we let you go, boys, I've started off a
- 13:42Speaker 4: new segment called photo Bombs. So basically, before I chat
- 13:45Speaker 4: with you, I troll through to social media and I
- 13:47Speaker 4: find a couple of photos that I want to talk
- 13:49Speaker 4: to you about.
- 13:51Speaker 5: So first one I've got if we're trying to go first, all.
- 13:55Speaker 4: Right, so it's none of my business who sleeps with,
- 13:58Speaker 4: who sleeps with? Why do you if it's animal or
- 14:00Speaker 4: if it's human, or if it's male or if it's female.
- 14:03Speaker 4: But this is a little bit fucking disturbing.
- 14:07Speaker 5: The left. That's the left, but one on the right,
- 14:12Speaker 5: what is there?
- 14:14Speaker 2: So that's so we were playing I think we were
- 14:18Speaker 2: playing a festival in Nambour called rotten Fest, and we
- 14:24Speaker 2: were playing with this band called Gusset Rats, and that
- 14:27Speaker 2: was just chilling with their merch and so I took
- 14:32Speaker 2: the opportunity. James, the drummer of Haters, took these photos
- 14:36Speaker 2: absolutely savant behind the camera.
- 14:38Speaker 3: As you can tell, those sounds too bad. Those are
- 14:42Speaker 3: pretty good.
- 14:43Speaker 2: I reckon they exude sexuality, that's for certain.
- 14:46Speaker 3: I'm not sure which sexuality. I don't know if sexuality.
- 14:51Speaker 2: When you say that, you're exuding yourself.
- 14:52Speaker 3: Currently when I'm with you, always.
- 14:57Speaker 5: The important thing is I did did you get consent
- 14:59Speaker 5: from the rat f.
- 15:01Speaker 2: Oh yeah, definitely. We always asked yeah, absolutely right.
- 15:08Speaker 4: And the only question I got to ask for this
- 15:10Speaker 4: second one is how big was the night before?
- 15:18Speaker 2: I must be from such a long time back.
- 15:21Speaker 3: I thought that was loose.
- 15:22Speaker 2: That's my old an I've had that. Oh wow, I
- 15:24Speaker 2: think that's before. I think that's from when we were
- 15:27Speaker 2: a two piece.
- 15:29Speaker 6: I think, look how bit The way you can track
- 15:32Speaker 6: how old the photo is is how many or how
- 15:34Speaker 6: few tattoos Baxter has?
- 15:37Speaker 2: Right?
- 15:37Speaker 3: That right arm is covered in tattoos. Now it must
- 15:40Speaker 3: be ages.
- 15:41Speaker 2: Yeah, that's probably like three years ago. It may it may.
- 15:45Speaker 3: Actually be before I even joined the band, I think.
- 15:47Speaker 2: Yeah, So we were a two piece for a decent
- 15:49Speaker 2: chunk of time, and then we got Brendan on our
- 15:52Speaker 2: basis later on, so it was just guitar and drums
- 15:56Speaker 2: and vocals for like maybe two years. We're probably coming
- 15:59Speaker 2: up getting close to five years.
- 16:01Speaker 3: I'm sure you guys did stop playing together in twenty twenty. Yeah,
- 16:04Speaker 3: put the world shot down.
- 16:05Speaker 2: Yeah, so we got it close to five years, but yeah,
- 16:07Speaker 2: that was I'd say he just had a big day
- 16:09Speaker 2: of screen printing. He's he's a pretty good boy, to
- 16:11Speaker 2: be honest.
- 16:13Speaker 5: He looks like he's bhaving himself there.
- 16:35Speaker 1: So I've listened to a shallow glave. I say him again,
- 16:37Speaker 1: no one would A misbehaved is like a so with dolls.
- 16:41Speaker 2: Borward.
- 16:41Speaker 1: I wanted like a gun and let me act war.
- 16:43Speaker 1: The power wears off the shoulders and dread like grown
- 16:45Speaker 1: because I get hold up and maybe they woke us
- 16:48Speaker 1: out the laser and killing nothing that doesn't like that.
- 16:51Speaker 1: I'm a piece of shit. I can't set my mouth saves.
- 16:55Speaker 2: My life is sick, so.
- 16:59Speaker 8: Hold it fuck up.
- 17:01Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not surprised oh is it powerad noyon?
- 17:04Speaker 2: In my is it my arm?
- 17:18Speaker 1: Don't dry this gray laugh? In my reflections about the
- 17:20Speaker 1: end of my daddy's I'll we regret my linguistics, loud
- 17:23Speaker 1: of my mouth or the gun of the clowns in
- 17:24Speaker 1: the zoo. I'm taking my brother.
- 17:26Speaker 7: Les my mom my place to remind me my wife
- 17:28Speaker 7: may remema the mask.
- 17:29Speaker 1: Come down when my mother is trying a number ones
- 17:31Speaker 1: at all, So remind my dog is silence my sad.
- 17:34Speaker 1: I I'm a piece of shit. I can't shut my mouth.
- 17:38Speaker 1: Saves my life?
- 17:39Speaker 2: Is he is sad?
- 17:42Speaker 1: Oh?
- 17:42Speaker 2: Yeah?
- 17:43Speaker 3: The fuck up?
- 17:44Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not surprised. Or is it parad noyon?
- 17:48Speaker 2: In my.
- 17:50Speaker 7: Is it arny my eyes swear to you down to
- 18:02Speaker 7: the moth best, but my mother of mind there's a
- 18:06Speaker 7: hornets nest time. Swear to you dona through my best,
- 18:10Speaker 7: but my mother of mind there is a horn as
- 18:13Speaker 7: best time, and sweaty your down to my best.
- 18:17Speaker 1: But my mother mind there's a horn as the time.
- 18:21Speaker 1: Don't sweaty you do to my fairs.
- 18:24Speaker 7: But model mind, there's a hornets next.
- 18:49Speaker 1: I'm a piece of ship. I can't shut my mouth
- 18:52Speaker 1: saves my life?
- 18:53Speaker 5: It said sadly.
- 18:56Speaker 1: Oh fucker yeah, I'm not surprised. No, is it para
- 19:02Speaker 1: in my eyes? Here's a parni my arm, what's a
- 19:11Speaker 1: my hoes?