SOLID SOUND INTERVIEW: RATBOYS
Interview by Carson Paradis
Photo by Alexa Viscius
Ratboys is an alternative/indie band based in Chicago, Ill. The band consists of Julia Steiner, vocals and guitar, Dave Sagan, guitar, Sean Neumann, bass and vocals, and Marcus Nuccio, drums. Their latest album, “The Window,” was released on August 25, 2023, and consists of 11 songs.
Carson Paradis
I know that Wilco is one of your favorite bands. So how does it feel to be here?
Julia Steiner
Feels amazing. Tell me about it. I’ve been listening to Wilco since like 2007. Maybe I distinctly remember the day I first learned who they were. Did you ever have a cable box that had like on demand content?
Carson Paradis
Yeah.
Julia Steiner
And so there, “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” the documentary was just preloaded. And so I just clicked on that. On a whim, like a 14 year old or whatever and was like, completely transfixed. By the music and also just the dynamics of the band. It was cool.
Carson Paradis
Have you ever seen Wilco perform?
Julia Steiner
Well, yeah. Many times. Yeah.
Carson Paradis
You guys really know how to pick it up a bit when you’re performing live, which I think is a really, really good quality for a band. You have these really, really cool mixes of indie rock, like experimental country, specs in your guitar and it’s really really cool. How do you find ways to blend all that together?
Sean Neumann
Listen to a lot of music constantly.
Dave Sagan
We all kind of grew up playing different styles. Like I was always born to like punk and hardcore stuff and Julia was born into folk inflicted, very soft stuff, and it was kind of just a fusion refuge.
Carson Paradis
Which is awesome.
Dave Sagan
Oh, well, yeah. Yeah, we just found a way to fit together like all the stuff we’ve always liked from childhood.
Marcus Nuccio enters the room
Carson Paradis
What’s going on? My name is Carson. We’re talking about what type of music you were born into. We have rock and punk, folky aspects, how about you?
Marcus Nuccio
My dad was a big rush head. Geddy Lee, yeah, isn’t that that guy’s name?
Rest of Ratboys and Carson
Yeah!
Marcus Nuccio
That was my first concert. And yeah, my dad loves Rush and also like They Might Be Giants. Yeah, kind of like a nerdy 80s rock, I think, that informed a lot of my music.
Carson Paradis
I could definitely tell that kind of punk rock aspects coming in with the drums especially today and just kind of it’s a lot I was awesome. I am not gonna geek out, but I bought the record “The Window,” and I’ve been listening to that nonstop.
Julia Steiner
Thank you.
Carson Paradis
So that song really hit well, outside, especially and just with all these people. I’ve been talking to a ton of people that don’t really know who you are, and they are telling me how much they loved your set, and how they’re going to be listening to you guys on the car ride home.
So this latest album, “The Window,” it’s more of a collaboration between all of you guys, and you’re all working very, very much together. So compared to your previous stuff. Do you mind talking a bit about that?
Julia Steiner
I mean, it was exciting. It’s exciting to have more musical minds in the room, like we were just talking about all of us come from different places, like with the bands we’ve grown up listening to and stuff. And so I was just making music by myself, it would probably be pretty limited to the kind of thing that I’m the kind of things I grew up listening to and into. So when you combine lots of different, you know, instincts and ideas, yeah, there’s just more to love.
Marcus Nuccio
There’s also more spices for the stew.
Julia Steiner
Yeah! And we love a spicy stew.
Carson Paradis
Sounds like a good song. Do you each write your own parts? Or do you work together to write each other’s guitars like guitar parts, you work collaboratively for that?
Dave Sagan
We listen to each other and always offer suggestions. But like for the window, a lot of it is kind of just like figuring it out in the room together. Like you’re just rehearsing on the floor, kind of trying to come up with ideas and recording it while listening back to it. And yeah, it’s just like, everybody figures out what fits in and usually just sauce in, like, perfectly between everyone else’s parts.
Sean Neumann
There’s often a lot of like musical Cross Talk.
Marcus Nuccio
Well what if it was like, Bub-bu-du-du-dew! Or like, bu-cha-cho-du-chew, yeah yeah sometimes that’s just kind of how things get formed puzzle pieces.
Julia Steiner
You have to transcribe that.
Carson Paradis
I will, I will, I will write it out. I do the same thing, so a bedroom sitting on the floor playing drums with peanut butter tins, that’s what we’re doing, right?