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Sunday 21 April 2013

INTERVIEW: CHINA RATS



CHINA Rats are tipped to be 'ones to watch' in 2013 [by me], already having gone dow well in America. I caught up with Graeme the singer to find out who on earth they are and what on earth they're about:

China Rats? How did you come about that name?
Luke frequents a takeaway called The China Star; turns out Star is Rats backwards. Luke coined it, he's the man.

Describe your sound, yourselves and where you're from in one sentence.Stuck together with Sellotape in a town where the student loan is king, but none of us are students.

At the moment it seems as though many new British bands are into the Americana revival, channelling the more grungy style both musically and aesthetically. You guys on the other hand seem to be a British band through and through [which we like!]. Is this musical divide something you are aware of?
Yeah i suppose we are aware of it but we are just doing our own thing. Most of our favourite bands are British and i suppose that comes through in our music. We all like grunge and American music but that style doesn't come naturally to us when we are writing tunes.

Last year you played SXSW. How was that?
It was unreal, I've never been to the States so it was almost a holiday. It's quite commercial but there's loads of stuff going on around the festival that we never expected to see. We saw so many bands, and drank and ate for free everywhere. It was a crazy piece of paradise.

Who was your favourite SXSW act?
White Lung

I've never heard of them. Google says they're from Canada though so I like them already. You're busy doing a UK tour from now until August. You play Manchester. Brighton, Leeds then Brighton again. Why aren't you playing Birmingham?!
We haven't had the chance yet, One day we'd love to!

Wonderful. I will hold you to that. Name one thing you can't go on tour without.
Trebor Extra Strong Mints Spearmint flavour.

Minty! What's the big band goal? [e.g mine is to eventually play Jools Holland]
To mime one of our songs on Saturday Morning Telly, playing to the kids. That's where I found all of my heroes.

Who would be in your ultimate gig line-up [dead or alive]?
The Jimi Hendrix Experience + The Dirty Mac + Nirvana.

Finally, your set on Wednesday at the 100 Club was a stormer. What was your highlight of the night and how was it to be playing with the Cribs?
Diving off stage into the green room to find The Cribs on the bevvies. Word's can't describe, I'm sat in work typing this when last night I was playing alongside The Cribs!
Catch China Rats at Sticky Mike's in Brighton on 26th April.


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