Meet Ratsalad: The chick-punk band making their South West debut

There’s a top tier artist in WA for every genre. For country there’s Siobhan Cotchin, for surf rock there’s Old Mervs. For punk, you can’t go past Ratsalad.

The three piece outfit is made up of husband and wife Ken and Jaz McCartney, and Jaz’ primary school bestie Erica Trotter on the drums. Four years ago, they started jamming in the McCartney’s kitchen in Geraldton. Now they have an EP, 15 tracks, and three WA Music awards under their belt.

Their trademark screaming guitar, fun lyrics and flying cymbals will be on full display on June 17 at the Capel Country Club, where the Mid West trio will play their first show in the south west.

“We played down in Esperance, and up in Exmouth, but we’ve never played in the South West before. When we heard that Capel were doing a few heavier shows we thought, stuff it, lets book that,” Ken said.

“It’s probably more regional than a lot of bands would go in WA.”

While they’re no strangers to country crowds, they have more than earned their place in the Perth scene. Blowing up their annual leave allowances to make the five hour drive down on a regular basis. Such is life for regional musicians, Jaz said.

“We have to spend most of our weekend playing one gig. It’s so much travel, and so much time and money, we really try to make the most of all of our Perth shows that we play.”

Their efforts have earned them more nominations for the WAM awards this year. Their most recent single Punch In The Face will be a strong competitor in the Punk/Hardcore category, while Fade Away is flying the flag for their first Outstanding Regional nomination.

“We’re stoked. We’ve been trying to get into the regional nominations for a while, and this is the first time we’ve got it,” Jaz said.

“We’ve been pretty lucky. The luck’s got to run out sooner or later, so I never get too hopeful about it.”

Adding another award to the trophy cabinet wouldn’t even be the highlight of their year though, as the trio are hard at work on their debut album, which they hope to release this summer.

“It’s been a slog. We recorded the first half of it last August, and this August we go into the studio to get the next half. It’s been a long time waiting, we’ve been constipated with these songs for so long,” Ken said.

For a band that started out singing about a stinky dead rat, and how much they love gravy, a 16 track album marks a definite shift to a Ratsalad who are starting to take their music a bit more seriously.

It’s evident in the lyrics of their last two releases as well, where Jaz opens up about some insecurities, and her focus on appreciating the good things in life.

“It’s a confidence thing. It’s like, are people just going to make fun of me if I talk about my feelings?

“Lots of the lyrics I sing now are ones I wrote years ago, but I was never brave enough to put them out there.

“One of the songs on (the upcoming album) is one of the very first songs we ever wrote, and we never got around to recording it, so it’s finally going to see the light of day.”

Serious doesn’t mean the party stops though. Ratsalad are bringing mates Desert Dogs, and Esperance rockers Stunned Mullets who will be just as keen to make the most of the trip to Capel.

“Desert Dogs and Stunned Mullets are bloody unreal,” Ken said.

“We’ll be partying all night.”