New York polymaths Ratatat and their guitar-heavy instrumental tunes spent a long five years away from live shows while they were fiercely focused on making their fifth LP,Magnifique.
Consequently, the duo’s Supreme Exhalation tour – Ratatat’s second visit to Australia in six months – is aptly titled.
“Yeah,” multi-instrumentalist Mike Stroud laughs. “We took a long break and it was starting to feel way too long, so it felt really good to get back out and start playing shows, to have new songs out there for people to get into, you know what I mean? They translate pretty well for the live show, so I feel like the new stuff is getting bigger reactions than we were expecting. [It] feels good.”
After returning to our ears – and their roots – with Magnifique in 2015, Stroud and Ratatat’s other half, Evan Mast, have earned plenty of attention, increasingly so online.Since 2010’s LP4, the exponential rise in significance of visual content has seentheir mesmerising, comedic, often trippy and sometimes unsettling music videos find a larger audience. The frequent bewilderment caused by Mast’s people-melting visuals is reflected in the feedback Ratatat receive from their fans.
“It’s really funny too,” laughs Stroud, “because people seem to think that we’re drug addicts [and] really into weed and acid,and I’m like, ‘Neither one of us entirely does much.’
“At least on the last bunch of tours, I went out a lot after the shows to meet people and there’s some funny ones. I can’t remember anyone acting that crazy – people are always just so nice, everyone just wants to take pictures – but a lot of people will be like, ‘Wanna smoke pot with me?’ and I never do… with them. It’s like, ‘Nooo, it’s OK.’”
Ratatat’s arresting visuals are the result of a laborious process, and they form the basis of the shows these two self-labelled “control freaks” put together, almost taking focus off rehearsal. “Evan makes all the videos,” Stroud explains, “and that takes him a really long time, so I think he kind of pulls his hair out over that process. It’s really time-consuming and intense. We don’t necessarily practise that much, but the shows aren’t just thrown together, there’s a lot that goes into it – all the programming of videos and lights and lasers and whatever.
“I think a lot of our music is sort of meant to be funny, so we try to put some humour into it, or not try [too hard], I guess. We just always try to put humour into what we’re doing – it’s more fun. At this point, we’re sort of on autopilot ’cause we did so many shows in a row, so after a while, you stop thinking about it, you just do it.”
Throughout our chat, it’s clear in Stroud’s steady banter and high spirits that his sense of humour and fun comes naturally. It’s also integral to the essence of Ratatat and permeates their live shows, with demand for the duo consequently high. Taking a mini-break after touring since April last year, the pair were pretty happy to have some time at home in New York before getting back into the swing of things with Groovin The Moo this month. Their time off hasn’t involved much Netflix and chill, though, with Stroud refining his lap steel guitar technique and already making new music – although he’s fairly self-deprecating about the former.
“It kind of comes in spurts – I’m still learning. Actually, I kind of suck at it,” he laughs. “I was starting to get a lot better around tours ’cause I had to play it every night, but now I haven’t played for like a month and I absolutely suck. But that’s kind of the fun of it though, ’cause you can improve. I’m also learning drums – I’ve been practising a lot.I have a recording studio at my house, so even on downtime, I’m still working on music. I sort of get depressed if I don’t make new songs, so I’m kind of always working on new stuff in the studio. Whether it’s for Ratatat or something like an official release thing, it’s still just keeping practice.”
Putting a great deal of effort into their work has resulted in great returns for Ratatat, both at home and overseas. This will be their second time on the regional Groovin The Moo bill. “With Groovin The Moo especially, we don’t usually hit all of those spots, and I guess that’s kind of the point,” says Stroud. “We did it once before [and] it’s just really different than Sydney or Melbourne, for example. You know, you’re out in the middle of nowhere. It’ll be fun!”
That said, Stroud isn’t as familiar with the new talent on the bill as before. “I was looking at the lineup as well, and maybe I’m just getting old or something but I only knew one: Danny Brown. I’ll definitely check some bands out. That’s why festivals are cool, too, ’cause you get exposed to some music that you would never hear otherwise. We’re touring so much that you don’t have time to check out new bands. That’s the problem: I’m out of the loop, I’m not checking out new bands that much these days, which
is – whatever, that’s just how it is.
“On our recent tours, it’s been really fun playing at big, outdoors festivals. The only thing I don’t like about them is that the crowd is always so far away. I like to play intimate shows where there’s no barricade, the people are just right up against the stage. I sort of prefer that.”
If Stroud could have his way, an audience up against the stage wouldn’t be the only thing on the list. “I would love to be able to have every sound 100 per cent [perfect] live. That would mean probably having a band of like 50 people or something. I would love to do a show with 20 guitar players and strings, more like an orchestra. I would love to do that, but it would be so expensive to take that on tour.”
At the suggestion of the increasingly common symphony-orchestra-accompanied show, Stroud is all for it. “Yeah, if we could do a residency somewhere or where we could just put on that kind of show, I think that would be really fun. I feel like we kind of make up for it with the visual element at this point. Who knows – maybe that’s a good point?”
Stroud has one more ambition to add, and it concerns a certain Australian band led by Kevin Parker. “Usually the bands that I want to play with on tour are bigger than us,” says Stroud, “so I would love to play with Tame Impala – but at this point, I don’t necessarily want to open for another band; I would rather do our own shows. We actually played with Tame Impala ages ago and they were supporting us! Which is funny ’cause they’re huge now.”
[Ratatat cover by Timothy Saccenti]
Magnifique isout now through XL/Remote Control. Ratatatappear at theMetro TheatreonWednesday April 27, withFrikstailers and Kirin J Callinan; and also Groovin The Moo 2016, Maitland Showground, Saturday April 23 and University Of Canberra, Sunday April 24.
