Dead Rat Society are a London-based bombastic explosion of Industrial Dance Punk.
What started as a half-joking, experimental bedroom project, pulling influence from Prog Rock and old school horror movies, quickly evolved into something that demanded to be shared – unique, adrenalizing, and desperately danceable. Fronted by multi-instrumentalist Ed Harris, channelling millennial angst with offbeat cultural witticisms, and joined by co-producer Ben Potter, bassist Connor Firmston, and drummer Will Pinhey, the group has quickly built a reputation for explosive live shows that have thrilled, sold out, and almost shaken-to-the-ground some of the most prestigious grassroots venues across the country.
Pulling from EDM, Grunge, HipHop and a whole host of other genres their sound is unpredictable and always exciting, with their single ‘Girls’ being chosen as RadioX’s ‘XPosure Big One’. Dead Rat Society’s sound, whilst always evolving and refusing to be pinned down, is built for fans of Soft Play, Death Grips, IDLES, Oliver Tree, Sleaford Mods, Hobo Johnson and Iggy Pop, amongst a cascade of others.
1. For someone that is yet to discover Dead Rat Society, how would you describe your music?
We are a collision of our inspirations. We’re all music fans and try to bring everything we enjoy to the group, from Joey Valance to JPEGmafia, Jack White to Blur. We describe ourselves as Dance Punk, as in ethos and sound, that’s what it all boils down to.
2. What inspired you as an artist?
The pandemic. Ben got a Nintendo Switch game which let him produce songs and we just poured all the frustration we were feeling in lockdown into a song, which then became our first album GREM (which has more recently been hidden away from the public). It took us two days. The band is a great outlet for our frustrations with the world, and we’ve got a lot of them.
3. What is your process for preparing to perform live? Do you have any Diva demands? Some beers and a lot of stressing out! Honestly, we usually have a mini-rehearsal the morning of a show to get the band vibing, and then it’s mainly trying not to freak out until the rat mask comes on and the nerves melt away.
4. Where do you feel you fit into the music landscape? Hopefully on the horizon. We are making ripples at the moment and we’re all super excited to see where it leads. We’ve been likened to a few bands in the experimental electronic scene, and I think we fit in pretty well there, but the flip side of that are songs like Profit, People or Shoplifters Welcome (and some absolute gems we’re working on currently) that inject some of that often lacking punk-y, grunge-y flavour to what is usually brought to the table.
5: What are your favourite musical genres, and are there any you dislike? Between all of us, I think we’ve got all bases covered! Ed has, for a while, been attempting to listen to a random album every day so his tastes are broad. Some may say too broad, (Dungeon Synth and Avante Garde Flute-based Jazz are his two favourite genres right now.) Having such a broad taste between band members really helps us dive into making whatever we think sounds cool, without being beholden to preconceived notions of what a song should sound like, or how it should be structured.
6. Is there a story behind the name of the band? Picture this, it’s the start of Lockdown, there’s little to no hope in sight, and two little ratty boys, Ben and Ed, start making Industrial Dance Punk as a funnel for their despair. In our aforementioned, now inaccessible project GREM, before Ed had “found his voice”, he jumped into using a Gremlin-esque voice (which can surprisingly still be heard on our track Girls), and after some jamming and some brainstorming, the name Dead Rat Society seemed to perfectly encapsulate the reckless hopelessness of being scummy, poor, and angry. Either that, or it was the best name we could think of for this “temporary, one-off project” (how wrong we were) before we got bored.
7 What would you say is your greatest strength as an Artist?
As we said before, having such a broad and undefinable taste across band members gives us an edge. Ben’s absolute lack of traditional musical knowledge and theory brings some extraordinary sounds and ideas to the table, honestly I think that’s one of our greatest strengths: none of us really know what we’re doing, so we don’t know (or particularly care) if we’re doing something “wrong”.
8. What would you say is your greatest weakness as an Artist?
Our greatest weakness? Probably that we don’t know what we’re doing! In Ed’s opinion, weaknesses are only strengths you haven’t figured out how to use yet.
9. What can fans expect from your new single Girls?
‘Girls’ is an absolute bop. Sex-positive-dance-around energy with a proper ear worm of a hook. With Dead Rat Society you can always expect the unexpected, but with ‘Girls’ you can simultaneously expect your new favourite song.
10. What music artist would you say have influenced your Work?
Influences through the band are broad, but when it comes to influences that have driven some of the creative decisions behind songs we can look to artists like JPEGMafia, Death Grips, Hobo Johnson, KFC Murder Chicks, Constructs Corporation, Foals, Rage Against The Machine, Beastie Boys. The list really could go on and on.
11. Who would you most like to collaborate with Artistically?
A collaboration with Death Grips or JPEG would be absolutely insane, but I don’t think Ben would survive the experience. The band have a huge soft spot for Hobo Johnson and Joey Valence & Brae, they’re pretty high on the list, but collaboration is such a beautiful and integral part of music that we’d be open to anything! (Seriously, anything, if you’re reading this and want to collaborate on something then shoot us a message)
12. What was your worst performance?
There’s no such thing as bad performance as long as you have fun! With that being said, blowing up The Village Inn’s PA System in Brighton half way through our set was definitely a rough one. Importantly, however, everyone still enjoyed themselves massively.
13: What was the most difficult obstacle you have ever faced and how did you overcome it?
Ed shattering two of his fingers in 7 places a week before a gig could definitely be considered an obstacle. Yet the show must go on! We put on a hell of a show, and the two bright pink finger casts actually looked pretty sweet on stage.
14: What is your creative process when making music. Do you work with others or is there just you?
The usually process is Ben (who lives outside of London) will send Ed a whole host of 20-30 second clips of tracks he’s been working on. Ed then digs through these and see what clicks, sometimes we can go from 20 second idea to full song in a matter of minutes, sometimes we have great beats on the back burner for months. It’s really a constant back and forth between those two, and then Connor and Will jump on towards the latter stages of a song to figure out how they can add to what’s been written.
15 Where do you see your musical career in 10 years?
If we can ever call this a “career”, no matter how long for, then it’s an absolute resounding success. If in 10 years people are still dancing to our silly little rat songs then that’s phenomenal. That’s the dream we’re chasing.
