Hot Press Meets John Blek and The Rats

Recorded in the winter of 2012 and released a handful of months ago, Leave Your Love At The Door by Cork-based, Americana-infused six-piece John Blek and the Rats is a wonderfully raw, heartfelt record that has been setting all the right tongues wagging of late. Packed with good tunes about bad behaviour, the band’s debut LP was partly produced in singer/guitarist John’s home and the singer tells us that he’s thrilled with the results.
“Half of the album was recorded in my house in-between the kitchen, the sitting room and the bathroom,” he begins. “Recording in the studio is fantastic as you have certain technologies at your disposal, but it’s nice being able to record at home too because we were more at ease in my house. Plus, there was no clock ticking and no money getting spent too quickly.”
Assembled over a period of 11 months (“on and off,” says the singer), Leave Your Love At The Door is the sound of a band completely in unison, despite the current line-up only being forged a year ago. The opus benefits from a warm, live feel.
“The whole thing is literally a record of a point in time of how we were doing things and the way it was all going,” Blek reflects. “You can’t be too precious. You can’t let your ego force you to keep re-recording just because you made this tiny little grunt in a vocal take. You have to push on and realise that essentially you’re making a fucking record – it’s a document of a particular point in history so you have to allow it to happen as it was.
“If I was going into a recording session and I’d been out the night before or something and I’ve got a bit of a croaky throat that’s how it’s going to sound and that’s how it should sound,” he continues, warming to the subject. “I’m not being overly romantic or anything. However, you don’t make records in isolation. A record is made during your existence. When Thom Yorke was making In Rainbows or Hail To The Thief he still had to wash the dishes in the morning, you know? Nothing is in real, true isolation.”
With all things folk, country, bluegrass and roots currently enjoying a mainstream resurgence, John Blek and the Rats’ music is the sound of 2013, despite being steeped in the values of the past. Does the singer feel the current thirst for this type of music is a reaction to some of the more over-produced indie and pop that came before?
“I’m not sure why folk, country and bluegrass has come back around,” he ponders. “It might sound weird, but it could be a recession thing because it’s a salt of the earth, relatively cheap music to make. It’s the sum of people sitting around with their acoustic instruments and practising. Personally, I went through a misspent youth trying to write indie rock songs and it never felt right so I ended up coming back to what I was brought up with – music like Willie Nelson and Glenn Campbell and then I mixed it in with modern influences like Deertick, Arcade Fire and bands like that.
“I suppose it’s a reaction to over-producing, but then you realise that there are people who are over-producing this type of music too. I was watching a bit of Mumford and Sons the other day at the Glastonbury festival and it just struck me that these guys are basically Coldplay – only instead of electric guitars and pianos they have banjos.”
While John admits to being picky about which events they perform at this summer, he reveals he couldn’t turn down a return slot at one of the Rats’ favourite places to play, Knockanstockan. “We really, really loved it there last year,” he enthuses. “We also like working with the people behind Jack of Diamonds Productions and we’re playing on their stage called the Shack of Diamonds, so it’ll be great. We’re playing after midnight on Friday, so we’ll probably arrive at 7pm, see a few bands and I think Enemies are on when we’re there too, so that’ll be good. We’re gonna catch as much as we can.”
Knockanstockan takes place at Blessington Lakes, Co. Wicklow from July 26-28. Knockanstockan.ie