A Night at Rumba Cafe - Rat Motel
You can take the rat out of the motel, but you can never take the motel out of the rat...
This will be the final post in our mini-series covering the show at Rumba Cafe this past December. We talked to Space Kid, we talked to Golomb, and we talked to Befriend Strange Creatures. Now the stage is set for our grand finale, the headliner, the one and only….
Rat Motel
The rats… the motel….what can we even say? But on a serious note, these guys are really cool!
They use an octave pedal to duplicate the signal of the guitar an octave down, and Seth- guitarist/bassist extraordinaire- plugs that dual signal back into a bass amp to create a sound you can only truly experience live. It’s incredible to watch him and Clayton (drums/vocals) perform as a dynamic duo, playing off each other in electrifying fashion. Trust us, you’re doing yourself a disservice if you’ve never been to Rat Motel show.
They have an absolutely infectious punk vibe- not the kind of punk where you’ll get a black eye and a torn ligament, but more like a slightly painful midnight skirmish. You wouldn’t believe the pedal-related contraption these guys bring on stage. I’ve seen skateboards with pedals, but Rat Motel takes it to another level. These guys could bring in a kitchen table coated in pedals and wires- it’s like a whole pedal spaghetti. This creates an impressive, technical sound, while retaining the grit needed for rock as punk as the Rat Motel.
If you’re looking for somewhere to start, listen to their most recent latest album, The Rat Motel!
As always, here are the links to their work!
And here’s our exclusive interview- enjoy!
Editor’s Note: We actually just went to their show at The Basement (5/10/24) and did a little follow-up interview there, so we’ve inter-spliced some of that here!
[Seth as vocals/guitar, Clayton on drums]
Band Origins / Background
How long have you guys been playing together?
Clayton: In this band, seven years. We played in a band before that for like 3 or 4 years [when] Seth was in 7th or 6th grade and I was in like 9th or 10th grade. So that’s when we started playing together, we made some stuff and-
Seth: It's called Echolocation. It's still out there, but I don't recommend listening to it. Just consider that we are in 6th grade.
Clayton: Listen to it. Go listen to it.
Dude, I really might.
Clayton: You should.
So how did Rat Motel start?
Clayton: I went to UC (University of Cincinnati) and that's when we really started playing.
Did you guys both go?
Clayton: No, just me. That's when we started doing stuff though. I would drive up to Columbus and play a bunch, and then we would start playing in Cincinnati a lot. We’ve been playing in Cincinnati for like... a long time.
Where did you guys play in Cincinnati?
Clayton: We played at MOTR on Thursdays, but back in the day we just played house shows which was awesome.
House shows are bigger in Cincinnati than they are here, aren’t they?
Clayton: They're really cool. I think it’s maybe coming back a bit in Columbus.
Seth: House show scenes are so hard to track. Like, we don't even know. I know like one house- two.
Clayton: They have The Crypts but they don't do a lot there. I think that right down the street there's the Marlboro Manor and that's like the main [one].
Ian: That's where you go if you want to smoke a cigarette.
Seth: That makes sense.
Ian: They call it that for a reason.
Clayton: I mean, it sounds kind of like a Luigi’s Mansion situation, yes.
How do you guys manage being just a two person act?
Seth: It makes touring really easy.
Clayton: Yeah, we can all fit in one car.
Seth: Yeah, we all fit in one car. All of us.
How do you fit the drums?
Clayton: We don’t. Everywhere we tour we make sure there’s a way to not bring our drums or our bass amp.
Seth: We pack it all in a CRV.
Clayton: Most of what we pack is merch, to be honest. Because that's the only way to make money as a band like this.
Seth: Yeah. It also makes practicing really easy.
Oh I bet- you only need two of you!
Clayton: Every once in a while we’ll get someone that’s like, “You know, I really like your sound, it’s really cool, a bass would be nice, but you know, it’s whatever”, and I’ll be like, “Yeah we should get a bassist at some point”. And then someone [else] will come up and be like, “It’s so cool that it’s just you two. Never get a bassist”, and I’m like, “Yeah, I guess we don’t need a bassist.”
If you got a bassist, it could get confusing.
Clayton: Yeah, we would have to play very differently, because right now Seth is playing a lot of the bass notes. But yeah, it’s fun, we’re brothers- it’s nice to have that family connection.
So how did you get your start in this? Like getting to the show, getting registered here.
Seth: You just gotta email people. Their emails are on the websites, but like, just years and years and years of emailing. Rumba’s awesome though, they let us in pretty early in [our] first few years.
But there's still venues that it's hard for us to get into like, you know, Promo West thing. I don't even know how to crack Promo West, I don't know what's going on there. But yeah, you just gotta fucking e-mail people and just try and try and try and… just start playing shows. Put together shows.
Editor’s Note: They actually just played their first show at The Basement (Promo West) last night!
Last time we interviewed you guys, you were like, “I don’t know how we can get into Promo West…” and now you’re here!
Clayton: I think they’re just trying to have more local bands here!
We’re glad- tonight was awesome.
The Sound / Brand
How would you guys describe your music?
Clayton: When we pitched this album to people, what did we call it?
Seth: We call it Buzz Rock, but that doesn't tell you anything.
Clayton: But we do call it buzz rock, because it's energetic. It’s not quite punk, it’s a little scary, a little darker-
Seth: We definitely put, “for fans of Nick Cave” on there, which is not at all accurate...
Clayton:We really like Tom Waits and Nick Cave and these kind of like-
Seth: Kind of like stylistic inspirations-
Clayton: And you know, Ty Segall-
Seth: That’s more of where our actual sound comes from.
Clayton: Yeah, exactly. But as far as how we describe our sound… we're a little bit of punk, we're a little bit of garage rock...
Seth: I mean Dog is like surf punk, you know?
Clayton: Yeah, Dog is just surf garage rock. That's what we used to play more. Our set used to be more like just Dog and we've kind of shifted a bit.
So what is Izzi Sleep? Is that just your solo project?
Seth: Yeah, it was during COVID, Clayton was in New York and we weren’t touring and I had a bunch of songs that I wanted to record- and I had wanted to do a solo album for a while. So I got together an album, recorded it- mixed it myself too.
Where did you record it?
Seth: Down in Amish Electric Chair Studios, in Athens (Ohio, not Greece).
So, what does the name mean? Judging by the cover (the Rat Motel album), the motel is a rat…
Seth: Yeah, this is kind of up for debate.
Clayton: It’s a yes and yes question. So, the motel is a rat and it's also a motel for rats.
Seth: So there’s rats inside.
Ian: So it's like… Rat-ception. Ok, I'm following.
Caleb: Would you room in a hotel that was a human? Because I don't think I would.
Seth: Ohh yeah, that'd be real weird, wouldn't it?
Clayton: Well this is like, supernatural, so it's kind of hard to judge.
Who are your guys’ favorite local bands right now?
Clayton: Right now I really love the bands we just played with (5/10/24). Cellar Dweller is really cool, Faucet Mouth is really cool. The problem is if we start listing local bands we love then there’s always going to be a local band I forget to list that I love…
But I love Big Fat Head, they’re awesome. Golomb is cool, Befriend Strange Creatures, Simon Molnar.
Who did the art for the poster from tonight? It’s really cool.
Seth: It's @Wondorama on Instagram. Her name is Bella- Isabella Littell, she’s awesome. She also did the Izzi Sleep album art out over on our Spotify page and the key chains!
Ian: I mean, this is impressive stuff- one artist to another, you know?
Seth: What do you do?
Ian: Oh, dude… shapes and colors…
WE LOVE RAT MOTEL!
Truly, we cannot emphasize enough how amazing this experience was and how much we recommend keeping up with all the bands we covered- Space Kid, Golomb, Befriend Strange Creatures, and Rat Motel. It was truly a night to be remembered- if you ever get the opportunity to see any of them live, do it.
We appreciate all of them so much for helping us create our inaugural posts about local music in Columbus, and we look forward to working more with them and other groups in the future!
- Ian and Caleb, The Bobcat Press