An interview with your new favourite rock band, RACKETT

While this weekend is all about Splendour for many, if you're in Sydney this Friday 21 July we got a little party for you that we think is gonna be a lot of fun. We linked up with the crew at BANQUET (Friday nights at The World Bar) to curate a little lineup of acts we think are ones to be getting around in 2017, and so we invite you to come down and catch buzzy four-piece rock'n'rollers RACKETT, along with slinky electro-pop queen NUSSY. Both acts are ones we've been vibing on for a while now, and we're excited to showcase them, supported by a bunch of local legends.

We recently premiered THIS rad remix of NUSSY's Hard As Diamonds, and below you can read our chat with RACKETT frontwoman Bec Callander, talking about their latest single Prey, some highlights of this year so far, and what's to come. Check it out, and head to the BANQUET x Pilerats Facebook event HERE - it's free at The World Bar in Sydney from 8pm.

First up, let’s start with new single Prey – can you tell us a bit about it? It feels a little gentler to some of your previous releases?

Prey is a glimpse into our sensitive side; vulnerable, delicate and naive. I wrote the lyrics at The Newtown Library in Sydney, using an encyclopedia of unique animals and the strange tactics they use to lure their prey. I used these behaviours to metaphorically narrate my personal experience with feeling entrapped by a lover. The band and our producer, Dave Hammer, helped to transform the song into the book itself, taking you on a listening journey through the encyclopedia. Look out for the video clip for Prey, directed by up and coming director, Mathilde Nocquet, whose work is exploding in Europe. There is not much left of me after it is over.

It’s taken from a new EP due later this year, how’s that coming along and what can we expect?

The song is the last single from our debut EP Ready Or Not’ which we will release later this year. The EP is a compilation of sonically diverse songs that have transformed from bedroom recordings to high quality studio recordings with full production that celebrate the overwhelming obstacles we’ve overcome to produce it.

You’ve already gained a knack for being a rawkus live act – how do you translate that into recordings?

We are currently figuring that out. We’ve tried recording live to tape and also single tracking. The last recordings were hard on the band because the nature of tracking instruments in a studio means you aren’t looking over and seeing your band rocking out, you are in a room, mostly alone.

You’ve had a pretty awesome year so far already, what have been some of the highlights?

We’ve toured with The Darkness and played Secret Garden Festival, Blurst Of Times and Electric Lady. Worked with an amazing director and team for our film clip for Prey (coming soon). We will be the face of General Pants spring collection, sold out our single launch and played some packed out local shows.

We noticed drummer Astrid point out that even though it was an all-girls fest, you were still outnumbered by boys backstage – is it a case of yes, things are getting better, but there’s also a long way to go/a lot of work to do when it comes equality at shows?

I don’t really care if you’re a boy or a girl, just play some decent fucking music and make it entertaining. I’m so bored at the majority of live music shows I go to, that I’m not thinking about equality, I’m thinking about the lack of talent and effort put into live shows by both boys and girls. It’s good that Electric Lady are making a statement about what they feel is important, I respect that and support anyone trying to bring attention to any form of injustice they are experiencing. Our personal viewpoint on equality is that there should be equality for all humans, all animals and all living things. As a women, living in the first world, I feel safe, I am encouraged to do well by both men and women and I don’t experience any form of discrimination that I’m aware of. What I do see is inequality for animals, inequality for third world countries and first world humans, men and women, pillaging our planet. This hasn’t come far enough for us to be winging about our shitty privileged lives.

We’re so stoked you could join us on Friday at Banquet – for the uninitiated what can we expect?

Don’t expect anything. Be open minded, come and have a drink, meet some new people and let us do the work. We will be playing rock, blues, pysch, pop, shoegaze and punk and we will deliver it with everything we have.

And finally what’s coming up for the rest of 2017 and beyond – reckon you’ll be making the trip west at some point this year?

We are playing our EP and our next recordings live at The World Bar in Kings Cross this Friday, 21st July (free entry). After that we’ll be releasing our video clip for Prey, releasing our debut EP Ready Or Not and touring to celebrate the release in September. Keep up with our live shows on our FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM or WEBSITE. In terms of coming west, hit us up with where you want us to play on our social media and we’ll do our best to get there.