The Pilerats.com website as you may or may not know it has previously undergone only one major tweak/upgrade, and that's been the site you've been visiting for the past 18-or-so months. The number of changes that have happened within the Pilerats wheelhouse in that time are kinda scary to think about. We lost our entire initial reason for existence (Pilerats Magazine), but gained a Record Label that now houses six artists, with more moving in soon. We've moved office (twice), organised a few (fairly huge) music festivals, launched a creative content production arm called Made In The Pile and kicked off a new series of live music events in At The Pile. These days there can be up to 20 people running around our office, either working on Pilerats projects or for our sibling business, Metric Events, and we've collectively accrued enough hangovers and comedowns to last a lifetime.

All the while there's been this little website, Pilerats.com - our medium for showcasing to Australia and the world-at-large the talent that motivates and inspires us to do what we do - the emerging and established creatives, thought-leaders and early-adopters who are producing music, art, photography and writing that make us think, smile, laugh, cry and question our very existence... Maybe that's a little melodramatic, but our search to find things we think are cool and exciting (and to give a voice to those behind those things), is a journey that continues to drive us. Or maybe it's the whiskey that we keep stashed in our desk draws Mad Men-style that drives us - it's hard to tell. Now 'tis time to beef up the medium through which we showcase the fruits of our daily questing.

I know what you're thinking: what has even changed you drunken idiot? Well, here goes:

REFINED SECTIONS

As Pilerats.com has grown, our role as a source for new and exciting music has definitely expanded, and so we've divided up our "Music" section accordingly, into three categories: Electronic (producers), Bands (instrument players) and Rap (rhyme dealers). Of course music isn't solely defined by these three "genres", but they cover a lot of different bases, and they're the three we talk about the most. Returning to the website is a stronger focus on the photography and art & design worlds, our fondness for which was half the reason we started Pilerats Magazine in the first place. Long-format written content has been given greater focus, vis a vis in-depth, exploratory artist features (Get To Know) and meatier meditations intended to kickstart thought and discussion (Deep & Meaningfuls). For your coffee break, there is plenty of shorter, humourous pieces you can knock off in no time (Light & Easy).

PILE TV & LABEL

Our new and improved YouTube channel Pile TV is integrated into the new website – head here to watch the all-new, video series Pilerats will be premiering all year; starting with our “a day in the life of” documentaries (A Day With), our TED-style, young creative talks series (Insights) and our intimate performance recordings (Live Sessions). You can now also watch all the official music videos for our artists via the Pile TV tab.

This ties into our new and improved Record Label section - where you can learn about listen to all the wonderful talents we've signed and music we've released along with our Store, through which we’ll sell vinyl releases and more from the label, as well as official Pilerats merch – look out for a new drop in the coming weeks.

NEWS

We've incorporated an interactive panel to the right of the home page, a place for internet shenanigans to live, and for you to wander through if you're looking for a laugh, or something weirder.

IMPROVED LAYOUT

The article you're reading right now is a shit-load wider than the posts on our old website, and that's because we want our higher-quality content to shine. And that means giving it more room to breathe. It's enabled us to showcase the amazing photography we are sent in a much more enjoyable format. Likewise, long-form stories deserve your full attention, without ads or us trying to get you to follow us on social medias (even though you should) or sign up to our mailing list (do that too). You'll also notice as you scroll down the home page some articles' header photos appear bigger than other's, because variety is the spice of life, and it highlights the work we get from our awesome range of contributors.

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If we're being honest, the new Pilerats.com hasn't really been about wholesale change, more about refining the product we have to make it as best as possible an experience for you; the good folk who stumble onto our website however often you do. If you only come for the electronic music - cool, we have a tab for that. If you're into photography and art/design, there's a tab for that too. If you like your internet well written with a bit of thought behind it, and not just time-wasting clickbait bullshit, we've got a few different tabs you might like. And if you're just interested in the Record Label or watching videos, you know what to do.

And we'll keep doing what we've been trying to do for the past few years, and that's celebrate awesome people doing awesome shit, and introducing them to your eyes and ears on a regular basis. With that in mind, we implore you to go exploring around the new and improved Pilerats.com, hopefully you find something you like.

xoxo, Pilerats