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Music

Rat Boy Brings Pure Energy and Mayhem to LA in “Don’t Hesitate”

This video is what would happen if the 22-year-old and his band delivered your mail.
Daisy Jones
London, GB
Lead image of Rat Boy courtesy of PR​
Lead image of Rat Boy courtesy of PR

When was the last time you did really badly at your job? When I worked in retail, I would hide behind the clothing rails, ignore customers all day and scroll through Instagram. This one time, when I was hungover, I texted my boss to say I had scabies then never showed up again. Hopefully she’s not reading this. I was very bad. But I was also bored.

Anyway, the reason I mention is because in Rat Boy’s new video for “Don’t Hesitate,” which we’re premiering below, he and his band are responsible for delivering LA’s mail. But they do a pretty shit job of it, to be honest. They get trashed in the morning, spill parcels all over the floor, fling letters to the wrong houses. IDK man, I would not trust these 22-year-olds to get me my ASOS parcels in time.

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The track itself is peak Rat Boy – scuzzy hip hop beats, dirty punk riffs, bars that sound like they’ve been chewed up and spat out – and the video embodies this whole chaotic energy. “I had the idea for a postal van when I was traveling round LA while recording and thought they looked rad…” Rat Boy tells me, speaking about the clip, “I drew up storyboards of the adventure that I think we stuck pretty close to. Me and my boy Tommy went to LA to shoot the video fully unaware how fucking hard it is to shoot a video there for a small budget, no filming permits, no driving licenses. We kinda just guessed it…”

“Don't Hesitate” will appear on Rat Boy's upcoming album, Internationally Unknown, which was produced by Tim Armstrong (from Rancid) and will follow his 2017 debut Scum. “This was recorded as a live band with Tim Armstrong and John King (Dust Brothers – producers of Beck, Beastie Boys etc),” Rat Boy says when I ask about the track. “They suggested things for us to try out, like percussion through a space echo, distorted slide guitar and ukulele bass which is insanely subby. It was tracked live to a tape machine, and then back out of the tape machine into logic, where I was able to chop it up later, [giving it that] 808s and early 90s Rebel MC style production.”

Anyway, watch and listen above if you haven't already. Also, you can pre-order Internationally Unknown, which is out 25 January, here.

You can follow Daisy on Twitter.