Writing for SUPERSWEET has almost no boundaries. Make it a self-help, a novel, or a comedy if you like. We only ask for one thing: NEVER EVER interview unsigned bands. Ratattagg haven't even got a single out and yet we already find ourselves helplessly breaking the golden rule. Have we gone mad?!

'Pop' is a funny word. Ten years ago, everyone shied away from it. It was tacky, uncool, and taboo. It was a crime. You were supposed to be 'grunge', giving everybody the impression of having a needle hanging out of your arm, casually... occasionally. In fact, pop has always had that cynical value attached to it even way before most of us here were born, even during Pop Art.

Today though, everyone wants to be pop, from techno acts down to circus freaks. "It's great to be pop," assures Matt Flag, the heavily tattooed 'good-vibes' maker (who also sings and plays instruments), whilst trying to convince us that Ratattagg too is a pop band. "Pop is a good thing to be associated with, there's nothing wrong with it at all. Look at Beyoncé! I really like her," he enthuses. It's probably his good vibes that contribute to many of this band's pop elements.

Maybe it's the same no-rule approach they religiously go by that attracts us: the trashy mixture of trumpet, keyboards and their minor samba fetish that gets you trying to figure out who's more bonkers - those five colourful kids onstage or the ones watching, and loving something so wrong it feels so right. Or maybe it's simply something that doesn't make a hell of a sense, like band name for a start.

"[Ratattagg] kind of sounds like a machine gun, it sort of means something else as well but we won’t go into that. The main reason is it sounds like a machine gun and I think that suits the music quite well, the machine gun of sound!" Frontman Raary (Rambert Ratattaggi or formerly Deci-Hells or whatever nom du jour he feels like adopting) blurts out off the top of his head, "So it’s got a good rhythm so it’s a machine gun. And we gun them down as we play. Yeah, say it really cheesy like that," he instructs SUPERSWEET with a cheeky grin, "No one's dead yet, because we only use rubber bullets at the moment. Might step up a level next time!"

This is one of many characteristic charms Raary has carried over from his ex-band, Test Icicles. It will probably always be inevitable to acknowledge the short-lived project and tag it whenever his name is mentioned, sadly. Some of the Test Icicle members might loathe to admit this, but for a while, they were rather influential to the kids - not just in music - but art, fashion and street culture. It even changed ways of thinking somehow. It was a symbol of youth and pure fun. Ratattagg is very similar in that sense, but they're also about the unrehearsed silliness with points to get across under a stronger direction, and to top it all, more melodies.

During the end of Test Icicles era, Raary migrated to Ireland for a good few months for "a bit of peace and quiet", he says, "I’d been living in London in the past eight years so I tried going to the countryside where there’s nothing going on at all... it kind of drove me insane after three months or something. So I had to leave."

"I've written everything all by myself so far," he explains, "The only reason I wrote all the music is because I was the only person around back then. I didn’t have the band and it was only me. Now there’s many more people it will probably change I imagine. I don’t know if the sound’s going to change. Who knows? We might not be any good together but we’re going to give it a crack."

"Maybe the dynamic will change," Robin Silas (drums) suggests. Backed up by two further like-minded youngsters: Conan Roberts (bass) and Tom Scott (guitar), they didn't all meet until Raary's finalised his recruits. "We went to the first band practice and that was when we all got to meet each other for the first time." Matt recalls, "I knew Robin and knew Conan from around town. We're in London so everyone sees each other’s faces from around, I think we’ve all met drunken at one point but Raary was definitely the catalyst for all this."

"I was the only one who knew all of them. I was the one who asked them and they all said yes so I forgot that everyone wouldn’t know each other when they turned up as well which was a bit weird," Raary laughs, "I hadn’t thought about it because I knew everyone and thought everyone knew each other and then obviously they didn’t. But it was fine!"

Finally Ratattagg sounds and looks like a complete collective, even though everyone is in a few other bands still: Bullet Union (Robin), Navajo Code (Matt), and Clunes (Tom) for instance. "We’re all really greedy! We’re all really into music!" Amusingly stressing on the 'into' part, the good vibes Matt's created makes his friends laugh once again, "I don’t know, we try to keep busy."

"I’m the only one who’s not in any other bands… I only have this!" Raary confesses. Worry not, as with this outfit, he seems to be playing enough gigs and stirring a wonderful and positive buzz within the music world. And if Ratattagg have their way, singles and EP should follow soon enough. The frontman himself also has bigger plans on revolutionising band merchandise, "All they do is boring T-shirts, isn't it? I want to design the prints and do all-over print fabrics and make them into something. That's what we're going to start with, and some shoes, then who knows, maybe a couple of hand-made ones." Not bad a plan at all. Currently, his only band merch to date isn't T-shirts or funny caps but some fantastically exciting Ratattagg rosettes which sell out in a jiff!

Every once in a while, there needs to be a band that comes along to remind us of how we should never have to go through life with a frown. We can still be responsible adults with all the fun (and all the cool mess!), that life is random and surreal like that. Right now Ratattagg are one of those rare feel-good bands to help elevate your minds. It's the most comforting thing to embrace the fact that illogicality is only our natural state, and the world is a beautifully illogical place.




Photography: Krittiya Sriyabhandha
Assistant: Gobgap