In early August, our founder and Head of Visuals, Devon Mitchell, took a trip to the childhood home of one of Ratface’s founding members, Cooper Dalton, in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. He had the exclusive opportunity to chat with two of three Ratface members, Cooper Dalton and John Novello, as well as engulf himself in their tunes while watching the band play a live show for their friends and family. This was a unique opportunity, being that Ratface rarely plays live and are a self-proclaimed recording based band. 

       So who is Ratface? Ratface consists of two brothers, John and Lorenzo Novello, along with their friend Cooper Dalton. They are, as John claimed, first and foremost a band from New Jersey. Cooper and John make up the musical genius of the group, while Lorenzo polishes up the final projects with his production skills. 

        “Why ‘Ratface?’” Devon asked the duo. “It’s a funny story,” shares Cooper. “There was an… interesting character… that went to a school with John and I around here.” He goes on to describe a classmate who had a tendency to scare their middle school classmates and dressed like the Fonz from the 70’s sitcom Happy Days. “We had a friend in middle school that nicknamed him Ratface, and while that is really mean,” Cooper acknowledges, “he said some really screwed up things to kids.” Now, if you listen to any effort from Ratface, you will quickly pick up on the fact that the song and the band’s name are pretty contrasting. “The joke is that it [the name Ratface] is such a horrific thing, and it sounds so ugly, while we have a more lush and polished sound. I would call us an indie jam band. And the purpose of the sound is to juxtapose the name.” John has always admired bands similar to Ratface that have very dark and ominous names, but their music is relatively light. John explained that, “With a band called Ratface, you’d assume we’re very punk and nasty…  I always get a kick out of the thought of people coming in with expectations that we’re that and we’re kind of the opposite.” Devon and I had the same initial thought that most new Ratface fans might – this does not sound at all like what I expected! As a self-proclaimed first and foremost New Jersey band, a lot of the vibe that they try to encapsulate has roots in the environment that Devon experienced when visiting Cooper’s home – summertime, outside, playing music, birds chirping, etc. 

      The goal of Ratface’s music is to try to encapsulate soundscapes. Cooper and John start off every song, which are eventually polished off and completed by Lorenzo. Between their music and lyrics, they don’t claim to have one specific influence or artist that they are inspired by– it is usually a blend of things. Cooper mostly writes the songs, while John plays most of the instruments and Lorenzo mixes and masters their combined effort. They are an incredibly multifaceted and talented group. Cooper plays drums, bass, guitar, mandolin, and a little piano, while John is mostly a singer and bass player. However, both members fill in other miscellaneous roles for each other, such as keys, drums, and vocals. Lorenzo, while being mostly a producer, also plays lead guitar on Ratface tracks. “We just can’t shred like my brother does,” shared John, “he adds his own little touch.” John mostly does the band's vocals, because of his greater range. Cooper has done lead vocals on multiple Ratface songs, and both Cooper and Lorenzo pitch in for backup vocals.

        Ratface is a vision, project, and brand. Their thoughts for the future of the band have changed over the years, starting with Cooper coming to John with the idea to put out a few songs for fun with the knowledge that John and Lorenzo had a recording studio in their parents’ basement. The duo became friends in middle school, initially bonding over a shared love for music and John’s bass guitar Instagram profile picture. As Cooper previously mentioned, Ratface is a largely recording-based band, and have only ever played a few live shows. A lot of their efforts to plan and perform live did not work out, and they do not currently have any live shows in their calendar. “We were hoping to play a few live shows over the summer, which didn’t really work out, but we’re still hopeful that in the future we’ll be able to play something,” John shared with Devon, “We have no set in stone plans to play any sort of show, but we’d always be open to.” Now, after two singles, one EP, and one album, Ratface is ready to release their album Sketches by Starlight. John calls it, “...a lovely little album we’re coming out with. It’s a piece of work me and Cooper are very proud of.” The group takes pride in their growth from their first effort, Patio Mambo, until now. Cooper claims, “If we were doing the same thing in 5 years, that would be wrong. It would be horrible, we’d be on the completely wrong track.” “Evil!” John says as he laughs; Cooper echoes him, “Evil. Yeah.” Ratface started with more of a “jangly” indie sound, which was very contemporary with the era that their first EP was released, the early 2020’s. Now, their new album is very different, both from their other efforts and between each song on the album, while still staying cohesive. This new effort, Sketches by Starlight, dips into more of a hard rock vibe as well as featuring talented guests on multiple songs. Another positive change in their creative process with this album was how prepared and well-scheduled the band were for the specific release date they had planned. “In the past, we kind of played it by ear,” Cooper had to say about their past works. “I’m not knocking the last two, but we definitely have had times where we realized we have a solid amount of work and not enough done for the release day. As much as we put time and effort into it, I view it as an outlet,” “Definitely,” John agrees, “for art and expression.” “And that’s not to denigrate it, that’s to show that it’s something we really care about, we’re passionate about,” Cooper continues. “Even our side men for the live band, they love being a part of it. We look forward to it, it’s not an obligation. We answer only to ourselves. And I’m really proud of that.” They emphasize the fact that you can hear the time they took with this new effort as opposed to a more rushed sound on the older works.

    To finish up our chat with the talented John and Cooper, Devon asked a few lighthearted questions to see a little deeper into their views on music as a whole. John proudly announced that his guilty pleasure album (although he emphasized that this is not a guilty pleasure, it is a “certified classic”) is Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream. “If we’re getting really into guilty pleasures,” says John, “I’m unfortunately really into avant-garde music as well. You can see my diversity there, from Katy Perry to avant-garde,” he laughs. “That would be like weird synthesizer sounds, the Grateful Dead did that a lot, there’s a band called Can, they have an album called Tago Mago. Another band called Magma.” John would like to note that he is not ashamed of his so-called guilty pleasures. Cooper, on the other hand, names 90’s nu-metal band Limp Bizkit as his guilty pleasure. He also mentioned, “a fusion between North Indian classical music and Western jazz done by guitarist John McLaughlin. He plays on "Bitch’s Brew" by Miles Davis. It’s very out there stuff.” Cooper would also like to note that he is not unfamiliar with mosh pits. 

       Devon also asked the duo about their “hot takes” in the world of music. Cooper’s general thoughts were about his disdain for artists who are guilty of over-production. “I’ll see a new artist live, and I’ll think they’re a great band, they have a really raw and unpolished sound, but then I’ll check out their Spotify and they’ll just have too much compression and it loses that authenticity,” shares Cooper. He notes that Ratface specializes on touch and the chemistry between the band, which is what helps them encapsulate the vision that they’re going for. John comes in with a more simple hot take, which is that he is not a fan of the Velvet Underground. “I personally think the Velvet Underground are pretentious, and so are their fans,” John states. “I think the Velvet Underground and Nico is the most overrated album of all time.” Unfortunately, as a Velvet Underground fan myself, I would have to agree– the music is great, the fans are insufferable. Cooper, proving John’s “pretentious” claim, says, “I prefer White Light, White Heat.” John argues back, “Well that’s you!! I don’t much like Lou Reed, don’t really like Nico. Andy Warhol is eh. Just eh. That’s my musical hot take that a lot of art nerds will disagree with. Fight me,” John says, probably offending a pretentious art nerd reading this article right now. Yes, I’m talking about you. “Well, this comes from a guy who listens to Van Der Graaf Generator, so I’m probably in no place to talk about pretentious-ness and real music. But then again, meh,” John states finally.

      Ratface, thank you for taking the time to play us some songs and answer our hard-pressing questions. If you’re reading this, go pre-save Sketches by Starlight, which you can listen to on every platform on Friday, August 30th!