Ratfink!

Melbourne’s own Ratfink! returns with When U Were Mine — a fuzzed-out surf-rock confession born from creekside revelations, heartbreak, and raw, reverb-soaked nostalgia. We caught up to talk chaos, catharsis, and plastic dreams.

“Plastic Bits” has that classic Ratfink! punch but with a sunny surf-pop edge — what inspired the sound and direction of this track?

I’ve always been a sucker for those early 2010s surf rock groups – Best Coast, the Drums and Surfer Blood before they got weird – you know, a bit of reverb on everything but still sounding real. Like it’s gotta be tight before you slap all that reverb on it. I’m lucky cause I got a killer female vocalist backing me up. Throws a whole different shade of light.

You’ve said the song was written after an afternoon by the Merri — can you tell us more about that moment and how it turned into a song about pollution and plastic?

I don’t know I dropped acid by this waterway we have – Merri Creek, which snakes its way through Melbourne’s inner north and has the gall to dictate how we do urban planning. Anyway once it hit, all the plastic bottles and bags bobbing up and down in the water became kinda surreal, like a Dali painting. It struck me that even though I am in one of the most ‘liveable’ cities in the world, we can’t even keep one of our most important waterways clean – one that I’m sure was kept immaculate under traditional custodianship. There used to be a pretty big rubbish dump where I sat dreaming up the song. It’s now a community farm.

There’s a raw, nostalgic energy to your music. How does When U Were Mine build on or differ from your earlier releases?

I think it sounds nostalgic because the way I want a guitar and bass to sound is how it should sound. Turned up to eleven and cutting through so all the freaks can hear you at the back at some random festival in 1969. The album is different to my earlier stuff (I used a lot of field recordings from rainforests along Australia’s east coast on my first record), this time it’s just me playing live. Of course, my partner in crime Liv takes it to another level with the harmonies.

The title When U Were Mine suggests something personal or reflective — is there a story behind the album name?

Haha there is – but I won’t be sharing it here lest the girl in question read this some day! In a weird way I just needed to put this album out to move on from a certain period of my life, the kind of breakup that takes a year to recover. Things are better now, thankfully.

Ratfink! has always balanced chaos and melody — how do you keep that live-wire energy alive in the studio?

You gotta be on the right stuff, and you gotta mean it. There’s no science to chaos.

With the new record dropping next month, what can fans expect from your live shows — any surprises or new twists in the setlist?

Haha we’ve only done three shows. The only surprise will be if we can make through a whole set without me playing a song in the wrong key. But I do a mean twist every now and then.

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