Interview - The Surf Rats

1.Hey Gaz! greetings from Peru Hell! hows going the things in The Surf Rats?

Thanks a lot, Diego, it's really great to hear from you. All is good with The Surf Rats, in fact you catch us at a very busy time. We are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the recording and release of our very first album, TROUBLE so we are planning a lot of shows and recording a new album.

2.Gaz,The Surf Rats is a old band from nasty and dirty  psychobilly give us a extense 
bio about the existence from The Surf Rats!
Ok, I'll do my best, some stuff is very hard to remember as it was a long time ago, haha. We started the band in about 1981 after hearing The Stray Cats and then The Meteors and The Cramps. Originally it was me on guitar and vocals, my younger brother on double bass and anyone who wanted to play drums with us, haha. We had a lot of drummers when we first started. Eventually we had a guy called Mickey Harris who left to go and form Napalm Death. He was replaced by a guy we knew that played in a punk band and so the classic Surf Rats were formed. We opened up for everyone who came through our town; Frenzy, Restless, Guana Batz, The Vibes, The Meteors, Torment as well as doing lots of our own shows. We finally got our record deal in 1987, recording two albums with Lost Moment. Because psychobilly was dying off towards the end of the 1980's, we decided to rename the band and we became more of a souped up rockabilly band called Custom Built and then The Love Cowboys. It was the same three members though. The Love Cowboys recorded two albums and we toured extensively through the USA. My brother left the band in the early 1990's and we used several different bass players until I met Thomas Lorioux who was playing with The Frantic Flinstones. It was him that told me that there was still interest in The Surf Rats and so we decided to go back to playing psychobilly. The original Surf Rats drummer left the band in 2002 and I decided that I needed a rest from music. Thomas and I reformed the Surf Rats in 2008. He introduced me to Gaybeul Gualdi and the Surf Rats were reborn. We recorded the third Surf Rats album, WELCOME TO KILLAFORNYA in 2009. Since then, Thomas has moved to the USA, Gaybeul still lives in France and now plays drums for Demented Are Go and I still live here in the UK but we do manage to get together for big festivals and tours around the world. We have played most countries in Europe, and toured in Russia, the Ukraine, Scandinavia, USA, Japan and Brazil. We are just about to tour the USA in the next few weeks.

3.How many releases have The Surf Rats?

We released TROUBLE in 1988, STRAIGHT BETWEEN THE EYES in 1989, THUNDER ROAD as The Love Cowboys in 1991, SEX KILL A GO GO as The Love Cowboys in 1996, WELCOME TO KILLAFORNYA as THE SURF RATS in 2009 and our new album, STRANGE THINGS will be released next year.

4.Sleaze influences in The Surf Rats?

All the good stuff, haha, old rockabilly, new rockabilly, glam rock, heavy metal, horror movies, comic books, porno, cars, motorcycles, sex, girls, drugs, booze, cigarettes. You name it, I love it, haha!

5.The lyrics from The Surf Rats pecifically are about?

It's changed over the years. The early stuff tended to focus on the horror side of things like zombies and vampires. Now it's a more rock and roll approach so I use anything that appeals to me. Usually something sleazy, haha.

6.Some rat have another proyect paralell?

Yes, we all live in different countries so we all do other things. Thomas has played with just about everybody, The Kings Of Nuthin', Frantic Flinstones, Roddy Radiation and the Skabilly Rebels, Tim Polecat, Slim Jim Phantom, like I said, almost everybody. Gaybeul plays drums for Demented Are Go and I have a rockabilly band called Satan's Barber Shop, a punk blues band called The Relaxos and I also play guitar for 1980's psychobilly band, Spellbound. In fact, I've just finished recording the new Spellbound album which should be out later this year.

7.How was the psychobilly scene during the years 80,90s in your city/country? explaim some more about this Gaz!

I live in a big city called Birmingham so all of the bands came through my town: Frenzy, Guana Batz, The Meteors, The Stray Cats, The Cramps, The Vibes etc. The 1980's psychobilly scene was fantastic in England, especially between 1980 and 1985. The 1990's were not so good.

8.You know the psychobilly scene from Southamerica?

I know a little. I have toured in Brazil with Surf Rats and Spellbound so we met some really cool bands on the road. Mullet Monster Mafia, The Sick Sick Sinners, Los Freneticos. I know there are lots of great bands out there.

9.Stuff avaliable from The Surf Rats at the moment? how the maniacs can find that stuff?

I think the first two albums are still available on CD from various places online. The WELCOME TO KILLAFORNYA album is available from us along with our other merchandise like T Shirts, badges, patches, stickers etc. If anyone in Peru would like to buy anything then all they have to do is find us on Facebook and send us a message.

10.Morbid future plans?

We have a new vinyl EP coming out in the summer that has three new songs on it, the new album comes out next year. We are touring the USA in June, we play the Psychobilly Meeting in Spain in July and then we are off to Finland in October, Europe in November. In 2018 we plan to come to South America for a big tour as well as plans to go  back to Japan and maybe Australia for the first time.

11.Last and terrorific words to the maniacs from Peru! and Cheers!

Hell yeah, Peru. You guys fucking rock! Thank you so much for supporting us and we hope to see you in the pits of Peru in 2018! FUCK YEAH!