With an energetic, fast paced sound full of addictive riffs and four good-looking guys, China Rats are planting their feet firmly in the music scene. We caught up with vocalist Graeme for a chat pre-tour. 

You’re heading out on your first proper UK tour. How would you describe your live show? Loud, fast and sweaty. Plenty of twisting and plenty of shouting.

Where are you most looking forward to playing on the tour and why? We’re playing all over so it’s going to be sweet just to get about the UK and see the places we’ve never been before. We’ve also got a lot of friends in Manchester who are always kind to us. We’re playing The Factory which is an awesome venue where everybody’s always ready to party, so Manchester should be a swell night!

Do you have any odd or funny stories from previous shows? We played a show at King Tuts in Glasgow the other week and we almost missed the show. We got stuck on the way in a place called Richmond. Everywhere was flooded and we practically had to float out of there. We just about arrived at King Tuts in time and it was awesome. George didn’t want to drive back after the show though because of the weather and me and Luke had work in the morning. We ended up on the bevvies in a Glasgow bar called ‘Nice and Sleazy’ and had to ring up work in the morning – Luke nearly got the sack.

To say you only formed last summer, you’re doing pretty well having been played on BBC Radio 1’s Introducing playlist. What advice can you give to wannabe bands? Just keep writing and enjoy what you’re doing. It’s all about having fun, don’t take it too seriously. If you think you’re onto something just get it out there and show ‘em what you’re made of.

You’re known for energetic and fast songs. Why do you think your music gets people so hooked? All our songs are pretty simple and fast so I guess people might get hooked because they don’t have to think about it too much. A song might be playing and you don’t even realise, before you know it it’s stuck in your head for the rest of the week. Maybe that’s what happens with ours.

China Rats – why the name? We’re hooked on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Master splinter is a bad ass Ninja Rat – he’s a China Rat man.

Your new single ‘(At Least Those) Kids Are Getting Fed’ is due out 8^th October. Can you tell us the reason behind the song? Me and Luke were living in a place called Armley last year. It’s a suburban area of Leeds that gets a pretty bad rep but it’s not actually too bad. We wrote ‘(At Least Those) Kids Are Getting Fed’ for the Kids around Armley who are always kicking about on the streets having fun.

What do you have planned after the tour? We’re heading back into the Studio to get some more tracks down and then we’re off to Europe in November. We’re going to Barcelona, Madrid, Hamburg, Eindhoven and Rennes so it’s all getting a bit exciting now. It’s unreal so we can’t fucking wait! VM

Grab a free live track of ‘Fly Solo’ here.

Words copyright Vanity magazine 2012