MUDRAT doesn’t do subtlety. He says it how it is, encouraging our generation to wake up from this fucked up matrix we’re living in.
With songs like ‘I Hate Rich Cunts’, he’s exactly the politically loaded punk we need right now, calling out themes like genocide, the cost-of-living crisis and corruption.
He and his band embody a revolutionary fury reminiscent of artists like Rage Against the Machine and Kneecap, but with an unmistakable Aussie lens.
So, whether you’re into punk or not, MUDRAT hits hard and lingers, because beyond the rage, he wants you to leave with something to think about.
Why the name MUDRAT?
It’s technically a slur that people in the UK throw towards migrants.
There’s something to rats and the fact that it is like a thing thrown towards people of colour and immigrants ... and embodying as much of that grimy dirtiness as possible and wearing it as a badge of honour.
Why the pull towards punk rock?
I guess the punk metal thing just came by the people that were helping me with production in hip hop, it just happened to be their world.
By experimenting with punk … the things that you write about are more anger based and that naturally lead into a political thing that we were exploring.
And that’s always who I was, but I never really touched on that in my music. And I remember prior to ‘Mud25’ coming out, we were writing punk songs about the ideas of revolution and poor class struggle and stuff ... and so, the writing source has gone from this conceptual thing to just what’s happening around us.
And I think that’s probably the secret of it all, is that: it is grounded in reality and honesty.
How do you channel anger so powerfully in your music?
I have committed to myself that I will only ever write something if I feel it. And if it’s truly honest to me in that moment.
So, ‘I Hate Rich Cunts’ was written maybe three months after this had all kind of kicked off. And it was part of my great awakening and typically what comes first is a feeling. A gut feel. Anger.
Before you make sense of it and start to develop a theoretical understanding and a practical understanding of why things are the way they are. But when you first start to notice, you just feel that and so I don’t think I can ever write that song again.
I’ve been trying to go beyond it because [anger] itself, it’s this amazing great fuel and it’s also blinding.
I’ve been trying to go beyond it because [anger] itself, it’s this amazing great fuel and it’s also blinding.
Now I have more of a how things work understanding, so whatever the music will be based off that is what it will be.
You’ve been compared to Rage Against the Machine and Kneecap, is that fair?
I think at one point, I would have always pushed back against comparisons, but I think part of this whole journey was that I’ve been doing music since I was 22 and it only started to move when I was 29.
So, I learnt a lot. I failed a lot over and over and over again. And you realise that there are certain things that you just have to be okay with and part of that is being put in a box.
And then it’s our job to, for the people that are there to start showing [another] side of things … and we’re going to be doing that with this next project. There’s no topic that I wouldn’t want to touch because I am more than just the angry punk person.
We take inspiration from all those guys.
You’re going on your first international tour. What do you want people to feel the first time they see MUDRAT?
Depending on the crowd and the person that we’re supporting, we kind of aim for a different emotional outcome. So, if we know that we’re playing to a politically engaged crowd, it becomes more about catharsis and more about like, you’re in a space with people that all think the same way and find some solace and healing and recharge your batteries and kind of go out.
Then when you’re, when it’s a crowd … who’s not a political act at all ... that becomes a different thing.
And that’s like, can we plant a seed in this crowd and be like, you love music … but like, you’ve got to care about what’s about to happen. And can we just crack the surface?
What do you want to represent?
Since Gaza has happened, I don’t think you can tell our story without showing the movement that has happened here.
I guess it is tied to our unique cultural shift that has happened here and it’s taken thousands of people coming together every single week, putting on different fundraisers, different actions, putting their bodies on the line, constantly forcing the status quo to shift and take notice of something that it doesn't want to.
And so yeah, I feel like we’re an ambassador for our community, just going out there and really just representing that.
Protesters are being arrested these days, are you worried about facing that backlash yourself?
We can’t not say something. That’s the point. But I do feel like there is a certain protection that comes with having an audience.
It's like, we’ll go and we’ll say and do what we’ve got to do. And if something happens, all right, like it's a big story now.
And so what can you do? Because the only option is to not say something and that can’t happen. That would be a dishonest representation of it, I think.
Like if we went and did a huge fucking public performance and put it out, then we’d a 100% get arrested.
Like if we went and did a huge fucking public performance and put it out, then we’d a 100% get arrested.
Whereas if we’re doing it at our show and if someone wants to come in and spy on us and take a video, whatever the fuck it is, then that's another thing. And then … in the story of how it’s been told, you would hope that the ridiculousness of that is communicated in the process.
People get fired up by your music, but how can they channel that?
Yeah, our whole thing is like, we’re doing this so people can do something more than they did before. That is the only marker of success.
The everyday punter who lives in a comfortable place but maybe they feel like they care and they want to do something. You’ve got so much room in your life to make a little bit of a difference. So whether that’s, you know, just contributing to things like mutual aid as they’re happening around you or starting your own one, versus, you know, big organising and stuff like that.
I think that the first thing is to get educated, to understand, but also just dedicate some of your time in your fortnight. The way you divvy it up between work, leisure and rest, some of that can be towards helping being part of your community in some sort of way. And it is a thing in which it can’t go from zero to 100 quickly, it has to be a gradual process.
