Meet Garage Ratz | 3 piece rock band

We had the good fortune of connecting with Garage Ratz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Garage Ratz, why did you pursue a creative career?
Matt: I got into playing bass because my buddy wanted to start a band. I bought a bass and started playing in a band called Reverse Birth. When James started jamming with us, we formed Garage Ratz.

James: I always wanted to play rock music because playing guitar brought me a lot of joy. Plus it was the only thing I was ever good at. I was in and out of bands since high school, I couldn’t find the right band that wanted to make music and play shows. When I linked up with Matt and the band these guys were all hungry and ready to take on the world. Plus we all had different influences and styles so it made for some fun ideas.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Our band has a wide range of music because we all have different influences and interests when it comes to making music. We never stuck to one definitive genre, we write music based on one idea that someone brings to the table. Then we work it out through a jam where everyone contributes their own feel to it. We are excited to write more music and film more music videos. We’ve been a band since late 2017, we attribute our longevity by being open to new ideas that keep our music fresh. It was not easy when we first started booking shows, we didn’t seem to fit in anywhere. We were getting placed on a lot of mismatched shows where no one cared about our set. We overcame this by being consistent with playing as many shows as possible and working on our live shows. More interaction with the crowd and audience participation. We then stepped up our social media presence and started cutting promos for our shows. Once we started having fun with it, that’s when we found the most success. We want the world to know that if you want to be successful in a band, make sure you do it for the love of it. You gotta put in work and practice, perform live, and promote yourself because no one else will do it for you. We’ve been through our ups and downs but we are still around because we love playing music and entertaining people.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Right after they hop off the plane we would take them to eat at in n out by the LAX airport. There’s plenty of stand up comedy shows during the week to go to for a good laugh. The next day we would go to the beach and hang out. After a long day under the sun we top it off with Korean BBQ and soju. Thursday and Friday nights are best for rock show. We live in the San Fernando Valley so we could hit up Corbin Bowl for some bowling and live music, the Maui sugar mill saloon, or even The Midnight Hour.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Shout out to @audiomech for always mixing and mastering our music. Shout out to @broshi_dojoe for being patient with us and recording our music. Shout out to @in.focus.film for helping us film our first music video. A lot more projects to come with this team!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegarageratz/profilecard/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@garageratzvideos?si=sAdn59tlGZ6ttk9T

Other: Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/wrapped/share/share-315dd1c522c14f1bbdf4bfabc6cec19e?si=nMEhzclqQ-iDlFEfykgi-A&artist-id=2zgm3HAAxeAVQlTxSetOTi