Chicago's Ratboys color their sauntering, reflective indie rock with distortion and hints of rustic alt-country. After emerging with their first EP, the homespun Ratboy, in 2015, they fleshed out their palette, adding pedal steel, strings, and more by the time they recorded their second full-length, 2017's GN. Released in 2023, their fourth album, the Chris Walla-produced The Window, found them expanding their indie toolbox further, with instruments such as rototoms and talk boxes in the mix. With singles including 2025's "Anywhere," they continued along a more assertive path on the next year's separation-themed Singin' to an Empty Chair, another collaboration with Walla. Ratboys founding members Julia Steiner and David Sagan met as freshman at the University of Notre Dame and had begun recording together by the end of the school year. By their sophomore year, they were performing at private shows, at first as an acoustic duo. Swerp Records issued their debut EP, Ratboy, in 2012. By the time they graduated (Steiner in 2014 and Sagan a year later), they had gone electric, added bassist William Lange and drummer Jordan Parel to the lineup, and signed with Topshelf Records. The label released Ratboys' debut album, AOID, in June 2015. With stops in the U.S. and Europe, they toured for over a year in support of the record, adding trumpet player Cody Owens to the group and replacing Parel with drummer Pat Kennedy along the way. Without relinquishing their easygoing mix of jangle and distortion, they had friends contribute instruments like pedal steel, accordion, and strings to their second album, 2017's GN (short for "goodnight"). It featured Sean Neumann on bass and Danny Lyons on drums. The heartache-themed EP GL ("good luck") followed a year later. Ratboys' third long-player, Printer's Devil, arrived on Topshelf in February 2020. Recorded live at Decade Music Studios in Chicago with co-producer Erik Rasmussen, it saw the core duo joined by Neumann and drummer Marcus Nuccio (Dowsing, Pet Symmetry). An album of re-recorded early songs, Happy Birthday, Ratboy, emerged in April 2021 amid a series of COVID-19-prompted online performances. The group headed to a studio outside of Chicago for the first time in order to record their next album with producer Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie) in Seattle. Further expanding their sound and stylistic reach to include plaintive folk, warm country-rock, and fuzzy guitar pop while incorporating sounds like rototoms and additional effects, The Window arrived on Topshelf in August 2023. A split single with T.V. Not January released in honor of the groups' 2024 tour of Japan appeared in February 2024. Following a move to New West Records, Ratboys stuck with a more assertive, effects-bolstered sound on 2025 singles like "Light Night Mountains All That" and "Anywhere" from 2026's Singin' to an Empty Chair, the band's sixth LP. Heavily influenced by Steiner's estrangement from a loved one and a related therapy exercise, the album was recorded with Walla in sessions in rural Wisconsin, at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio studio in Chicago, and in nearby Evanston. - Biography by Marcy Donelson