SMT Track By Track: Rat Boy - The Mixtape

As his 18th birthday approached, Jordan Cardy was at a crossroads. His latest attempted band formation had gone the way numerous other attempts had, dissolving before even one practice. Driven by necessity (possibly panic), Cardy decided to go it alone as Rat Boy. Within days, he progressed from the 30-second instrumentals he’d been releasing on SoundCloud for the previous two years, to writing and recording ‘Carry On’ and ‘Journey’. That was February. Two months later, what began as a few demos was a mixtape – The Mixtape.

Cardy’s earliest musical memory is The Streets’ Original Pirate Material. He’d listen to it on repeat in his brother’s and dad’s cars, reciting the landmark album line for line, even though at the time he was too young to fully understand its content. In early adolescence he picked up the guitar and began writing his own music. He’s the first to admit that in the beginning it was “just really bad pop punk”. With time, however, his musical direction evolved into the “mixture of early 80s hip hop, reggae, ska, and d.i.y punk” it is today. An approach informed by influences like Jamie T, London Posse, The Clash, The Jam, Big Audio Dynamite, Blur, Beastie Boys, and The Streets. Like the latter, Rat Boy’s music explores the minutia of typical days and nights in his hometown (in Essex).

One project down and Rat Boy is already on to the next. The plan for the future is to work on material for a second mixtape or an EP, “play some crazy gigs in the summer and be signed onto XL for 2015,” Cardy jokes. Before all that, though, we thought it’d be best if he introduced this release in his own words. This is Rat Boy – The Mixtape track by track.