The Chats - News

THE CHATS ANNOUNCE DEBUT ALBUM
HIGH RISK BEHAVIOUR
OUT MARCH 27 VIA BARGAIN BIN RECORDS/COOKING VINYL AUSTRALIA. TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED FOR OCTOBER

The Chats have announced their debut album High Risk Behaviour, out March 27 on Bargain Bin Records/Cooking Vinyl Australia. To mark this momentous occasion the band have released an eye-watering new video for their new single The Clap, take it in on an empty stomach…

This is the closest you’ll ever hear The Chats get to write a love song (that is unless you are talking about their love of beer). A cautionary tale about a root gone wrong (direct quote), and an STI that just wouldn’t leave. The Clap features guitarist Pricey on vocal duties and is taken from the forthcoming album. The Chats have the cops to thank for the title of their debut album, High Risk Behaviour.

If they didn’t keep hassling drummer Matt Boggis about skating in places he shouldn’t – and giving him tickets listing that as the offence – who knows what idiotic title the self-proclaimed “dropkick drongos from the Sunshine Coast of Australia” would have come up with.

And yet it’s the perfect name for an album that does not fuck around. An album that sounds like Aussie greats the Cosmic Psychos downing beers with The Saints before doing shots with the Buzzcocks and then spewing it all up behind the kebab van. An album that’s over in 28 blistering, funny, sweaty, unforgettable minutes, with half of its 14 songs failing to reach the two-minute mark. Some might call the Queensland trio lazy. Singer-bassist Eamon Sandwith sees it differently.

“I don’t want to make the songs boring, so I just keep them short and sweet,” shrugs the man whose mullet became an international talking point following the success of 2017 viral hit “Smoko”. “We try not to think about it or complicate it too much. You don’t want to force it or the song’s going to turn out crap.” .

Since forming in their mate’s bong shed in 2016 while still at high school, that attitude has taken The Chats – completed by guitarist Josh Price, who once wrote a song called How Many Do You Do? in which he boasted of doing 52 “dingers” in a night – from the sleepy coastal village of Coolum (located roughly two hours north of Brisbane) to venues around the world. Their fanbase includes Dave Grohl, who loved the video for Smoko so much he showed it to Josh Homme, who then asked the trio to support Queens of the Stone Age on their 2018 Australian tour. Iggy Pop is also a card-carrying member of The Chats’ fan club, requesting that they support him in Australia in early 2019 and peppering them with questions like, “What’s a smoko?” and “What’s a dart?”

Suffice it to say, life has changed a fair bit for The Chats over the past two years.

“Well, I don’t have to work at the supermarket anymore,” says Sandwith.

Catch The Chats at the following dates in October:

October 202
Fri 16 Southampton, 1865
Sat 17 Nottingham, Rock City
Sun 18 Bristol, 02 Academy
Mon 19 Ireland, Dublin, Olympia
Tue 20 Belfast, Limelight
Thu 22 Glasgow, Galvanizers
Fri 23 Leeds, Stylus
Sat 24 Newcastle, Boiler Shop
Sun 25 Manchester, 02 Academy
Mon 26 Brighton, Dome
Wed 28 London, Electric Brixton
Thu 29 London, Electric Brixton.