Apr 1, 2026 9:15am PT

Ratboys on Crafting Their Most Personal Album Yet and Embracing Their ‘Rodent Identities’ in the Studio

Ethan Shanfeld

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Ethan Shanfeld

@ethanshanfeld

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Miles Kalchik

“I’m singin’ to an empty chair,” Julia Steiner sings on “Just Want You to Know the Truth,” the eight-and-a-half-minute centerpiece of her band Ratboys’ latest album, aptly titled “Singin’ to an Empty Chair.”

It references a common therapy method in which a patient communicates with an open seat, and it serves as a sort of thesis statement for the project, whose songs touch on the difficulties of communication, and the often futile attempts to traverse the emotional and spatial distances that separate us. (“What’s it gonna take to open up?” she asks in the opening track.) “Singin’ to an Empty Chair” was also one of the last lyrics Steiner wrote.