Out With The Old And in With The Keyrats

© rumbum.com, Ted Pacelli

Keyrats at Board Up Miami 2009

Lying out on the beach, hanging out on a boat and drinking a couple of beers make for a perfect day. For the laid-back band the Keyrats, these are just a couple of things that represent the lifestyle of growing up on the tiny island of Key Biscayne. These couple of “rats” from the Key echo their lifestyle through their music.

Like the old saying goes, “Once you’re a boater, you’re always a boater.” Drummer Brian Shervington says, “I could not see myself not living by the ocean at any point in my lifetime.” The rock/reggae/Latin funk band, which also includes lead vocals and guitar player Alex Battle, guitar and vocals AGK and bass player Mike Portuondo, agrees adding, “We grew up on the Key and part of that lifestyle is just boating in general. Just being out in the ocean and out in the water. We’ve been wakeboarding in the marine stadium since we grew up, we started wakeboarding with surfboards cause there weren’t any wakeboards out.” It’s no surprise they enjoy performing at events like Board Up Miami, “We basically live out on a boat on the weekends; we go out and put out events on the boat. We love being out on the boat, tying up, drinking and partying, that’s what were about, its how we grew up.” With the boating lifestyle come the aquatic sports, of course. The group mentions, “Before there were wakeboards, we would surf and kneeboard.” Lead singer and guitar player, Alex Battle even joked around saying, “Mikey is the best wakeboarder in the band.” When I asked why he didn’t compete Mikey answered, “I’m already taking credit on stage and I don’t want to take too much credit.” As his band members yanked his chain they said, “He doesn’t want to show off and take anyone’s girlfriend.” Mikey just laughs it off and adds, “I love wakeboarding but I have the worst luck with it. I might have the most memorable face plan of all time.”

With a name like Keyrats, you can already tell they are a couple of guys with a great sense of humor who enjoy “partying out in the water.” Their pretty much all about living on an island, being out doors, listening to music and having a good time and it’s reflected through their music. So, if you’ve been wondering for the past five minutes what they sound like just picture Weezer meets Sublime and they go to Cuba. Sounds like something you’ve never heard of, right? Well that’s because you haven’t. If it hasn’t been done yet, the Keyrats are going to do it. So, don’t try to put them in a genre because according to them, “We don’t like to be stapled to any kind of genre. We do whatever we feel like doing, if we feel like recording a ballad, we do it.” The band also adds, “We really try to push ourselves away from anything that has already been done. We’re not trying to be part of anything like that… we’re trying to start something new.”

The grunge rock to reggae to alternative band mirror their lifestyles through songs like “Salty Sailor,” a song that was written about a friend who’s a captain. They say, “Any music that we listened to growing up with our friends out in the water has influenced us a lot.” The band has also been influenced by artist like Jimmy Buffet, who spent a lot of time in the Keys, and reggae king Bob Marley. The group also incorporate their backgrounds into their music, “We’re Cuban-American, Jamaican and Greek. We use all of our backgrounds to really influence our music. We incorporate all of the classic music that has come from those islands like reggae, salsa and a little rock. Fortunately we were lucky enough to grow up with that influence.” You can note some of those influences in songs like “Raton” and “Vampira.” These are songs with very traditional salsa rifts along with distortion and very heavy drums. When the Keyrats play these traditional salsa melodies they sound totally different but just add bongos, a stand-up bass and a piano and you’ll be back in Cuba in 1968.

“We just like to represent Miami. Miami is just such a melting pot of different cultures. There’s rockers, rappers… there’s so much going on in this town in terms of music. Its crazy because a lot of people think Miami and they don’t recognize the music scene that’s out here but there is such a blend of musicians out here and we’re lucky enough to have a great network of different types of people who we can get together and collaborate with and whatever comes out, comes out and fortunately for us we’ve done a lot of different projects with a lot of different people.”

The band, which started six years ago as an 80’s /90’s cover band, is looking to create something new with their music, “Wherever it goes is where it goes.” Fans can expect an already recorded rap album with rapper, Gucciano from Haitian rap group AMZ, to come out after the release of their next full-length album,which is coming out by the end of the year. You can also listen to their music at Keyrats.com.