Of course, the music was very different from the music of the Stiffs, but I was immediately hooked. I was so honored to be offered the guitar seat vacated by Kowboy Santos. I played with them a few times at Hobbit House and Magnet Katipunan. Kedy Sanchez (KS): Joey came to a Working Stiff gig and invited me to jam with the Rats in 2008. One of the most insightful musical concepts I’ve discovered is how to play in a setting where there are many instruments. Joey Puyat (JP): I joined the Rats in 2000 after David Aguirre left for the United States. Joey and Kedy, when and why did you join the Blue Rats? What have you discovered or gained musically while performing with the band? Looking back, there were probably four major versions of the Blue Rats, largely driven by who was in the band at the time: The Bluesy V.1, The Hard Rocking V.2, The R&R/R&B V.3, and now V.4… which is probably the most versatile version of the Rats, with the entry of jazz-oriented band members into the mix. Photo by Pocholo ConcepcionĪs the band’s personnel changed over the years, so, too, did the orientation, sound, and musical preferences in a rather organic way. Some of us play music for a living, and some have their own respective careers,” says Joey Puyat (right), who joined the band in 2000. The Rats have always been about enjoying the camaraderie and the music. “I think the reason for the band’s longevity is we all enjoy hanging out with each other. The Blue Rats at a recent show in 19 East. The blues sub-genres and styles include Delta, Chicago, Texas, old school R&B, soul, blues-rock, Southern rock, rock & roll, jump, jazz, blues-pop, British blues, folk, etc. The all-time song list is probably somewhere upward of 200 tunes, but the 2023 lineup of the band keeps about 80 -100 possible songs in current active rotation, resurrecting oldies as needed. Over 29 years and 45 band members later, the repertoire has expanded exponentially, but essentially holds on to the idea of “The Blues in Every Form,” and keeping blues-based music alive. Our first official gig as the Blue Rats consisted of just four songs - two tunes per 45-minute set (!): a straight-ahead Blind Willie McTell blues cover by the Allman Brothers (“Statesboro Blues”), a slow blues by Robert Johnson (“Kindhearted Woman Blues”), a funky R&B original that Apa and I had written (“Lakas Ng Tama”), and a jazzy, blues-based instrumental also by the Allmans (“In Memory of Elizabeth Reed”). “The Blues in Every Form” was the logical upshot of this effort - readily extendable, improvisational, requiring minimal rehearsal time, without the need to nail down cover tunes note-for-note. The repertoire’s foundations were really a result of the mad scramble to fill 1.5 hours of set time with material that was learnable very quickly. To our complete shock, we were hired on the spot to begin the following week - one night every week, two 45-minute sets, alternating back-to-back with another band. In short order, Butch rounded up a few musicians from the UST Conservatory of Music where he was teaching, and I asked my 17-year old niece Beatrice Gomez to join us for the so-called “audition.” We went down to Hobbit House with all four songs under our belt that we did in “extended jams” format. We decided to go down and “audition” as a joke… just to find out what it was like to actually get up on a stage to play. One day, Apa came in and told us that the old Hobbit House in Malate was looking for blues bands. Butch Roxas, Apa Ongpin, and I were just messing around in our basement on weekends sometime in 1994, recording simple songs on a Tascam 8-track recorder. And what element in the band’s sound has changed or developed through the years - including its repertoire?Īndy Locsin (AL): Peculiarly, the Blue Rats started out as a joke… with very un-serious intentions. Andy, tell us when and why you formed the Blue Rats. In this mouthful of a Q&A, the band’s three guitarists - Locsin, Joey Puyat, and Kedy Sanchez - talk history, guitar quirks, and then some, as they gear up to perform, for the first time, at new seafood place Fin & Claw in Quezon City on Sept. Twenty-nine years later, the Blue Rats have not only kept getting paid for having fun playing the blues, but have also added members to the group’s most versatile lineup. Andy Locsin says the Blue Rats started as “a joke” - a spontaneous response to a call for auditions which turned serious when the hastily assembled band got the gig.
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