It has been a while since I so immediately fell in love with an artist that I am sure I contributed at least a hundred plays of his songs within a few weeks.
Ratwyfe is clever and sardonic, delving into such depths as gender dysphoria and mental health with such a light, playful hand that one can almost miss the meaning until humming later – and you will find yourself singing them under your breath. He has the soul and craft of someone who has been recording for a decade, so it is even more infuriating that he is only twenty years old.
It was a challenge to interview him because no one else had. There was nothing to go off but internet remnants. No one else had the sense to interrogate this talented musical goblin making some of the best music about tarot-based heartache, lesbians failing to kiss, and Mothman – granted, not the broadest genre, but he is the top of it.
So, where did the name "Ratwyfe" come from?
my username before ratwyfe went through MANY evolutions. when i lived in guam, i went by cracker princess (i grew up the only white-looking kid ((i’m actually filipino)) in most of my classes), but when i moved to pennsylvania i decided that i was definitely not the whitest person i knew. for a second, i was cendriliana (the root of which being the french word for ashes, gag), but..... nah. i started dating a girl with a rat-based username, so rat wife — the y was because “ratwife” was taken — was born. when we broke up, i took the rat in the divorce. i don’t know if she ever solidly settled on a username after that, hahah. hope she’s doing alright.
How have the last few years influenced your art?
lord. the last few years have been super super hectic; i released music right before some real important stuff happened. i’m pretty freshly 20 years old and in college now, so all of that maturing (read: realizing that i am actually a child on the inside and possibly always will be) has definitely put a more realistic feel on a lot of my art. i still do a bunch of whimsical stuff, but my most recent songs have been about things like how humans weren’t meant to be capitalists or how christofascism can kiss my gender euphoric trans ass, with a bit of that ratwyfe comedic flair that makes my voice my own. in the past three years i’ve been kicked out/homeless, moved in with my boygirlfriend, graduated high school, went on tour, transferred colleges, changed my legal name, moved about a billion times more, started working, and gained independence, so sometimes i feel like writing and music are the only stable things i have even if the way i write isn’t always predictable.
What is the hardest part of what you do that people might not realize?
i struggle a lot with recording, not at all with writing, and i think a lot of people think it’s the other way around. i have so many songs that i would love to record and release. it’s hard to find the motivation to record, though, when i’ve decided i’m pretty thoroughly bad at doing it myself. recording outside of my room is both expensive and time-consuming: not super friendly to a working college student, so i find that i can’t put out music nearly as much as i’d like to. i still need help sometimes, even as an established artist, but as time has gone on i’ve been able to meet some really cool people that have helped me on my journey. shoutout to chris caulder, the guy who mixed and mastered mushroom melancholia. it wouldn’t have gotten released without him.
What has been your strangest interaction with fans?
hmmmm.... i’ve had really great interactions with pretty much every fan i’ve met. i love being recognized in public. early on it was much more jarring, though. one time, i was wearing a bracelet that said “RATWYFE” while on a date with my boyfriend at my local mall when we struck up a conversation with some other alt-looking teens. one of them pointed out my bracelet and went “sick! you listen to ratwyfe??” and i just about fainted. my boyfriend had to be like “he *is* ratwyfe” while i hyperventilated 3 feet away. i’m still friends with the people we met that day, though. we went to a cavetown concert together!
If you could collaborate with any celebrity, who would it be?
speaking of cavetown... him. always and forever. i’ve said this before, too, so one day in the future when we collab i’m going to have to stop them from googling my name and theirs together so they don’t know how cool i think they are. i’ve been listening to him since before i came out as trans and credit surviving my transition to him & mitski. i wouldn’t collab with mitski, though, because of my whole strawberry animal fiasco in 2020. i feel like she might punch me in the face. love her though.
What are you reading right now?
i should be reading much more than i am, but i’m in school right now. ‘my lobotomy’ by howard dully has been sitting sadly on my nightstand, though, waiting for me to pick it back up.
What's your favorite movie?
across the universe, hands down. it’s a the beatles musical, which i know is overdone at this point, but it was the first movie i ever saw with gay representation in it. it’s a story about connection and the way that people end up together despite the world and its circumstances, but the experience is super trippy and the songs are great. i’m also pretty sure that jim sturgess, who plays one of the main characters, was my first gender envy crush.
What advice would you give to someone hoping to do what you do?
just do it. and when you do it, post it on tiktok. that hellsite/app, all things considered, usually does actually do a pretty good job connecting you to your target audience. also ignore all the emails and dms and everything telling you that they’ll put you on a playlist for $10 or however much. would YOU listen to a playlist that people had to pay to get on? probably not. i ignore most emails like that. everybody is trying to get a buck out of people who want to make it big, and you gotta trust your gut. also also, there are lots of distributors (companies that put your music on all the platforms you want it to be on) that don’t require you to pay a monthly fee, and i like those guys a lot more even if they take a small (don’t go for anything more than 15%!!!) cut sometimes. it’s nice to not have to worry about things being deleted if you don’t pay attention.
You can build your perfect body out of anything. Other people's limbs, clay, fur and feathers, robot guts. What do you use?
is it weird to say i actually wouldn’t “fix” much? that’s an answer that’s changed a lot since i went on testosterone. i might build myself some sick-ass wings out of titanium, wire, and feathers, and maybe an extra arm or something also made out of titanium, but otherwise i’m pretty happy with what i’ve got. i would also do velcro boobs, i think. put ‘em on and take ‘em off as needed for outfits.
What essential quality do you possess that will make it difficult for AI to approximate you when the revolution comes?
i exist at an intersection of wacky metaphor and real-life anxiety that AI only dreams of. any AI approximation would also be an approximation of the last version of me, and i’ve never had a knack for staying the same. it’d be obvious after a month with no fundamental personality/belief changes or new phrase adoptions that it was not me.
You are trapped on a desert island with a celebrity of your choosing. Who is it? (Note: You will eventually have to make that impossible decision and eat them if you want to be rescued.)
aw man. okay. so this has to be a celebrity that i like enough to live on an island with, but also one that i feel has already lived a full life/contributed their contributions, otherwise i’d let them eat me... i think i would bring snoop dogg. first of all, he’s probably the only human edible. second of all, i’m sure he’d be chill about being eaten once the time came. his final side quest, if you will.
Given that you have a song titled "Imposer Syndrome," do you experience this? (As you are an artist, I assume you must.) How do you handle this?
all the time, actually more now that i’m “famous.” now whenever i’m in a room full of people i think are better than me, it’s “god, all these people are better than me and somehow i’m the one that got noticed?” it *has* gotten easier to silence over the years, though, and that was helped a lot by singing that song on tour to people that knew the words and sang it back to me. knowing that that song is my third or fourth most popular one brings me a lot of strength and helps me realize how common of a feeling it is. i’m comforted by the idea that those ones who feel like they don’t belong are probably the majority of the people i know, love, and relate to. those are the people i make music for.
You found popularity on TikTok. How do you feel about the effect of social media on art?
social media is often detrimental to mental health, but good art is commonly drawn from pain. with the dawn of social media has come endless art about both the isolation it creates and the connection it brings. i’m eternally grateful to social media for bringing my audience to me, and it’s been AMAZING for the discovery of artists in general, but it’s a real balance. it’s hard to say that it’s all good or all bad, just that a lot of artists have been able to successfully use it as a tool. power to them/us.
If you could push a button and delete one website from existence with no negative repercussions, which would it be?
as of october 2023 (saying so because i don’t think it’s going to last much longer as is), i’d like to put twitter out of its misery. press X on it, if you will. pushing that button would be like shooting a horse with a badly broken leg.
My partner's Spotify played "let's b goblins" several times before I processed how deeply I needed this song. I searched for you and discovered "Cryptid (Mothman)," which a friend claimed perfectly expressed my flavor of dysphoria. These two songs could not describe my partner and me better. Your lyrics tend to be both playful and devastating. So, my question is: are you a witch observing souls for arcane reasons? If not, how can you so precisely and uniquely create such songs?
hehehe. thank you so much! i am a witch, but my eyes aren’t even good enough to pass a driver’s test, let alone see into somebody’s soul. perhaps you and your partner just have souls similar to mine!
No, really. "Three of Swords" is one of the best occult bops in a subgenre otherwise oversaturated with music that would not be out of place at a Renaissance Faire. Could you talk a little bit about your perspective on magic? (If you don't have a perspective on magic, you can skip this.)
thank you again!! magic is a really important part of my life, and i attribute a fair amount of my success to the power of doing what i love and connecting with others while doing it. music and magic are two things that are deeply intertwined for me, so to me it makes sense that three of swords found its crowd. my music is generally a call to other weirdos, but that song is a call to other witches in particular. i feel like having other witches/weirdos know i’m a witch/weirdo, relate to my songs, and think fondly of me is like putting in a good word with the universe. i’m super super grateful for the way that things continue to pan out for me.
Obvious question: If you could be any cryptid, which would it be?
i want you to guess.(Editor's note: Mothman do got dat booty, tho.)
(there’s only really one cryptid that i feel like people are actually horny for and think is hot, and i’ve made him my entire brand)
People claim Mothman might have been a heron called a shitepoke and that the Flatwood Monster and the Kelly-Hopkinsville Goblins were owls. Do you think all cryptids might be birds? What kind of bird do you think Bigfoot is? What about the Loch Ness Monster?
i haven’t heard the bird theory, but i’m a big believer in the idea that cryptids are just some funky mutated (pre-existing) animal species that we haven’t formally discovered yet for whatever reason, whether it’s because they’re intelligent or just naturally elusive. i feel like to reduce them to birds would be denying a bunch of really scary, genuine experiences that a lot of people have had. when it comes to places like appalachia, i definitely believe there are cryptids in the deep woods.
What kind of music did you grow up listening to?
a lot of jazz! my mom listened to a big mix of things, but i would say the most memorable musicians i grew up with were aretha franklin, norah jones, and dave brubeck/the dave brubeck quartet. later on, when i started coming into my own music taste a bit, i shifted into pop & rock, artists like 5 seconds of summer and panic! at the disco and halsey.
What artists do you have on repeat?
always mitski. she’s such a huge inspiration for me, and i feel like her music has an indescribable type of magic that i haven’t seen elsewhere. recently i’ve also had sidney gish on repeat 24/7; her song ‘i eat salads now’ is really relatable to me at this point in my life.
Do you feel like you have "made it"? If not, what would that look like for you?
i feel like i have, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room to grow more. fully “making it,” to me, would be getting to a level where i’m well-recognized but not as affected by fame as someone like taylor swift; still able to have a life of my own, generally, but operating with the knowledge that my message is out there and comforting people and being heard for what i want it to be heard as. this would also mean being able to support myself and my loved ones with just my music, which i think will definitely be doable at a certain point. hopefully soon!
What was it like to grow up in Guam?
it was… tough. i was bullied horrendously, and there’s a really big reason i haven’t gone back since i moved in 2019 (besides the expensive 1000-hour flight). it was hard for someone like me to grow up in a conservative & closed-minded environment, and i was reminded of my not fitting in at every opportunity. i wasn’t really able to transition (or even fully realize that i wanted to) until i moved to philadelphia, so i was trying to work through a lot of difficult emotions without knowing what they were. add that experience to 8 years of catholic school & most of my friends moving away, and you have some prime character development and songwriting potential!
How weird is it that strangers are making t-shirts and cross-stitch patterns based on your songs?
i LOVE it. a couple of people have gotten tattoos of my lyrics, too, and sent me pictures after the fact. the use of my art to inspire more art is something that i aspired to achieve for years, and it makes me so giddy that people are inspired by my work. i only hope i can continue to create things that inspire people to create, too.Find Ratwyfe on the web and tell him how cool he is:
