[INTERVIEW] TheFatRat Dives Into His Recent Anthem, "Monkeys"

Over the last two decades, we have seen a bridge develop between the worlds of music and gaming. Only a few innovative and talented artists have been able to cultivate a recipe that intertwines the elements of each of these categories. In this small group of individuals at the forefront of the music and gaming movement, TheFatRat is at the top. Known as one of the most influential Gaming Music artists on the planet, TheFatRat has racked up features on the likes of Rocket League, Dota 2, Rolling Sky, and more. Additionally, this imaginative producer has accumulated over 29 billion views on YouTube alone, along with multiple singles landing in iTunes top 50.

Now, TheFatRat is continuing to assert his dominance across the gaming community by un-shelving a demo from eight years ago and revamping it into his new single, "Monkeys". TheFatRat has linked up with iEDM to give the low-down on creating this anthem and incite into other areas of his project.

Check out iEDM's exclusive interview with TheFatRat below.

iEDM: In your new single, “Monkeys”, you deliver your own lyrics for only the second time ever. What inspired you to add this to the instrumental? What was the toughest vocal obstacle you faced while recording and how were you able to overcome it?

TheFatRat: Often I sing my own songs in the beginning, simply to lay down a demo. Most of the time, listening back to the demos makes it very clear that I should get somebody else to sing them. But this one sounded pretty good right away. The biggest challenge was the verses because they are very low. To get the right grittiness, I set an alarm for 6AM, went straight into the studio and the first thing that came out of my mouth that day was the song.

iEDM: Why do you think this demo was initially shelved in 2014? What led to it being resurfaced and what changes did you see between it and your production style now?

TheFatRat: Even though I already loved the track in 2014, it didn’t have any vocals on it at that time and simply couldn't find any idea for it that worked. It was my wife Svea, who brought the track back to me year after year and encouraged me to finish it.

iEDM: “Monkeys” opens with a cinematic rising soundscape before its bassline and lyrics are introduced. What was the process behind finding and creating the perfect sound to kick off the song? What effects and plug-ins did you use to manipulate it into its final product?

TheFatRat: When you produce music, you can easily get lost in details. For me, I sometimes sit on a single drum break for two hours only to find out that I don’t really like it. On “Monkeys” I tried a new creative technique that worked great to circumvent that. After I had the rough layout of the song finished, I gave myself the goal to add 24 details within two hours. That’s one detail every five minutes. I made a checklist which simply counted from 1 to 24. Then, I set a timer for two hours and worked through it. The next day I decided which ideas I would use and was surprised that many of the ideas worked much better than I expected. One technique that I used a lot was pitch shift automation to create sounds that change dynamically.

iEDM: What emotions and vibe do you feel when listening to “Monkeys”? Although the tune is very catchy and playful, what is the deeper meaning behind its lyrics?

TheFatRat: Some people thought that I would be criticizing society with the song but that's not really the case, it's more self reflective. Many can relate to the feeling that you think people are stupid. The next second you realize you are part of the people so you're probably not better than everybody else. That general feeling, that duality of thinking, “Oh, other people are stupid”, and then you realize, or at least I realize, how stupid I am. That’s one component that is expressed in the song.

iEDM: The album art for “Monkeys” is absolutely incredible! What sparked the concept of the graphic and how do its visual elements reflect the auditory side of “Monkeys”?

TheFatRat: Yeah the art by GTGraphics is absolutely incredible! It's part of the lore and part of the background story that I am currently building. At the same time, I think he did a great job in showing the contrast between high technology and the jungle of the wilderness. Specifically, how those two elements collide with each other which is something we see today. Basically what we are suffering from is being a species where the genes have not changed in the last hundred thousand years, and still we have to live in this high technology world and have to get along with it.

iEDM: Your wife has been a huge supporter of your music and played an important role in bringing this track to life. How has she motivated you throughout your career and what is something you have learned from her that has transferred over to your musical identity?

TheFatRat: My wife was the one who encouraged me to become an artist myself because I was producing for other artists, just being in the studio trying to create hits for the artist, like most music producers do. She was the one who said “Chris, you're putting more work and more love into the songs than anybody else and you should be the artist.” She told me that for about two years until I gave in and it was clearly the best decision. My wife was also the one who believed in this track “Monkeys” and encouraged me to sing on it. As usual, she was right.

iEDM: What alterations in the instrumental did you make from “Xenogenesis” to your 2022 hit, “Back One Day (Outro Song)”, and why? What were the highlights of collabing with NEEFEX on “Back One Day (Outro Song)”?

TheFatRat: When I released “Xenogenesis” in 2014, everybody was very excited about the song, the audience loved it except that one middle part, with that very dirty and very noisy bass. So when I decided to recreate the song and put a top line on it, I was sure from the start that I would change that part, so that was the biggest shift in the instrumental.

Working with NEFFEX was great, because he does one song per week, so he’s really used to finishing stuff. You can really feel when you work with him how fast he is and how good he is. He’s just used to delivering, and it's a lot of fun to collaborate with him for that reason.

iEDM: What are the funniest memes or TikTok videos you have seen that are centered around “Back One Day (Outro Song)” and “Xenogenesis”? Why do you think the song is such a solid fit with the situations it is played in?

TheFatRat: My personal favorite meme with the outro song was with Star Wars. Somebody cut “Xenogenesis” under Star Wars right before Luke Skywalker attacks in Return of the Jedi and he does the salute. I thought that was really really funny and the reason I think it's such a great fit is because my music is always free to use on YouTube and other social media platforms. From 2015 to 2018, a ton of YouTubers used “Xenogenesis” as an outro song for the YouTube videos, so it has become a common theme. Now people five years later commemorate those by using TikTok in different situations so it's a little bit of nostalgia involved there.

iEDM: What are your top games to play right now? What are a few experiences when you got an idea for a song while playing a game or thought of a game that one of your tracks would fit really well in?

TheFatRat: I'm on a totally retro trip at the moment. I’m mostly playing old arcade games from the late eighties and early nineties on the Nintendo Switch. You can download Capcom Arcade and you can play all those games, which is amazing for me because when I was a child I would go into the arcade. However, I could just afford playing those games one or two times. Now I can just play them at home so I'm really enjoying that at the moment. I get inspired by video games all the time. Whenever I listen to music, I'm always looking for inspiration. I'm getting inspired all the time. I'm analyzing all the time. So this is not a single event. It happens constantly.

iEDM: What has been the hardest genre or subgenre to learn how to produce and why? What advice can you give to upcoming producers in regard to melting multiple genres together to create a sound that is entirely unique?

TheFatRat: I don't think there is such a thing as an easy genre or a hard genre. One genre may be very complex, so it's hard to learn it because it's complex. Then another genre may be very easy to learn at first, but then it's hard to create something great that is simple. In terms of pushing the boundaries and creating something unique, I think it makes a lot of sense when you really have mastered one genre, and then either branch out or maybe collaborate with somebody who has a completely different approach. For example, I came from the classical music perspective. When I started producing music, I started working with somebody who came from hip-hop. He had a completely different approach to music and it really opened my eyes because I got a new perspective on music that I never had before.

iEDM: You often use Discord as a platform to interact with your fans. What are your favorite features in Discord? How has Discord allowed your audience to become more immersed in your project and connect with TheFatRat beyond just your music?

TheFatRat: Yes, I'm doing events on Discord every week. Also, for every release that I'm making, I'm making a release party on my Discord server, and the functionality that I like most about Discord is simply that it allows my fans to connect with each other. Most of the social media platforms are more about the fans communicating with the artists, and on Discord, they connect a lot with each other and they help each other, for example, to produce music to give each other feedback on songs or on artworks. That's something that I really enjoy there.

iEDM: What future aspirations do you have when it comes to strengthening the bridge between music and gaming?

TheFatRat: It's not specifically about gaming for me at the moment, but my goal for this year is to bring more story to my songs. I also want to have a stronger connection between the songs that I release so that they together can tell one huge story. That's what I'm working on at the moment.

iEDM: What major goals do you have for TheFatRat or life in general to reach in 2023?

TheFatRat: Usually, I'm not so focused on the outcome. I'm more focused on the process. And for 2023, my process is I want to be in the studio on a very regular basis, which has worked so far. I'm very sure it's going to work for the rest of the year as well. Be in the studio and write and produce and finish amazing new outstanding songs and put them out into the world.

iEDM: Are there any upcoming projects that you can hint at for your fans to get excited about?

TheFatRat: One thing that I'm going to do more in 2023 is sing on my own songs. So I don't think that “Monkeys” is the last song this year that I'm singing on. There might be more to come, but I also want to bring back some vocal collaborations from the past, which my fans have been asking for, and I'm also very excited about that.

Photos Courtesy of TheFatRat