With sixth album, Chicago's Ratboys seem to be on brink of something big

The members of Ratboys were teenagers when they met by chance, and now in their 30s, the Chicago band formed by two college friends almost two decades ago appears to be on the brink of something big.

Ratboys' sixth album, "Singin' to an Empty Chair," has been getting a lot of buzz ahead of its release coming up on Friday. The album chronicles cofounder and lead singer Julia Steiner's attempt to work through a fractured relationship, in part by talking to an empty chair representing the other person.

"I was lucky to try that, and it really kind of helped unlock some things in my mind that were holding me back to writing specific songs on the album, but also just in my own personal life, like moving forward," Steiner said.

The whole band is now poised not just to move, but to catapult forward. "Singin' to an Empty Chair" is on many most-anticipated albums lists, including those of Rolling Stone and Pitchfork magazines.

"Singin' to an Empty Chair" is Ratboys' second album produced by Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla.

But it has been a 16-year road to this point. The journey started when Steiner and lead guitarist Dave Sagan met at the University of Notre Dame's freshman orientation.

"We started the band, just the two of us, playing in our dorm room, and you know, random places around campus," Steiner said.

After graduation, Steiner and Sagan moved to Chicago — a stone's throw from Sagan's hometown of Oak Forest.

"It was just the place to be for music. All of our friends were kind of ravenous for it, and we were too," Sagan said. "We wanted to just be in the place where bands are playing all the time."

The move opened the door for Sagan's friend and fellow Oak Forester Sean Neumann to join Ratboys.

"After college, they needed someone to play bass, and I didn't know how to play bass," said Neumann. "Dave taught me how to play bass just so I could go on tour with them."

Drummer Marcus Nuccio followed. He was in another band when Ratboys' then-drummer couldn't make a joint 2017 tour.

"So I was like: 'Hey, I'll do double duty, you know? I'll play drums in both bands,' and just loved it and just stuck around. I kind of was like hey, can I keep doing this?" said Nuccio. "I believe, in a little bit of like a woo-woo way, I believe that when four people, or how ever many people are in a band together for long enough, you start to read each other's minds a little bit, so I am feeling right now that we like really have this connection, and we've got this musical language that we all speak and understand, and it just becomes this kind of magic."

Ratboys also give a lot of credit to Chicago's vibrant music scene.

"People are so accepting here, and just, they want to eat up music so much," said Sagan.

The band members are not letting the latest critical praise for their sixth album kick them off course.

"We've made music our whole lives since we've been kids with no buzz, so it's nice to see it come in, and you know, it doesn't like change how we approach anything," said Neumann.

"At the end of the day, as maybe cliché is at might sound, you know, we make music for us," said Steiner, "and we love what we've made."

To commemorate the release of "Singin' to an Empty Chair," Ratboys announced they are planning a gig on Friday at the Beat Kitchen, 2100 W. Belmont Ave., one of the band's favorite local venues. The band will play the album in its entirety.

All proceeds from the concert will benefit the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and Albany Park Mutual Aid.

Tickets had already sold out as of midday Wednesday.