Story by Sosefina Fuamoli
Since making an impactful debut in 2023, multi-disciplinary artist MUDRAT has wasted no time in establishing himself as a ferocious breath of fresh air coming out of Australia’s East Coast.
His music, a potent fusion of hip hop, punk and nu-metal influences, has grasped the attention of the local industry and importantly, a community of music fans who have been seeking more storytellers who are unafraid to use their platform in speaking their truth – no matter how unfiltered.
For MUDRAT (real name, Sean Thompson), art and activism have always existed within the same realm. His perspectives on a fractured world and society blend perfectly with the sort of music that fans of Cypress Hill and Public Enemy would recognise; that followers of both Kendrick Lamar and Kneecap could find themselves throwing their necks out to.
MUDRAT’s first dance with notoriety came in 2023, when a TikTok video titled ‘Demanding Government Action Against Genocide in Palestine’ went viral – a vicious denouncement by MUDRAT of the Australian Government’s stance on the conflict in Palestine, that hinted at an unshakeable spirit of protest that would be at the core of future music.
That TikTok video gave way to MUDRAT’s debut single, ‘MUD’: a song that perfectly reflects the snarl behind the artist’s energy, the urgency of his lyricism, and the versatility that would go on to thrive across the following year.
As his profile has continued to grow via national radio and press support, MUDRAT’s reputation as a performer and rallying figure has also generated respect, intrigue and a level of FOMO on a local level from a fervent wave of new fans who clamour at each opportunity to see him and his band tear it up live.
When asked to reflect on the initial impact ‘MUD’, MUDRAT openly admits that the trajectory he currently finds himself on was unplanned. MUDRAT, the artist, was simply a concept – a thread of an idea – in October, 2023.
“I had come off a hiatus from releasing music in September [2022]. It was a two year break of not knowing what I was doing,” MUDRAT explains.
“I wrote [‘MUD’] in October, we played a gig towards the end of it and then I just put out a TikTok. I didn’t know how to navigate that social media space yet, and it just blew up. We were like, 'Oh, what the fuck? Are we connecting to something that is going on here?'
Part of the weird journey of this project is that it was a complete accident, in terms of how it started, but I’ve grown with it. I wasn’t this same person, at the start. The authenticity, that’s the key thing. I’ve just tried to be as authentic as possible. There wasn’t a plan, I didn’t know [what would happen] when I wrote it, I just knew that’s how I felt at the moment.”
The ability to pick up a ball and run with it is something MUDRAT has been able to refine very quickly. In the last 12 months alone, he has been curating explosive live shows supporting the likes of Denzel Curry, courting widespread acclaim at mainstream Australian music festivals; all the while, keeping the music and the vision behind it, staunch.
2024 saw the release of tracks ‘I HATE RICH C*NTS’ and ‘WE DESPISE THE BOURGEOISIE’, while the fitting ‘YEAR OF THE RAT’ capped off what was a whirlwind of a debut year.
The music indicated MUDRAT’s potential that was being tapped into, in real time. It was music that could (and has been) be easily played on the frontline of public protests, as it could be played on the national broadcaster.
As he’s watched the connection between his music and the public grow in a way that has unified, MUDRAT notes how his own perspective has shifted.
“I started to reformulate the way I perceived music creation when people started coming to the shows, and were clearly connecting,” he says. “I no longer perceived music creation as something that was very self-centred… it was something that could sit within a role in a community.”
Aware that with a growing platform, often comes more responsibility to meet the energy of the art and the expectations of his fanbase, MUDRAT remains keenly observant of how his voice can connect with those who seek a kindred spirit amid frustrating and unsettling times.
Yet with this, he is also aware of how easy it can be as an artist to get lost in the waves of it all.
“[Last year] has been a lot, for sure,” he says. “This last year in particular…I feel forever conflicted and pulled by these two forces… I’m trying my best to make sure I authentically represent the things we speak about and live out those things. This means completely deconstructing my world view and everything I thought I had known.
“This entire project is a hypothesis that goes beyond the music. I see the music as a very integral part, but it’s not central to what I’m trying to figure out, which is, “Can I set an example to be the role model that I thought my heroes were?” When the world fell apart, they weren’t there.”
“It’s more about the community,” MUDRAT says. “If you take away the capitalist lens of how you can perceive a fanbase, the activist community is our core. It’s fair to say that’s why we have such a diverse audience at our shows, because of what we say and how we do it.”
“It’s critically important that if you’re going to say things that shine a light on certain messages, that they have value. We’re seeing what’s happening with Kneecap etc, but it’s nowhere near the amount of risk that someone who is taking direct action and putting their body on the line for these causes, is taking.”
As an artist still in the early stages with this project, MUDRAT is conscious of the amount of game playing that naturally needs to happen, when it comes to any type of official music career.
Compromise is key, as he describes, “We’re in the devil’s lair as we’re trying to resist it, because we need to engage in it in order to grow. I think there is value in people seeing what we do outside of our local community that we can reach.”
“We live in a globalised world, so people should be able to see us and know there’s a commonality of experience between us and what we say from Melbourne/Naarm, and what people are experiencing where they are. It’s the same system.” MUDRAT explains.
“In order to do that, you’ve got to compromise. Even though we’re trying our best not to, the fact our music is on DSPs is already a compromise! People are attracted to the authenticity, but that then means I can’t enjoy it. I have always be on it, in terms of…if we do make a decision that is made to grow the project, I have to just own what the moral compromise is in that.
I can’t see myself doing this forever, because it’s not sustainable, but I know the temptation for self-preservation will come when there’s a fanbase, and it’s comfortable. It’s part of the role we’re trying to showcase in that art is important. Music is important. It is important to create spaces for people to experience catharsis or the anger, the hurt, what they’re feeling with a couple hundred people who feel the same way.
It’s also important that music can be an entry point for people who just like the songs…they may identify with the messages simply because they’re like, “Yeah, my life sucks too!”, but they aren’t able to start putting the bigger picture together. We want to be both those things. Can we do that whilst remaining authentic? We’ll find out. It’s all just an experiment and we’ll see how far we can take it.”
An interest in different music genres has been part of MUDRAT’s makeup from a young age. He remembers choosing between My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade and Eminem’s Encore with leftover birthday money – Encore became his first CD purchase.
As he grew older, MUDRAT often found himself walking between the two worlds of hip hop and alternative influences, navigating his way through high school and into young adulthood, where Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly (in itself, a pioneering, boundary-pushing album) became a seminal inspiration for him as an aspiring artist.
The rawness and the passion within a lyricist like Lamar’s work, matched with the ferocity of the heavier arrangements he was also listening to at the time, blended together on MUDRAT’s palette in creating a fun playground for him to create within.
Being able to bounce ideas off of, and learn more about heavy music from his band, is an opportunity MUDRAT has been relishing. A student of the genre, in a way, MUDRAT is leaning into his surroundings and instead of taking from the genre, he is learning and figuring out where he fits within it.
“It’s been a completely different experience, now working as part of a band,” he admits. “There are parts of this [heavy] culture that you need to understand; I got between modes of knowing I should learn the history, understand how I got to be here before now. What is expected of people in this punk space. But at the same time, I don’t want to learn it all; I think what has been connecting is the fact I’ve been doing it authentically, without trying to replicate anything.”
Looking ahead to the rest of 2025, the aim for the MUDRAT project is to keep growing. A full-length project – SOCIAL COHESION – is scheduled for release in the second half of the year, while more touring, both in Australia and beyond, is currently being planned.
For MUDRAT, the chemistry and dynamic between the players is in place. The energy from the fiercely loyal fanbase is there. Where this alchemy will take them next is unknown and in that, is fresh excitement.
From the ground up, everything MUDRAT does is with strong intent. Put simply, “If you’ve got eyes, do something with them.”
“That’s where we stand,” he assets. “I'm aware that it's also important that all the other shit that you do is good, in terms of the music, the visuals, everything.
I'm aware that when I'm standing on stage opening for Denzel Curry, there are 500 19 year old boys there…I’m aware that I'm dripped up because they're going to be like, “Yo, this c*nt looks sick.” I'm aware of that because I'm like, “Cool. Because now you're gonna then start bopping your head to the music and then wonder what I’m talking about.”
“It's just having an awareness of everything having to be excellent, including the principal. Our approach to activism, as well as our approach to our art. Everything. That's just that's the standard.”
