The Chats - High Risk Behaviour

High Risk Behaviour is the debut studio album by Australian punk rock band The Chats, released in March 2020 via Bargain Bin Records and Cooking Vinyl.

The Chats are an Australian punk rock band that originated from the Sunshine Coast in Queensland in 2016. The band is comprised of Eamon Sandwith (lead vocals, bass), Josh Price (guitars, vocals) and Matt Boggis (drums).

The band members came together at high school and recorded their first EP, whilst at school. The Chats 7 track EP was released in November 2016 and gained immediate traction. Their second seven track EP Get This In Ya!! was released in July 2017 with the song “Smoko” becoming a viral hit on the internet with its music video.

The Chats have the cops to thank for the title of their debut album, High Risk Behaviour. If they didn’t keep hassling drummer Matt Boggis about skating in places he shouldn’t – and giving him tickets listing that as the offence – who knows what idiotic title the self-proclaimed “dropkick drongos from the Sunshine Coast of Australia” would have come up with. And yet it’s the perfect name for an album that does not muck around.

An album that sounds like Aussie greats the Cosmic Psychos downing beers with The Saints before doing shots with the Buzzcocks and then spewing it all up behind the kebab van. An album that’s over in 28 blistering, funny, sweaty, unforgettable minutes, with half of its 14 songs failing to reach the two-minute mark. Some might call the Queensland trio lazy.

Singer-bassist Eamon Sandwith sees it differently. “I don’t want to make the songs boring, so I just keep them short and sweet,” shrugs the man whose mullet became an international talking point following the success of 2017 viral hit “Smoko”. “We try not to think about it or complicate it too much. You don’t want to force it or the song’s going to turn out crap.”

Their determination to do things “our way” extends to their music, which is why High Risk Behaviour delivers everything you’ve come to love from The Chats – only more of it – and confirms their status as Queensland’s greatest ever export (apart from Bundy Rum).

This album is limited edition of 575 copies on piss yellow coloured vinyl with a printed insert, pressed in Australia via Bargain Bin Records.