Chatting with Human Interest!

By Tegan

‘if moldy peaches and the pixies had a baby who was really into mgmt.’

Human Interest; well known for their exotic blends of tones, experimenting with elements of jazz and indie rock are breaking the barriers of your average underground band. I spoke to Cat Harrison (Harry) -guitar, and Tyler Damara Kelly -bass. Their music is introduced through 3 words: “playful, sexy, and whimsical”, (personally I believe that couldn't have been described more accurately). If that doesn’t convince you enough, their music pulls in aspects of “Moldy Peaches, Pixies, The Cure, Elliott Smith, Velvet Underground, [and very passionately compared,] Wilco, who are “soon to be an influence”.

Many artists have songs that are requested too often. After many performances of their hit song “Cool Cats” they’ve expressed a desire (Not a Pun, though their EP is called Desire paths) for a change of pace, leaving room for new, fresh material. Although this song is beloved, its repetition is tiresome, and by introducing a different setlist it helps to invigorate their performances. Tyler stated that; “This is a new discovery of ours because we’ve got a load of new songs we are working on and we are putting them into the set and that's obviously taking precedence because they’re a lot more exciting to play” - “I think that i'm definitely excited to leave cool cats behind though”

Human Interest do not take a lot to be impressed. When asked their best green room experience they described pure snacking bliss. Pombears, Carrots, Hummus, and little bags of haribo, when supporting Self Esteem. However, there was an honorable mention to the “Are you listening? Festival” in Reading because it was nice that they didn’t have to drink warm Red Stripe.

Next question was the classic “If you could describe your music as a scent, what would it be, and why?” I know, it’s peak journalism. You’re definitely here just because you want to know what certain underground artists smell like. Funnily enough- not dirt. Now finally, people are understanding my questions on a deeper level- when I say I want a scent I don't mean something boring like vanilla.

Tyler: “A sweaty dark room with like one little crack of a window open within a hint of an fresh icy cold evening”

Harry:”I think it would be more like a sweaty dark room where someone put a nice fruity candle. So it's like fruit but it has been overtaken by the musk”

Tyler: “Fruit? What kind of fruit?”

Harry: “A strawberry scented candle or something that's trying to disguise the dirty smell.”

Tyler: “Yeah? I don't think I would go for strawberry.”

Harry: “Oh. Uh lavender?”

Tyler: “Ew, no. I don't know. Cinnamon? Something slightly spicy. ‘Jalapenos’’ *in an accent which sounds like when that person from little mix said balegdeh* I don't know a nice smelling candle in the corner of a sweaty dark room”

Dream band to support? For Tyler, it’s definitely Kings of Leon or Paramore, and Harry; The Strokes, and Wilco.

Where did you get the inspiration for your EPs name; Empathy Lives In Outer Space?

Harry: “A few years back when all that conversation about nepo babies was happening there was some sort of half baked joke that was never fully formed calling the EP nepo baby.”

Tyler: “OMG I forgot about that.”

Harry: “Yeah! And then it was like the first untethered freefall in outer space, and there's an amazing photo of just an astronaut flying and floating in nothingness and I've always really liked that photo. I thought it was a nice image of instead of an adult doing that, what if it was a baby? And it was a nice image of how I can feel sometimes.”

Tyler: “I guess also most of the songs had that vibe of empathy and introspectiveness and how insignificant you are so it kind of found its way as Empathy Lives In Outer Space.”

Harry: “I think it sounded like it could be a pulp novel or something so it really came down to we think it sounds cool, especially with imagery behind it.”

Based on the questions so far, you would think that this meal deal is going to be very abnormal, and you would be right, “the side would be the egg protein pot, because it's random, you kind of only pick it if you have to. What sandwich is always left over? Like a cheese, cheese and onion sandwich.” Then, a very abrupt interruption from Harry when Tyler suggests water, as the drink of their band’s lunchtime deal, as he says “no but, it's definitely saved by an Oasis Summer Fruits”

Around here in the interview is where everything went wrong. The issue we were all scared of, happened. My storage ran out. Now for most professional magazines, this wouldn't be an issue, but let's face it we are just too professional here at melodify. Yes, I had a backup, yes that backup crashed, yes I wrote down all of the responses, yes I lost that piece of paper. And finally, yes I procrastinated for a whole month so forgot the majority. Peak journalism. From memory, we had a long chat about Harry’s favourite dogs to walk, and if any dogs inspire the music making. The final decision was the most annoying one. We then discussed dream festivals and if they had a “we made it moment” they responded that they feel like they can never really class anything as a moment like that because everything always changes and gets better. Any final words? Now, this has to be the sweetest band to answer this. They shouted out trans rights and all the struggles that the lgbtqia+ community face in the modern world. There was a special mention to jasmine.4.t who they opened for a few weeks prior to the interview. Not only did they shout out these issues, but also mentioned the unreliability of trends, and advised that people should be themselves, because it's rough trying to deal with social media sometimes.

That's a wrap! Thank you to everyone who read to the end, we appreciate you! Please promote us xx