Humanfly have recently released their second album (Awesome Science, Brew Records) and, I think it’s fair to say, executed one of the most striking musical evolutions at the same time, delivering an incredible slice of progressive space rock / metal that we are confident will be up there with 2013’s best come the end of the year. We took the opportunity to speak to drummer Dave Jones to find out more about how it all happened.
(((o))): While coming up with the questions for this interview, I canvassed a few of our writers, my favourite was this one from Phil: “Why are they making my brain ooze out my ears?”
I have no idea. It probably seems like a lot to take in on first listen but I feel I can't really give you a solid answer for this I'm afraid!
(((o))): So, was the change in direction (from their previous album Darker Later) a conscious choice and done purposefully or did it evolved naturally?
It's a little of both. It was a conscious decision in that we knew we wanted to do something different with this album compared to the previous ones, and that we wanted to display more influences outside of the ones we were known for. Also, the nature of this band is to keep pushing forwards, so in that respect it's pretty natural.
It's no different to anything in life in that you're constantly moving forwards on a daily basis and exploring what else is out there.
There will always be a thread running through anything you do that connects you to where you were before, but things need to keep moving forwards if they're to remain interesting for the people playing the music and to the people hearing it.
(((o))): Musically, what inspired the change?
A number of different things, but primarily it's just to keep things interesting and to challenge ourselves.
Musically there were definitely certain albums that we were all into during the period of writing, some of which we'd been listening to for years but that we only started to acknowledge as influencing us during that time. We were all really digging albums like Inner Mounting Flame by Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Bitches Brew by Miles Davis, whilst also listening to albums like Apollo Stars & Summer by Golden, Discipline by King Crimson and Ege Bamyasi & Tago Mago by CAN.
We wanted to try and bring more of that expression into what we were doing. None of us are players with any jazz chops, but somewhere in there those influences were being pushed out via the approaches we'd been used to working with for years, so what you get in the end is a hybrid version of it, to some degree. You get this kind of weird mish-mash of ideas and styles and it somehow works. Everything that comes out is a result of everything that has gone in.
With the nature of how we play, you're probably still going to get some heavier or darker elements in whatever we do, but at the minute I see those as being heavy and dark in a similar way that bands like Portishead, Bjork or This Heat are, as opposed to heavy in a chug sense, which I feel we've explored to its fullest.
The more we play as individuals and as a group, the more possibilities present themselves, so it's important to acknowledge that and to not just fall into comfortable routines.
(((o))): Was there a point during the writing process where it was decided how far into the world of Prog you were heading, or again did it happen naturally?
I don't think that the word 'prog' ever came up when we were writing. We were just looking at ways in which we could approach these songs in a way that was progressive by comparison to everything we'd done leading up to that point. To me, 'Prog' and 'Progressive' are two different things entirely, in the same way that 'pop' and 'popular' are.
There are a lot of connotations attached to 'prog' that tie you into a specific sound, whereas progressive, to me at least, can be anything from bands like Can and Kraftwerk, to Bjork or Miles Davis. There's a quote from Miles Davis that's something like, 'I don't play jazz, I play music', which sums it up. It's all just music in the end, which is the bottom line. I'm not trying to aline what we do with his music, or to crowbar in a connection, but to some degree the intent in what he said is the same. The label attached to it is of no importance. Only the result is important, whatever it ends up sounding like.
As a wiser man than I said, "every style you put in there becomes your vocabulary...Nothing is different unless you use everything together".
(((o))): Do fan-base expectations ever play a part when making a bold shift in style? Did you ever worry that some of the fans that bought Darker Later might not 'get' this new album?
Expectations outside of the four of us never play a part in what we do. Our focus is to make something that we're happy with. I remember when we finished writing a couple of the tunes from this album and thinking that nobody was going to be into this besides us, which has so far proved not to be the case. It's great to hear that people are into it. It's not that we're a million miles away from where we've been before on our other records, but there is a progression with this one that pushes us on from the record that came prior to this. A lot of it is as a result of jamming and improvising in rehearsals.
(((o))): It's been something of a quantum leap from Darker Later to Awesome Science, if you keep on that path can we expect a full blown prog metal symphony next? Have you even started to think about the next record yet?
I think you'll be hard pressed to get us anywhere near anything like a prog metal symphony!
We've already started writing but it's a slow process for us, especially after recording an album. It takes us a while to figure out what we want to get out of the next songs we write, what shape they're going to take, and what ideas to bring in.
It's likely that we'll try to look at other ways of approaching writing for the next one that might give us results we wouldn't have gotten had we fallen into our usual patterns, and also adding different instrumentation and possibly playing in standard tuning. It can be hard to get the ball rolling in terms of where to start or how to approach writing differently, but the possibility of it taking us somewhere different make it worth pursuing. I'm really excited by the ideas that we're working on now so it'll be interesting to see what shape things will take.
(((o))): Are you still looking forward to your tour with Conan and Bongripper in April now you've changed their direction away from the heavy sludge sound?
We always look forward to playing and going on tour and I'm glad that all three bands on the tour won't sound the same.
There's a connection there musically given where we were at a few years ago, so I'm sure some of the people at the gigs will be into what we're doing now, but at the same time we're not planning on playing anything from the last few records at all anytime soon.
(((o))): Do they mind being compared to Cave In? (by Sander at least!)
It makes sense if you're looking at it from a 'this band used to play heavy music and now they're playing space rock', standpoint. I don't feel a massive connection to them outside of that but if people hear a connection then it's fine. Take away from it what you will.
(((o))): Who has done the (seriously awesome) artwork on the album?
A Leeds based artist called Eoin Shea. He did the artwork for a band called Nope on their Revision album and we were into it immediately. I can't say enough good things about Eoin's work and how much of a great job he did with the sleeve. You really get to see how great it looks on the vinyl release as the whole image runs across all four sides of the gatefold. So, yeah, you should buy the vinyl if you're into the artwork!
(((o))): Finally, the album has been getting some seriously good reviews; does that excite you or add to the pressure to deliver?
The reviews we've got have been great so it's definitely exciting to see that people are getting a lot from the record. Reviews, for the most part, have very little bearing on how the record will be received on the whole, or probably how much it will influence people to buy it, though it's great to see that people are digging it in print. It's reassuring. We try and put everything into playing when we're playing live so the only pressure now is for us to be good when we get up and play for people.
(((o))): That’s the lot, thanks for some great answers. Good luck with the record.
Thanks again for asking us to do this.
