March 6 2014 – Very few things are as exciting as finding something new you love. Much like archaeologists that dig to find hidden treasures, we here at T-Mak World really enjoy trying to find new bands that we love. Once we find such bands, we approach our favorites to request interviews for our Emerging Artist Spotlight series where we have featured over 100 artists so far. Today we set our focus on a band from Toronto named Human Bodies. All bands we talked to are asked similar questions to each other so we can get to know them better. The description on Human Bodies’ website reads:
Based out of Toronto, Human Bodies is a collective of multi-instrumentalist rockers who deliver a balance of expansive sound, deep harmonies and melodic hooks. With members originating from all ends of the country, Human Bodies amalgamate their favorite sounds from pop, ambient, psychedelic and progressive music to create an emotive and expressive wall of sound
Here is what they had to say to us:
- Hey Human Bodies, thanks for taking the time out to talk to us. Let’s start off with the obligatory introductions. Who’s in the band and what instrument does everyone rock?
Human Bodies: Human Bodies is Greg O’Toole, Matthew Fraser-Dooks, Adam Silva and brother-sister duo Andrew and Katie Di Battista. Greg is our only stationary member – he stays put at his guitar and pedal station. The rest of us switch around a little bit between the second guitar, the synth and the bass. Adam and Katie split the drumming duties and we all share the vocal duties.
- How about the history of the band, when did you get started and how did it happen?
Human Bodies: We started out being pals writing songs together. Just trying to make unique and fun music that we could eventually play on stage. It was fun for us and it was a good way for us to spend time together and create together. We started playing under the name Human Bodies in 2010.
- Who are some of your musical influences?
Human Bodies: We love big sounds. We love spacey sounds. Bands like Mogwai, Wintersleep, St. Vincent, Broken Social Scene, Ty Segal. We love hearing and seeing huge sounds come out of regular sized people.
- So based on the above how would you describe your music to someone that has never heard it?
Human Bodies: We’re a little bit The Stooges, a little bit Pink Floyd, a little bit Tame Impala, and a little bit something else. We’re like space rock with an emphasis on the rock. If we had to pick a specific, non-existent genre, we’d put ourselves in heavy, explosive, experimental psych-poprock.
- Why do you believe that a music fan should come and see your show instead of all the other choices available to them on any given night?
Human Bodies: We really put a lot of effort into making our live shows a full experience. Over the last year and a half we’ve been working closely with Doug Godinho who has been doing live visual projections for us during our shows. Doug does an amazing job of putting together captivating visuals that tie together so well with our music. It lets us focus on playing our set seamlessly while still producing a visually and sonically energizing show.
- What is your favorite single line of lyrics the band has written and why?
Human Bodies: We’re going to go with the opening line of the album for this one. The track B & E starts with the words “Out of our heads is where we decided to go”. This line sort of sums up the mentality we took with this album and with our music in general. We’re always trying to push ourselves beyond what we think our limits are and past our comfort zones to see what kind of results we can yield. We are constantly experimenting with new sounds, new effects, new combinations. This is what helps us create music that we think is interesting to both listen to and to play and that really means something to us. This is what helps us grow from one album to the next.
- What does the 2014 hold for you ideally as musicians?
Human Bodies: In 2014 we’re planning on taking our sound out of town. We’re looking to put together some shows outside of Toronto. We want to play venues we haven’t played before, create more exposure for our music and broaden our fan base. We want to make friends with bands from the rest of the world so we can host them at home in Toronto. Also, new songs. Always new songs.
- Imagine that you were asked to be the opener for any band’s world tour (both current and historical). Which band and tour would be your dream opening gig.
Human Bodies:This is a tough one, there are so many amazing bands that it would be such an awesome experience to tour with. If we had to pick just one current band, I think we’d go with Tame Impala. We love that big, spacey sound that Kevin Parker produces and we think our music would have something to offer Tame Impala fans. It would have been pretty badass to be on the Lonerism tour, when people were really starting to dig his psychedelic sound.
- What is the future of the music industry? With the concept of the album and physical CD’s facing extinction, how will we be consuming music in 10 years? Are the economics feasible for emerging artists?
Human Bodies: We think that the digital world is usurping the need for physical copies of music for the most part. However, there’s still something to be said about having a really unique and creative physical copy of an album from a cool band in your hands, or in your car stereo, or spinning on your record player. The interesting thing about digital releases is that it makes it really easy and affordable for artists to produce and release albums. It also means that there are just so many more albums available that it can be really tough to make yours stand out.
- Where can people purchase or listen to your music?
Human Bodies: You can both stream and purchase digital and physical copies of our new album, as well as our earlier EPs, at humanbodies.bandcamp.com
- At the end of 2013 we published our picks for top 10 albums of 2013. Lists like those are always a reflection of personal tastes so take a look at our pics and tell us if you were making the list what are some albums you would you have had on it?
Human Bodies: The list you’ve compiled is pretty rocking. Some of the albums that we were really pumped on last year are Dillinger Escape Plan’s ‘One of us is the Killer’, Arcade Fire’s ‘Reflektor’ and Daft Punk’s ‘Random Access Memories’. We like a little of everything.
- Any closing remarks for our readers?
Human Bodies: Thanks so much for listening. We’re so excited at the opportunity to have new and fresh ears listening to our music and hearing what we’ve been working on. This is really fun for us.
Thanks so much to Human Bodies. We hope that you can see them live. The band’s website is here (humanbodies.bandcamp.com) and as you would expect they are on Twitter (@humanbodiesband) and Facebook (facebook.com/humanbodiesmusic).
