Humanzi: Out On A Wire

Ireland, home to psycho footballer Roy Keane,  U2 and nobody's favourite Damien Rice. So far so shit. However, a storm is brewing and Humanzi are in the eye of it. Sounding like a slap in the face from an angry drunkard at 3am on a Sunday morning they are single handedly re-affirming everybody's faith in the Emerald Isle. Gigwise caught up with The 'Manzi's lead singer Shaun Mulrooney before the Liverpool leg of their tour supporting Dirty Pretty Things to discuss the past, the present and the future of the band.

Now its not very often that a band arrive fully formed with no baggage or past. Humanzi are no exception to this rule and Shaun remember one particularly dreadful job he had at the age of 16, "I was collecting grain. I had to get up at 4am every morning, it pretty much ruined my Friday nights!". However they soon put a past of bad jobs and having no money behind them when they formed the band in Dublin and soon signed to Fiction Records, home to the Yeah Yeahs Yeahs and The Cure. This was one of the reasons the band felt at home at the label, "They have a couple of really good bands and we met the people and they were all really nice, so we felt comfortable straight away".

Being a highly sought after new band brought obvious attention from record labels with a rumoured bidding war between Virgin and Fiction records. With stories of the band eating penguin in a fancy London hotel with record company executives flying around Gigwise asks Shaun if these stories have been somewhat exaggerated. "Yeah I would say so, there were a few labels after us but it wasn't a bidding war. That makes us sound like a cattle market and we're not, we're a rock 'n' roll band" Shaun is a juxtaposition of characteristics and looks, on first appearance he seems a little intimidating and frightening but as soon as he starts to speak with his Irish accent you can't help but be taken in by every word he says. He makes several jokes during the interview and is much softer than his bands reputation that has seen them put on a tour bus blacklist and banned from a New York hotel.

When asked whether he believes Humanzi represent the true sound of Ireland he says "I'd like to think we do, obviously we're not the only band that are doing it, there's about 10 bands out there that are really good and are showing that there are rock bands in Ireland". If you haven't seen the band at one of their own gigs there is a fair chance you have seen them supporting the likes of Hard-Fi, The Strokes and Foo Fighters over the last twelve months. Shaun has particularly fond memories of the Foo's in Dublin, "It was amazing, he says "We didn't expect the people who like the Foo Fighters to like us and there was over six thousand people there so it was one of our biggest gigs to date".

Live the band are forging themselves a real reputation with Dave Grohl said to be a fan after seeing them at the Dublin gig, so how would Shaun describe the live Humanzi experience? "It's going to be loud, we try to be honest and its going to be a little bit confrontational, we just really go for it, no holds barred" Having got their foot on the ladder through supporting lots of high profile bands Gigwise asks Shaun if there any other bands he is keen to help get their first chance in the business. Whilst he is keen to help bands with touring he is more keen to stress the importance of Humanzi's own label called SFR, "We are creating this thing were we can put out limited edition singles for bands, we have already put out three singles for three Dublin bands. Its not just Irish bands but we just want to help bands that we really love like The Things and Channel 1, its really exciting."