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Human Demise: If the world was a perfect place we’d probably hate the world for being perfect

posted by: stengels on 31 January 2011

Human Demise is a band that has kept true to its style, and has been working hard in order to turn heads their way. With an upcoming second album, AsIce thought it was past time to ask these guys some questions.

Human Demise has been around since 2004, yet it took a while for Europe to get ready for the Clevo-style that you guys bring. By now, you’ve played all over Europe from cold Finland to warm Spain. Which countries are left that still need to be conquered by HD?
Well I’m not sure the world is really ready for our style just yet. Our style appeals to a lot of people from all sorts of different genres, but it’s hard to get really really into it. This is not your easy-access, just look happy and sing a long kind of music.
The whole of the world is our territory. Human Demise is just waiting to reap it. I don’t think there’s a part of the world that’s more into this than others. This deep dark primal feel to our music has root in everyone more or less.

I just mentioned Finland in my opening question. One of my favorite Finnish hardcore bands is Worth the Pain, and you guys did a split-EP with that band. How did that come to be? And is there any future cooperation to be expected?
On our first trip to Finland we played shared the stage with Worth the Pain, and we were totally impressed by their style. These guys are great to spend time with and one thing led to another. On our second tour in Finland we both played all shows. A great time.
We are always open to cooperation with other bands, open to new paths, new experiences. Another release with WTP would be a trodden road.

I know Human Demise had quite a few line-up changes early on – do you have any idea why that happened to you guys more than it seemed to happen to other bands? Is that why it took 6 years before you finally released your debut full-length The Odditorium?
Yes, these things are related. Let’s answer the first part of your question first: I don’t think we suffered more line-up changes than other bands that have had a lifespan like ours. Getting round to writing our full-length album didn’t take six years. We hadn’t decided on producing a full-length right away. It did take longer than expected though. Around that time we separated with our guitarist Paul, a Human Demise original and co-founder, and replacing him set us back. On top of that, the first label that would release The Odditorium got into financial problems and backed out of the negotiations. All in all, the release of The Odditorium was tardy, that won’t happen to us again. Human Demise just returned from the studio and recorded their second full-length album entitled “Of Wicked Men and Their Devices”. This album will be released early 2011 on Neurotic Records.

Can you tell me more about this new release? What was different this time around, and has there been a change in your style? Where did you find your inspiration?
For this second album we recorded all instruments and vocals at one studio and in a connected period. The Odditorium was recorded at different places, by different people and at various times. We didn’t think that did right to what that album should have been.

“Of Wicked Men and Their Devices” sounds different from our earlier work. Yes. Music evolves, should evolve. You can’t write the same songs over and over again. Well, you could, but what’s the sense in that? The direction our music is heading in hasn’t changed. In a way, every new release is closer to what we intended to write when we started this band.

As for our inspiration: First of all we still look around us. We analyze and describe specific topics in society/the world around us, and this time we came up with two religion-based songs. One about fanatics in religion: “False Idols vs. False Altars”, written by guitarist Willem and “Baptized” written by Maurice. The latter song deals with the church, and how powerful it still is in a small village. Or maybe I should say how powerful the church still thinks it is. It deals in some way with the fact the local priest called Maurice’s parents after he received a letter about quitting with Christianity. These lyrics were already written just before the scandal of pedophiles in the church.
Another song on our new album is called “Falling Empires” and is directly inspired by a book about the parallels of the decline of the Greek and Roman Empires compared to the current state of affairs in the United States. Just how greedy they were and wanted to control everything. The Greek and Roman Empires fell down, and if the US doesn’t change their direction the same will happen there in the future.
“Scapegoat” is about the ‘Goatriders’ that terrorized Dutch and Belgian regions of Limburg in the 18th century. The song deals with the hundreds of poor people that were convicted for these crimes after torture and later were executed. They confessed under immense pressure after torture. These people became the scapegoats of that specific time and again there is a parallel with today’s world because a well-known politician in the Netherlands still has his own scapegoats.
We sent the lyrics to Willem Janssen and according to his impression he has made a drawing for every lyric. I think he did a great job as you can see in the previews that accompany this interview.

Who is responsible for the song-writing in the band?
It differs, sometimes Willem or Jeroen has a clear idea of what a song should be like and they bring it to the rehearsal room. Most riffs are final at that point, the basic song structure and drums. Lyrics are mostly added last. Sometime we set out to write a specific kind of song, i.e. fast or slow. But most of the time it’s the guitarists who bring some riffs and the rest follows later on, it’s a group thing. The same goes for the lyrics: most of us write lyrics, we collect them and we use them when we write a song that fits them.

How critical are you guys when it comes to your band?
In music: if we don’t like it, it doesn’t leave the rehearsal room. On other topics like merch, artwork etc. we’re more pragmatic. We try to reach the best within given limits, like available time and money.

You mention artwork there: The Odditorium (and your other releases as well) is accompanied by well-suited artwork. How important do you think artwork is for a release? And will you ever take the next step and integrate it in your live-shows as well?
Artwork is important. We need our lyrics to fit to the songs and vice versa. Why go with artwork that doesn’t breathe our songs, our music? But we are no graphic artists... luckily, lots of our friends are. We try to find people who get the atmosphere our music breathes, and ask them to translate this feeling into art. Have them interpret the lyrics and the songs and turn it into visuals. Our longtime friend, Tim van de Kimmenade, really did some great work on our earlier releases and merchandise, he put some real effort in it and that shows.
In a way, it’s not only musicians who make up Human Demise, but it’s also the people helping us out. Changes happened on the artistic side as well, and for our next release and our next batch of merchandise we had to look for someone else too. We have started working with Willem Janssen and Yara Jumelet. Their style is different from the work that you previously found when looking at your Human Demise products, but it still feels right, their art fits Human Demise.
As for “the next step”: yes, that step will be made... Given that we find the right people to help us out, the time to work out our ideas and the money to finance it all. I hope we can make it happen, plenty of idea’s available on our part. We can totally see ourselves rock a theatrical setting with everything worked out in detail: lighting, projections, costumes, play, temperature and scent. But it just wouldn’t be something for every live show if that would mean we couldn’t play the small underground stages anymore. Give us an old dark smelly no-stage shithole to play in with an angry crowd and we are in our element.

You’ve said in an earlier interview that the main ingredient of anything entering your musical mix is that it has to be dark (Dutch: "duister"). Don’t you think that at a given point you’ll run out of new ideas/influences to use?
How can the dark side of man ever run out? People try so hard to hide their dark side. It only shows for brief moments. Mostly we hide it from ourselves, it’s in our nature. Both this dark side, waiting to manifest, and this “self” that’s no more than an elaborate mask.
In general: we write about what we see, there is never a lack of inspiration. If the world was a perfect place we’d probably hate the world for being perfect.

You've been around for several years now, but there's never been a real breakthrough for you. What are your expectations for the future of the band?
If by breakthrough you mean lots of stylized young no-brainers downloading our songs and singing along lyrics they don’t understand while waiting to hop onto another trend, keep your breakthrough. If that was something we were aiming for, we would have quit every band we were ever in after a year or so. Start again in a fashionable scene, dress like Muppets and write childish rhymes about knives in backs and crying about the first girl who you fingered up the ass. As long as we are able to play live, wherever, whenever and write awesome music which people will appreciate for its quality, we’re ok.
There are always bands you still want to play with. But after sharing stages with bands like Sick of it All, Ringworm, Madball, Terror, Kickback, bwah, who’s complaining. It’s great to play other countries and meet similar-minded people. See how they keep this underground thing going and being able to share it if only for a short while. We would love to do a big tour, that would probably give us a lot to write about. More people getting into our music, doing some more big shows would be nice. That would help building a financial foundation to get us some more freedom in what we are able create.

Well, that almost concludes our interview, thank you for your time. I had one last questions as a "kicker":
‘The Odditorium’: Who is the oddest band-member of Human Demise?
Easy, try looking Maurice in the eyes when he is on stage. I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but that’s one fucked up mind right there.

Interview by Stengels.
Pictures taken from the Human Demise Myspace.

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Human Demise: If the world was a perfect place we’d probably hate the world for being perfect

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