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| Source: Promo |
Dig your hands deep into your tartan pockets, drag your scuffed heels along the path and tumble into the gritty, gruff world of Human Head. Poet and storyteller Joshua Jones will be doing the same in real-time right beside you, as his upcoming EP, 'Sorry, I Wasn't Listening' documents the realities of mental health, poverty, learning difficulties and loss of identity from a firsthand perspective.
Due for release on the thirteenth of December, Jones' debut EP is a blue-washed medley of turmoil, bedlam, and introspection that spans across five grisly tracks. There is often a risk within spoken word releases such as this, that the lack of melodic fluctuation can ultimately prove to be boring if the lyrical content isn't meticulously analysed. This is so far from true in 'Sorry, I Wasn't Listening', however, as the poetry is embedded in thick synth beats and fizzling techno tracks that wrap your tongue in a bittersweet, acidic heat.
You could substitute your daily-craved popping candy for rocks and your sensory experience would be nowhere near as crunchy as it would be when blasting 'No One Lives Here Yet'. The tribal, dense backing vocals knuckle beneath the lyrical unravellings and Jones' Welsh idiosyncracies flicker among the beats in an array of bronzes and burnt oranges. 'It's about not feeling at home when you're at home,' explains Jones, regarding the EP's lead single, 'and the self-destructive ways of thinking that manifest when problems are swept under the carpet.'
'Look Shocked' kneels before the listener, welding a Belinda Carlisle sample with startling chiptune beats and a wavering bassline. The layers mesh in a glazed glory as this track is arguably the most experimental, perplexing of the catalogue. This track, however, is not the most perplexing thing about Human Head himself, so it only seemed fitting to dig a little deeper...
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| Source: @humanheadhumanhead / IG |
Could you talk a little bit about the persona, Human Head? Why did you decide to use this name as opposed to your own? Is there a deeper meaning behind this title?
The name comes from a Hymie's Basement song called 'Moonhead': 'Did you hear the one / About the day the moon fell to earth? / It had a crater exactly the size / Of a human head on it'. I've always found working with other creatives immensely rewarding and it pushes me creatively too. I felt if I was to put together a project such as this, using my own name would be far too limiting. Human Head is sort of an umbrella. It's the name given to any collaborations I may have with other artists and creatives.
Why did you choose 'No One Lives Here Yet' and 'Room To Haunt' to be the singles from this release? Do they have an underlying significance that caused you to choose to release them first in specific?
'No One Lives Here Yet' was the first song Thom and I wrote. It was written and recorded almost in its entirety on the first night we got together, in about six hours, I think. I feel like it introduces the themes and sounds of the EP without giving too much away. I also like how short and snappy it is.
'Room To Haunt' has that 'sad banger' thing going on. Originally, it wasn't going to be the closing track of the EP, but I felt like it was only right to close it on a somewhat more optimistic track. 'Room To Haunt' is significant to me because it's kind of an apology letter to my parents - for taking out my grief, anger, mental health and identity crises out on them.
Your music has an obvious connection to your life experiences. Aside from your own works, what are the albums that have influenced you most throughout your journey and why do you think they have had such an impact?
A lot of records are tied to memories, experiences, people, and places. Listening to an album simultaneously puts you in the time it was significant to you while building new meaning. Joan of Arc's '1984' and 'He's Got The Whole This Land Is Your Land In His Hands', 'Give Up' by The Postal Service, 'Life is Full of Possibilities' by Dntel, 'You Won't Get What You Want' by Daughters and 'Nearer My God' by Foxing were just a small number of the records I was listening to when writing and recording the EP. These records were incredibly influential to the way I write, what I was writing about, vocal delivery and the overall sound of the EP.
As this is your debut EP, could you explain a little bit about its creation? What were the highs and any potential lows that you encountered - what were your favourite and least favourite parts of the process?
The first few times Thom and I got together to record, I'd get the train to Bristol from my hometown in Llanelli, South Wales. I had moved back into my parents' house for a few months after leaving Southampton. For a while, I was going to Bristol for a night or two, staying on Thom's couch and recording the EP. We've known each other for years through Thom's other projects and I bumped into him at a Christmas party at The Cavern in Exeter last year, where we agreed to meet up and make an EP together.
I'd been writing poems for months at this point and during those sessions, I'd still be making edits to the poems. The lyrics of 'Room To Haunt', for example, went through big changes to make them have a more traditional pop structure. We had no preconceived ideas of what we were doing or how it was going to sound. We'd record me performing the poems, then build a song around the vocals. I think Thom was brilliant at intuitively identifying the 'mood' of each song. It didn't matter what it sounded like, as long as the music fit the mood the poem conveyed.
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| Source: Promo |
My least favourite part was not living in Bristol for the first few recording sessions, because of the time and money spent, but the train journeys themselves offered me the opportunity to read and reflect, so they weren't that bad. For months we couldn't figure out what to do with 'Look Shocked', and that was pretty disheartening for a while. But the best part of the whole experience was hanging out with Thom, just playing video games, drinking beers, and cooking delicious vegan meals.
If you had to choose a staple symbol or object to entirely represent Human Head and what it stands for, what icon would it be and why?
I have this glass model of a human head that we use a lot for the project's imagery. I love it because it's so commonplace - I often spot them in charity shops. No-one ever seems to stop and think, 'What the fuck is that doing here?' I am obsessed with anything that looks human or suggests it's human, but isn't. Mannequins, masks, and robots, for example. Or more abstract things, such as a reflection. I love how everyday objects can be repurposed. You can use them for art, for creating new interesting and weird narratives.
I've always wanted to go to Berlin to visit Werkbundarchiv - The Museum of Things. Even when things are mass-produced and industrially manufactured, they have stories. Stuff is never just stuff - which is probably what hoarders say. To answer your question though, it would be the glass head, because I think it shows that there is absurdity in the mundane.
In a scenario in which you could steal an existing lyric from another artist to slot into 'Sorry, I Wasn't Listening' before its release, what lyric would you choose and by whom, what song would you put it into, and why?
I'm guilty of this already - but as someone who enjoys and studies Modernist and Post-Modernist literature, I say that it's pastiche. I've always loved the lyrics, 'They said "Come and get off the bridge / And we can take the cameras down" / When all you really want is somewhere between here and the ground' from 'Heartbeats' by Foxing. I think it would work really well in 'Intruders' as that song is about intrusive thoughts and fearing one's own apparent lack of care for self-preservation.
What is your intention in releasing this EP? What kind of reaction do you hope it will obtain?
This EP was a way for me to express a narrative: memories, personal experiences and feelings, and my attempts to understand them. If just one person identifies with that, then that's fucking amazing. My intentions are inherently selfish, though: I wanted to prove to myself I could be a part of a project such as this, that I can write and create something I can be proud of and want to share with people. At the very least, I just hope that whoever listens thinks it's an interesting EP!
What does the future hold for Human Head? With regards to both short and long-term plans, what are your hopes and intentions for this project?
I'm currently still trying to put together a live band. Then I need to figure out how we are actually going to play the songs live - Thom and I didn't really think of that when making the EP. I want to release another EP, maybe this time next year. Ultimately, I'd like to make it into an art project that keeps itself running. I want it to be an open-door policy to collaboration, and working within the realms of poetry, music, visual and physical art, and film. That's the ultimate goal!
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| Source: Promo |
