Life & Work with Humanity

Today we’d like to introduce you to Humanity.

Hi Humanity, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
There’s a long history between each of the members where we played in different bands together since as early as high school. One thing led to the next, and years later we reformed to become Humanity. The one exception was our Bassist, Mike, who we found through a Craigslist ad. Our first meeting as an entire group was at a 1up barcade in Denver, CO. and everything fell together since then. The earliest songs were written between Wingo (Drummer/Vocalist) and David (Keyboardist/Vocalist) with Angela (Cellist) through 2014 -2017. Many of these songs make up our EP, The Risen Damned, which in a nutshell represents where we began, moving on from that, and reforming what is ultimately Humanity, which our listeners will hear more of on our upcoming album.

Long before we released the EP, Wingo and David collaborated on guitar and keyboard parts and together composed bass and drums while Angela composed cello parts. In order to make things work between the three members, David, who was originally a keyboardist, had taken on the role of guitar, so Wingo could fill in on drums, and Angela would play cello. We would later be reunited with Jose (Guitarist) during the New Year of 2018. Jose was in another band as lead guitarist, and he started filling in for us on bass. We met Mike later that year, which really pushed us towards our goal of being a five-piece, where David and Jose could do what they do best on Keyboard and Guitar, with Wingo on Drums, Angela on Cello, and Mike on Bass. It was together that we came up with the name Humanity and started relearning old material and began writing new material all together.

The logo was the next step. There’s a backstory to that which relates to our song “Tunnels of Persistence” from The Risen Damned EP. It tells the story of Wingo’s reoccurring nightmare where he feels he’s being chased through tunnels to no end. In one of the dreams, he saw an image within the tunnels which later became the inspiration for the logo. It was as a triangle connecting two objects on each side. We added the Moon (left) and Sun (Right) which is symbolic in many ways. We also added the eight-pointed star inside of the triangle. The design took a lot of forms, and with some brainstorming and redesigning, we’re proud of where it’s come and what it represents to us. We encourage others to interpret what it means to them.

Once we got our set and our brand together, we began booking shows in 2019. Our first show at Herman’s Hideaway is one of our most memorable where we were invited to play with LA progressive metal group Zero Theorem and CO local metalcore group Grey Sky Falls. They really set the bar that night and inspired us to keep pushing to better ourselves. It also happened to be in the middle of a huge blizzard during April and probably one of the most treacherous drives home. But it was all worth it to receive the amazing support of our friends and family who still showed up and to finally perform at an awesome venue after years of preparation.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Things got rough once 2020 hit. After a good run of local shows, Covid cancelled everything, as we all know. We were getting pumped to play an incredible show with touring groups Flub and Symbolik at Trailside Saloon, courtesy of Swinging Noose Productions, and that was the first to get cancelled. There were still some great memories we made early that year, including a show where one of the bands threw toilet paper out into the audience at Trailside Saloon.

This was just before everything started getting canceled. But we kept pushing, meeting and practicing as often as we could. Working to better our live setup and writing more music. We decided to try our hand with livestreaming to continue sharing our music that way. Our first livestream was an absolute disappointment. We promoted for a few weeks, had about 10 or more people joined in to watch, but we experienced technical difficulties as soon as it began.

All while Wingo was laying down an insane electric kazoo solo. It was so disheartening, and we felt terrible for everyone watching. After that, we buckled down, did more research, and were later able to pull off a couple of successful livestreams that were a ton of fun. We’ve even thought about doing it again sometime.

Coming back to shows once everything reopened was a bit rough in the beginning with restrictions still in place. Some venues couldn’t allow people to stand together or be near the stage and had limited capacity. We just wanted to do our best to share our music and keep the flame burning during a hard time. We greatly appreciate all who pulled through for us.

During this, we had also been recording our EP from our home studio. Recording has already come a long way, and we learned a lot during our early attempts of recording. We’re excited to share what we’ve learned since our first release and to bring something we’re proud of to the table next year.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
We’re a metal band from Denver, CO. We are inspired by the many aspects of the human experience, with an added element of humor and bizarre creativity. Our style can be hard to pin down, but we’re somewhere in the realm of Death Metal with some Progressive Metal/Deathcore and Symphonic Black Metal sandwiched in. The keyboard and cello add a melodic element and other times blend with the heavy distorted notes of the guitar. The vocals are a mix of David and Wingo swapping between harsh and clean vocals, harmonizing and echoing one another depending on the song. We enjoy switching up styles with each song and creating a diverse experience.

One of the things we are most proud of is our video skits that we post to our social media and YouTube pages. We’re always thinking of random, funny ideas, so we’ll add our funniest ideas to a list to later turn into a video. We have so many ideas that we are still working on. Our most recent video, Mail Order Bassist, tells the story of how we got Mike and how we “ordered” him from the internet. From there, it became an exaggerated story of him being delivered to our door and having our first experience jamming.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
We push a lot to continue bettering ourselves with each show, each release and trying to keep things fresh. We have been working behind the scenes lately to release our album and push content that’s better than anything we’ve released so far. We felt the break from shows was necessary to refresh and refocus on creating a powerful message and to further break into new markets. We’re in a cocooning stage, so to speak, and it will be worth it. We want to remain open and willing to face our challenges as a group. We stay open with each other, and all enjoy this for the art of making music as a collective and sharing it with those who desire to listen. It’s something we’re all extremely passionate about and wants to keep pushing forward.

We want to continue supporting other bands in the local scene, pay it forward, and contribute to the community. It’s truly amazing the talent that’s out there that is constantly overlooked, and we want to encourage more people to attend local shows and support those independent artists. We all grow together.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/humanity.metal/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/humanity.metal
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/HumanityMetal
• Other: https://linktr.ee/humanitymetal 

Image Credits
Nox Nohi Justin Fausnaugh Kate Royston