Electro-pop is a tricky genre. It seems like a lot of groups have been trying it out in the past few years, but most of them fall far short, either sounding like New Order redux or just like they’ve listened to the Postal Service far too many times. Luckily, Huma doesn’t fall into either category. The New Brunswick three-piece’s songs walk the line between organic and electronic, with programmed beats and synths providing the framework for acoustic and electric guitars, clarinets and male-female vocals to float through and swirl around. The end result? A dreamy, catchy and driving mix of sounds. Plus, they’ve got a thing for kitty masks. Huma is playing a free show tomorrow night (Oct. 6) at the Court Tavern, with Where's Alaska?, Meat: The Cleavers, and Electric Lights Flashing Very Fast.
Day job:
Brian: Senior Circulation Assistant at a public library
Laura: 4th grade teacher
Jessica: Graphic designer
What’s the worst or most interesting thing that’s happened to you at work?
Brian: Patron: “Hi, can you tell me where books on dogs are located?”
Me: “Sure, the call number is 636.7.” (I jot down the call number)
Patron: (Looks at the paper) “So what do I do? Call this number?”
Laura: I found out that one of my parents is a VP at 20th Century Fox when she offered me red carpet premiere tickets to the Johnny Cash movie.
Jessica: Unfortunately, I don’t think “interesting” is the word to use about where I work.
Does work ever conflict with the band?
Brian: Not really -- library hours are pretty simple. Granted, I do work some weekends, but luckily it is the kind of job that you can do after a late night of playing.
Laura: Yes. I work a lot of hours and get up really early each morning (5:30 am). Because of the fact that I have to be “on” every day for 24 nine- and 10-year olds, I can’t physically afford to miss much sleep. This definitely affects my availability to play week night shows and sometimes even to practice. On the plus side I do have summers off … which means I am always up for a summer tour!
Jessica: Not usually. Brian and Laura work a lot more than me, so I’m the easy one. My job isn’t too mentally stressing either, so my mind can wander about the creative things I’ll do when I leave work.
Do you have health insurance?
Brian: COBRA for the moment. But I get the good stuff through work in 60 days -- aww yeah! If my job wasn’t going to give it to me, I would buy it through ASCAP [The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers].
Laura: Yes. Thank you NJ Teacher’s Union.
Jessica: Yes, but not from my job. I work part-time. I’m a student, so I still get my health insurance from my parents.
Who are the three people you’d most like to have at one of your shows, in terms of helping your music career?
Brian: I don’t care who the three people are, so long as their intentions are good and they are looking to really help my music career move forward in the ways that I want, and not in a way that would be in their best interest for their financial gains!
Laura: Decent size indie-label rep. guys (2), and our current label leader because it shows he would want to put out another release!
Jessica: I would like to have
A. A big crowd
B. An overwhelmed “merch girl”
C. Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips (‘cause that would just be cool)
If Wal-Mart approached you about putting your music in an ad, for a large sum, would you do it?
Brian: Always a tough call. There are so many ways to look at this. First, I would not want to support Wal-Mart, but what if it is being used to push their new $1 Compact Flourescent Lightbulb (CFL) campaign. To me, getting at least one CFL in the house of every American would be amazing, and Wal-Mart is the kind of company that could partner up with GE and do something like that. That would be great for cutting down on pollution. (The equivalent to taking 100,000 cars off the road, I think.) And now, if our music would actually have the power to motivate people into buying these CFLs, then maybe I would go for it.
However, for 99 percent of other Wal-Mart matters, I would probably have to say “no.” But having some extreme blindly “anti-corporate” stance isn’t going to help matters much. We need to encourage companies like Wal-Mart to look towards sustainability. If this is possible however, I don’t know. I think the issue is way bigger than this Q&A allows!
Laura: No thanks.
Jessica: I might do it. I think the appropriate action for this type of situation would be to accept the offer, only to take the money and donate it. Maybe you can use a big company like that to better the world, even if it is sort of against them. Like, taking money from Hummer and giving it to renewable energy research. You might as well. They’re just going to give it to the next indie rock band anyway.
Any additional thoughts on the conflicts and intersections of work and art in your life?
Brian: I wish that work was art and therefore there would be no more conflicts!
Laura: It’s hard to do both, especially when they are both so demanding. It was nice to join ASCAP this year and to find out about the inexpensive benefit plan they offer.
Jessica: Not yet. In a year or two when I’ll likely have a full-time job, I might have more to say!
On the Web: Huma
Day Job is a weekly column examining the contradictions, conflicts and convergence between work and art.
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