Human Interest: "Music is art and not something you have to be good at"

From fetish group chats to headline shows, Human Interest’s journey is anything but conventional. Check out our latest Hype playlist cover feature.

Words: Stephen Ackroyd.
Photos: Jennifer McCord.

"The song already exists. My job is to find it," muses Cat Harrison, one-half of the creative core behind Human Interest. It's a statement that could easily be dismissed as pretentious posturing were it not for the raw, unflinching honesty that permeates every note of their music. This East London quartet isn't interested in manufacturing pop confections; they're sonic spelunkers, delving deep into the caverns of human emotion and returning with gems of startling clarity.

There's an old adage: it's not about the destination; it's about the journey. For Human Interest, that journey involves a WhatsApp fetish group, a chance encounter with a French label owner, and more than a few moments of crippling self-doubt. Yet somehow, amidst the chaos and uncertainty, they've managed to craft a sound that's as honest as it is compelling.

Human Interest are not your typical band. Born in Margate and forged in the crucible of London's lockdown, they've evolved into a fluid, ever-changing entity that defies easy categorisation. Cat Harrison, the band's founder, explains their genesis: "So the band initially started off as a solo project. I moved to London at the beginning of lockdown and eventually met Tyler, which was a real turning point."

At their core are Cat and Tyler Damara Kelly, two musicians whose paths crossed in the most unexpected of places: a WhatsApp group for the fetish club Klub Verboten. "There was a train of people sharing their Instagram accounts — putting faces to the body parts, let's say — and at the time of me being a bedroom bassist, I had videos of myself playing on my IG," Tyler recalls. "He followed me, slid into my DMs and told me he was moving to London and needed a bassist."