HUMOUR: No Laughing Matter - An Introspective on Identity and Death

For the first time in our conversation, Humour are stumped. You’d think - with a band name such as theirs - that it would be easy, but upon being asked for their favourite joke, they’ve come up empty. After a good 10 seconds of umm-ing and ahh-ing, lyricist Andreas Christodoulidis chuckles: “I guess we’re not actually very funny!”

Perhaps their lack of a ready-made stand-up routine should not be at all surprising, especially after listening to their newly released debut album, ‘Learning Greek’. For all its numerous strengths, this record is unlikely to draw comparisons to Weird Al any time soon, with emotionally weighty subject matter and a crushing, emo-inspired musical palate to match. “I find it easier to write about heavier stuff than the cheery bits of life”, he says, commenting on his own writing style.

It’s fortunate, with this in mind, that the lyricist is so willing to mine his personal life for art. The title 'Learning Greek' is not a metaphor: during the making of the album, Christodoulidis was extensively exploring his ancestry, evidence of which is scattered throughout its runtime. Memorial directly retells a segment of the Iliad, whilst Aphid and Die Rich both invoke characters from Greek mythology. “The amazing thing about those stories”, Christodoulidis muses, “is that even after thousands of years, they still hit you quite immediately, with their depictions of these relatable human moments.”

Deliberately associating your own art with the classics is a daunting prospect, and one that Humour don’t take lightly. “We were worried that it was quite pretentious”, guitarist Jack Lyall states, “but that’s where presenting it in this erratic, heavy music makes it a little bit different. You’d never expect these stories to be told in this way, and you wouldn’t expect this music to be about that either.”

For an album with such a strong theme, it’s surprising to learn that it wasn’t originally conceived as a concept album. “We didn’t write it with a theme in mind,” Lyall recalls. “It was only when we wrote a really shit song called ‘Learning Greek’ where we had this realisation that every song was looking at Andreas’ family and Greek history.”

After some reworking, that title track would go on to become one of the most poignant moments on the record, not least because of the inclusion of Christodoulidis and his father, reading On Philhellenes Street by poet Andreas Embirikos together. Though on paper just an interlude, with a runtime that fails to make the minute mark, it is this short track that connects the album’s themes, not least because of the generational impact that it proves these stories to have. “He didn’t even know I was recording!” Christodoulidis laughs, “I’d been doing it in secret for months, not with any specific intention in mind, but then Jack came to me with the instrumental for that song, and it worked really well.”

“I was about to abandon it”, Lyall interjects, “because I thought ‘What’s the point? I don’t really know where this is going’. But with those recordings, everything about the track really fell into place.”

With the covert operation to record these recitals complete, all that was left to do was to show Christoudoulidis’ dad the finished product, still unbeknownst to the central role he played on it. “He was bewildered when he heard it!” the frontman remembers, “He just had nothing to say except ‘oh! Sounds good.’”

After the complex, at times subterfuge-laced creative process for ‘Learning Greek’, taking these songs on the road has become a liberating experience for Humour. “When you play live, the emotions of a song are what hit people first.” Lyall adds “Even though they are about quite specific things, we try to bring the universal feelings out of the stories, and that’s easier to do at a show.”

“People hearing the recordings is way more daunting than playing them live,” Christodoulidis adds, “when the song is out there, and people can listen carefully and replay it, deconstruct it. And, y’know, reviews are written, of course, that’s the thing that scares me a little bit”. It’s this vulnerability that makes Humour such an admirable band. On ‘Learning Greek’, they have laid a piece of themselves on the line, all the while dressing it up in an anxious, angsty sound. And though many reviewers will have their say on the merits of their work, there is surely one that towers in importance above the rest…

“My dad has heard the album in full now,” Andreas Christodoulidis reveals, “he liked the bits that he’s in!”

Photo by Simon Arinze at 2000Trees

Humour's 'Learning Greek' is available now via So Young Records.

Words: Ali Glen

Cover photo: Rosie Sco

Cover Design and 2000Trees photo: Simon Arinze

With thanks to: Prescription PR