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.”
It’s a meet-cute that wouldn’t be out of place in a quirky indie rom-com, but for Human Interest, it was the beginning of a musical partnership that would push both of them out of their comfort zones. Tyler, a self-described “bedroom bassist” who had spent years too afraid to play in a band, found herself thrust into the spotlight. “I was intimidated by how amazing his songs were and didn’t think I was good enough, but he convinced me to learn two songs and meet up for a jam,” she says. “A few weeks later, he booked a headline show at The Old Blue Last and gave me approximately 30 days to become a decent enough player. I’m a people pleaser, so of course, I got the job done.”
This sink-or-swim approach seems to be a recurring theme in Human Interest’s story. Cat, for his part, has been drawn to music since childhood, despite early setbacks. “I got guitar lessons at school but unsuccessfully as I always thought the teachers were lame,” he admits. “But also, more importantly, I found it really fucking difficult – I think it’s because I have weird thumbs, maybe?”
Cat’s musical journey is a familiar tale of youthful passion and perseverance. “Honestly, it’s the same cliche you hear from most archetypal boys in bands. It’s always been there, always drawing me in,” he confesses. “I remember being taken to school really young, listening to Capital FM, and just feeling like it made sense. My mum got Dad a white Fender Stratocaster for his birthday one year, and I wasn’t allowed to play it, but I would just go and hold it and fiddle with the tuners whenever he was out. That’s probably why he stopped playing – must’ve thought something was wrong with it, always being out of tune!”
His early forays into band life were equally chaotic. “I was in a band called BOSH – named after a guy who would roll joints for us – when I was 13, which was great fun, but I got kicked out in the end for not being good enough. I thought I’d be an artist, but then I started viewing music as art and not something you had to necessarily be studiously ‘good’ at. That’s when I really got sucked in. Now, here I am.”
“Happiness is a spectrum and, quite often, unsustainable”
Tyler Damara Kelly
Tyler’s path to Human Interest was equally circuitous. “I can’t really remember a time when music wasn’t around,” she muses. “My mum had a huge sound system and would play basement and reggae throughout the house when I was younger. Thanks to Twilight, I discovered Paramore and that led me to discover a whole new world of music.” Her journey from teenage poetry to bass guitar was a long one. “I fell in love with bass because of Kings of Leon, bought a bass at 18 but didn’t play it for like seven years, and eventually became a bedroom bassist who was too terrified of not being good enough to even try and put a band together.”
Despite these inauspicious beginnings, or perhaps because of them, Human Interest has grown into a band that embraces imperfection and vulnerability. Their upcoming EP, ‘Smile While You’re Losing (An Audio Guide To Wellness)’, is a testament to this ethos.
“We definitely leaned into our softer side with this EP,” Cat explains. “I suppose that’s just the vibe we were on at the time. It was the start of a new year feeling a bit optimistic and we were just enjoying the idea of a vibey little batch of songs that someone could sit down and listen to and find a bit of escape from the outside world.” But the process wasn’t without its challenges. “Honestly, I’m filled with a lot of anxiety about the whole thing quite often. But I suppose that’s expected, right? The songs all had to fit a feeling; a feeling we hadn’t quite articulated yet, and it was for sure convoluted, which is echoed in the opening lyrics of ‘Shapeshifting’ [“Every day I’m searching / Searching for a feeling / A feeling I don’t know / It’s shapeshifting”].”
The EP’s title, a playful nod to Robbie Williams’ ‘Swing When You’re Winning’, encapsulates the band’s approach to both music and life: finding joy and meaning in the midst of chaos and uncertainty. It’s an attitude that’s served them well, particularly during their impromptu tour of France last year.
“We were meant to just be playing in Paris, but we met this guy called Paul at a friend’s house party,” Cat recounts. “He runs a label in North France called Crème Brûlée, and he managed to sort us out a few more shows with zero notice. It just felt amazing to be playing outside of England and we got taken really good care of. The whole trip is just a really fond memory for me. It was falling apart at the seams the whole time, but everything just kept working out.”
This ability to find beauty in imperfection extends to their songwriting process. For Cat, creating music is “a fucking ride of joy, sadness and self-doubt that I try to sculpt into something that will bring someone out there happiness or at least the feeling that they are understood.”
He describes his approach to songwriting as a form of archaeology: to “carefully scrape away the rubble and dust, and unearth something I can show people.”
Tyler, on the other hand, sees songwriting as a puzzle. “The best song is quite often the newest song,” she muses. “The fragments of ideas floating around your head that you haven’t had the opportunity to overthink and make a mess of. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle or sudoku. In theory, it’s easy. Only when you sit down to figure it out do you realise there are way more components than expected, and one component can throw everything else off balance.”
This tension between structure and chaos, between careful excavation and spontaneous creation, is at the heart of Human Interest’s sound. It’s a delicate balance, one that requires constant negotiation and renegotiation. But for Cat and Tyler, that’s precisely the point.
“Happiness is a spectrum and, quite often, unsustainable,” Tyler observes. “Accepting your fate and knowing that everything ebbs and flows is the only way to truly be on the path to enlightenment. Cheap booze and good company help.”
It’s this kind of wry wisdom, delivered with a wink and a nod, that makes Human Interest so compelling. They’re not pretending to have all the answers; they’re just trying to figure it out like the rest of us.
As for the future, Human Interest’s ambitions are refreshingly modest. “To make someone feel a little less lonely for a moment in time,” Tyler says. “Personally, I’m grateful that I’m 30 and can finally say I’ve done the thing I’ve always wanted to do – that’s genuinely enough for me. I don’t care about ‘success’, I just want to know that I’ve provided someone with the kind of escapism that music offered me for the majority of my life.”
Cat, ever the dreamer, adds: “I’d fucking love to be able to just record, write, and tour, and that be what I do. Just loving the good life. I also want to headline Brixton Academy and for it to be a solid memory in some sweet people’s lives.”
“We’re dysfunctional humans just trying our best to keep going”
Cat Harrison
In the meantime, the band is keeping busy. They’re gearing up for some autumn festivals and working on new material. “We’re going to start working on having a batch of songs ready to put out next year,” Tyler reveals. “I’m not saying that we want to be like King Gizz, but I’m not saying that we don’t want to be as productive.”
But perhaps the most exciting news is that Human Interest are headed back to France in September for the first recording session of their debut album.
Among the songs they might record is ‘Jellyfish’, which Cat considers his best work to date. “We play it live sometimes, but we’re saving it for the album. I think it just captures something a lot of people can relate to. Floating through life and feeling not in control but hoping for the best. Sonically, it’s basically my version of ‘Heroin’ by Velvet Underground.”
When they’re not making music, the members of Human Interest lead lives as varied and unpredictable as their songs. Cat moonlights as a dog walker (“My job is awesome – but it’s also very tiring and takes up a lot of energy, and it’s difficult to come home and make art”), while Tyler juggles freelance journalism with her bass duties. “We’re all just selling our souls and scraping by to have the ability to live in London,” she admits. “The other Tyler works for Juno Records, and has a solo album coming out this year, and our sweet baby Albie has just finished a fine art degree at Goldsmiths.”
There’s even talk of a new musical vehicle, perpetually on the backburner. “We’ve been edging a side project called The Love Stains for a while, but life is constantly passing us by, and luckily, we’ve been so busy with Human Interest that we’re yet to have it come to fruition. Maybe it will happen. Maybe we’ll rebrand in a few years once Human Interest dies a slow death? Who knows. Either way, you heard it here first.”
As our conversation draws to a close, Cat and Tyler are in a celebratory mood for reasons that have nothing to do with their musical success. “Cat’s sister had a baby at 6am this morning, which is why we’re out celebrating!” Tyler exclaims. “Babies are cool. They have no notion of the shit show that is about to transpire over the span of their lives.”
It’s a typically Human Interest observation: equal parts joy and existential dread, delivered with a wry smile and a raised glass. Cat, ever the sentimental one, adds a final touch: “They haven’t named him yet, but I would like to formally dedicate this absolute shambles of an interview to the new beautiful baby boy, who I am currently calling Babysham.”
As they continue to excavate the human experience, turning their findings into songs that resonate with raw emotion and hard-won wisdom, one thing is clear: the world could use a little more Human Interest. ■
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