About Human Life
As the lines between cool underground electronic music and savvy, accessible pop continues to blur a trio from Southern California arrive to strike while the iron’s hot and show the world the slick, engrossing electro pop that they’ve been honing over the last few years.
Human Life is made up of veteran house music producer Joshua Collins, and producer/musician/singers Matt Wasley and Rachael Starr.
The trio cut a fine line in cool, catchy, potent electro with pop vocals and strong song writing. Citing influences including classic French and Chicago house and pop music as diverse as Depeche Mode, Prince and Happy Mondays.
Theirs is a sound which combines the best of the underground and the overground without contriteness or awkwardness – and it’s one that’s already been catching the attention of French legend Alan Braxe, Radio 1’s Jaymo & Andy George. Carte Blanche, Grum, Aeroplane, Sasha, A-Trak and Crookers.
Josh and Matt were introduced at a mutual friend’s birthday party and quickly established that they were both interested in making music that was detached from the usual mega-club styles.
Studio sessions swiftly followed, and when Josh showed friend Rachael the results, she asked if she could come on board for this exciting new project with her multitude of experience as a vocalist, producer and DJ.
“I would describe it as electronic and house influenced Pop music,” says Matt, “but some of the other labels people have used are Underground Pop, Nu-Disco or Indie-Dance. Really it’s all about combining melodic music with dance oriented elements.”
Originally from Boston, Orange County and Chicago respectively, Matt, Rachael and Josh all now live in Southern California, with LA nightlife providing another strand of influence in their dynamic sound.
The Human Life live show experience combines Matt and Rachael’s vocals with live synths, bass and guitar, aiming to provide something more than the
usual nightclub experience. “We put a ton of work into the performance to make sure it’s really something different than you’ll see on an average club night,” says Matt. “It’s always interesting because it turns out to be very different than what people are expecting to see that night!”
Their DJ sets show off their range of influences, from slow disco grooves to thumping house music, vintage techno coolness and all in-between – as Matt explains “when we DJ we try to share a little bit of what Los Angeles sounds like to us”.
2010 has seen them play some standout gigs in Geneva, New York’s legendary Webster Hall, L.A.’s number 1 nightspot Avalon, London’s acclaimed Neon Noise Project at XOYO and Barcelona’s Razzmatazz, with showcase spots at the prestigious In The City music conference (set up by Hacienda and Factory Records
legend Tony Wilson) and the acclaimed Le Showcase in Paris.
After releases for Alan Braxe’s Vulture label and their own LIFEX Recordings, they found their smash ‘In It Together’ being licensed to Defected Records and Sony Australia (One Love), being played on music TV stations around the world, and the video receiving over 100,000 views on YouTube.
Remix requests came flooding in for the likes of Mason (feat. Roisin Murphy), Roy Davis Jr., Plump DJ’s label Grand Hotel and Jump Jump Dance Dance, cementing their status as one of the hottest things to hit the blogs since Jay-Z’s last album got leaked early.
Talking of big name rappers, the B-side to the follow-up of ‘In It Together’, ‘Wherever We Are’ was named a ‘RCRD of the Day’ and ‘No.1 Most Popular RCRD’ by RCRDLBL, beating Kanye West.
‘Wherever We Are’ was also subsequently licensed to Defected and Sony Australia (One Love) and both singles look set to drop with new remixes this summer.
Gig requests continue to flood in, the remixes keep coming & with their incredible debut album set for release in 2011, Human Life are set to explode after making a solid impression on the electronic scene during their launch year.
