Rm13: Firstly, of whom does the band consist and what are their roles?
Humanity: The band line-up is Simon Shedwell- Lead Vocals, Steve Wallace- Lead Guitars, Richard Hall- Lead Guitars, Craig Burkitt- Keyboards, Chris Lemottee- Bass, Alex Townsend- Drums.
Rm13: You've played pretty much all the venues in Cambridge, do you feel it's a good place to start from?
Humanity: Yes I do. We were fortunate enough to crack the Cambridge Live Circuit
very early on in our career, as we met and formed at Cambridge Regional
College.
When we had got to the stage where we were more or less selling out all
the venues, no matter where we were on the bill, no matter what night of the week, we knew we must have been doing something right. All the fans in Cambridge are fantastic to us and we are eternally grateful for all their support.
Rm13: Where would you most like to play in the future?
Humanity: There are so many places we would like to play, both in the UK and
abroad. If I had to pick one of each, the UK would have to be Wembley and as for overseas, maybe Wacken Open Air in Germany.
Rm13: What did you think of the Bloodstock line-up?
Humanity: This year's line up was in general, very mixed, which I think was a good thing - it had a 'something for everyone' line up. In past years, I feel
it has solely focused on just Power Metal. The Main Stage had strong bands on both days,and there was a good balance in the Darwin Suite as well.
Rm13: What makes your music different from the other bands at Bloodstock?
Humanity: I think one of the things that makes our music different is because there are six guys in our band, all of whom listen to totally different types of metal and rock music. Si is really into Metallica, Machine Head, Pantera, all the big U.S bands. I like some of the more extreme stuff like Death, Morbid Angel, My Dying Bride, Meshuggah as well as the progressive stuff like Blind Guardian, Symphony X and Dream Theater. Rich listens to more blues based metal such as Black Label Society and Jerry Cantrell. Craig is a fully trained classical pianist, but also worships Pantera, Chris is into more modern metal like Korn, System Of A Down, Rage Against The Machine and Alex is a complete black metal nut, listening to stuff like Emperor, Dimmu Borgir, Dark Throne and Bathory. We take all the bits we like out of all this, scrap the bits we don't and put it all together and see what happens.
We like to have a broad palette to work with when we write our own music, plus we go with our feelings. If a song or riff feels good, 99% of the
time we go with it. Also, neither myself or Rich are obsessed with soloing for the sake of it with Humanity, the song has always come first, and that is the most important thing to us.
Rm13: How do you feel just before you go on stage?
Humanity: I can't speak for the rest of the guys, but I personally just focus on going out there and doing the best job I can. As well as this, I like to try and relax and loosen up, I hate playing gigs when I'm agitated and tensed up, it just feels wrong. Then I quickly guzzle down some water and off I go!
Rm13: Are there any other bands whose sound you could compare your music to?
Humanity: There are a few that crop up quite regularly. Powerplay Magazine compared us to Evergrey, which is quite close. We have been compared to Metallica, Dream Theater and musically, even Pantera. Of couse everyone will make comparisons, but we do like to think that we sound like 'us' as much as we can.
Rm13: What's your best moment as a band so far?
Humanity: Well, of course the Bloodstock Festival. The response the crowd gave us was just beyond belief. I remember looking at the whole crowd during the intro to 'Justify', and the sight of everyone's hands in the air is something I will never forget. We had a tough job as unknowns to win the crowd and we achieved that. Our other major highlights have been Dong Open Air in
Germany and the Summer Of Metal Tour with Intense and PowerQuest.
Rm13: What are your plans for the rest of the year?
Humanity: We have a www.power-metal.co.uk sponsored show at The Snooty Fox in Wakefield on Sept 18th, co-headlining with a band called Snake Eyes. Most
of our efforts after that will be focusing on writing the second album. There
will no doubt be more shows before the year is out so be sure to check our Official Website (www.humanity6.co.uk) for all the latest updates and keep your eyes, and ears, open in the metal press.
Rm13: Thanks for your time; I hope you enjoyed the Bloodstock experience and that we'll be hearing from you again soon.