South by Southwest festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, has had some impressive names on its line-up over the years. Kanye West, Bruce Springsteen, Dolly Parton, Lana Del Ray and even Barack Obama have previously appeared at this major festival of music, film and conferences held over 10 days in March.
Now, you can add the Scottish post-punk band Humour to that list – after the quintet were revealed as performers at the 2023 festival.
An amalgamation of Scottish influences, the band members hail from Edinburgh and Perth but were formed in Glasgow, where they met while studying together at university. They performed in various guises over the years, but it was while locked down together during the Covid pandemic (they are flatmates as well as bandmates) that they really found their sound. And the punky, somewhat manic music that they have created together has clearly worked – NME named Humour as one of their ‘essential emerging artists for 2023’ and hailed their “superbly exciting debut EP”.
Being based in Glasgow, a city renowned for its live music scene, has helped in part with Humour’s rapid rise to recognition. “Music-wise there is so much going on in Glasgow,” explains guitarist Ross Patrizio. “That’s why we’ve stayed in the city. We have met so many of our friends here through music and it’s inspiring to be around that. It’s a great city to be making music in.”
Despite being in their infancy as a band, Humour have already played famous Scottish venues like Glasgow’s King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut and Sneaky Pete’s in Edinburgh, as well as gigs across France and the Netherlands.
“We pretty much had interest from Europe straight away,” explains bassist Lewis Doig. “We signed to an independent record label who are great in terms of distribution and being able to get our music into places we have never reached before.”
“We were excited to go to France but we were kind of expecting to play to empty rooms,” adds lead vocalist Andreas Christodoulidis, “so it was a nice surprise to get there and find the gigs full. It does seem that in Europe people are more willing to go to a gig of a band that they haven’t heard of before.”
South by Southwest will be their biggest gig to date. It was a very 21st-Century moment when they found out they were playing there, Patrizio explains, with drummer Ruairidh Smith forwarding on a screenshot to the band’s WhatsApp group that said: ‘South By Southwest accepted artist’. And while the band are “very excited” to play there, the practicalities of getting from Glasgow to Texas have proven tricky without major financial backing. They have launched a Crowdfunder campaign to help pay for the trip and held a fundraiser gig in Glasgow.
“We regularly discuss how to balance our work commitments with the band, but the reality of it is that music isn’t a very well-paid career,” Patrizio acknowledges. When it comes to their long-term ambitions for Humour, he says they are taking it “week by week” and seeing how things go. “But there’s something quite nice about the band not being our job,” he adds. Later this year, Humour are booked to play at the Otherlands festival at Scone Palace, near Perth, which Doig describes as “very special” for him as it is a short distance away from where he grew up.
But when it comes to the venue they would most like to play, the band’s answer is unanimous – the iconic Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow’s east end. “It’s near our flat. It’s the best sounding venue. Every gig I’ve been to there has been very special,” explains Patrizio.
And at the rate Humour are going, it surely won’t be long until that dream becomes a reality.
SXSW runs March 10th through 19th. Humour’s Crowdfunder campaign can be found at crowdfunder.co.uk/p/humour-sxsw
@humour_music
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