The Best Band You’ve Never Heard: Hum, a widely influential cult force
Amid the tsunami of guitar bands that the 1990s produced, some acts were lost amid the flurry, as the waves bore down on culture and changed its complexion forever. While the grunge, Britpop, and shoegaze movements are the most storied swells, the concentration on these scenes and the fact that listener tastes changed meant several bands were overlooked.
While the music of the underground had been bubbling away in the 1980s, it was following the emergence of Nirvana in 1991 with ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ and Nevermind that opened the gates. Guitars were cool once again, and within the blink of an eye, the major labels and MTV were scrambling to uncover the next best thing. As a byproduct of this race, a host of cheap shills also emerged.
Yet, a few were also wrongly lumped in with the post-Nirvana boom and found themselves simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The tragic demise of grunge, the rise of the comically inept post-grunge and a growing interest in dance and electronic music meant that they were on the receiving end of a nasty convergence of factors out of their control.
One of the most vital of these acts is Champaign, Illinois’ Hum. While several notable bands with one-word names rose to prominence in the decade that existed at the intersection of grunge, metal, hardcore, shoegaze and post-hardcore, the quartet are one of the most influential, with the reverberations of their relatively small oeuvre continuing to be felt throughout music today.
Famously, Sacramento alternative metal pioneers Deftones credit Hum as one of their most important influences in terms of the abstract lyrics, resounding riffs, and pulsating rhythm section. More recent acts such as Deafheaven, Nothing, Narrow Head, Teenage Wrist, and Ovlov also bring Hum to mind in different facets of their sound, aside from the crawling, pounding chord progressions and the use of distortion and chorus.
Hum was formed in 1989 by guitarists Andy Switzky and Matt Talbott, bassist Akis Boyatzis and drummer Jeff Kropp. Switzky and Talbott met at a cafe in Urbana where the former was working and, after bonding over music, decided to start a band. All had played in local groups, and over the following months, they would work on their sound in Boyatzis’ basement. After toying with various names, they eventually settled on Hum, which was purposefully vague. It wouldn’t be long before Kropp left, and a second drummer took his place before Bryan St. Pere was overheard playing along to Rush outside his apartment, and they hired him as their in-house rhythmic maestro. He would go on to be one of the most underrated drummers of his era, mirroring his group’s general standing.
Boyatzis would then leave to travel to Greece in 1990, and Joe Futrelle, who had played in one of Switzky’s old outfits, was hired to replace him before also leaving and being substituted by Rod van Huis. Still, the lineup wouldn’t yet be settled, and he amicably left for the group Great Crusades, and Balthazar de Lay entered the fold. This iteration recorded their first demo, Kissing Me Is Like Kissing an Angel, in Steve Albini’s Chicago basement.
At this point, Switzky was the primary songwriter in the group, as heard on their 1991 debut Fillet Show, which contains a faster blend of punk and metal than their later, more resounding work. His comedic lyrics also differ significantly from the ones Talbott would later conceive when heading up the band.
Eventually, de Lay left to concentrate on his band Mother and was replaced by Jeff Dimpsey in 1992. Over time, creative differences also emerged, with Switzky leaving as a result. Talbott took over the mantle from him, and local fan Tim Lash was hired on guitar after once remarking to the group at a show they should call him if they ever needed a guitarist. The classic lineup was now set.
They recorded their second album, Electra 2000, with Brad Wood. The 1993 opus saw them break from their earlier sound and iron out the blend of post-hardcore, alternative rock, shoegaze, and metal that they would eventually become a cult act for instituting. Tracks such as ‘Iron Clad Lou’ and ‘Pinch and Roll’ sum this shift up. Furthermore, Talbott’s spacey, conceptual lyrics added a different dimension to their sound, heightening the sonics and dynamics.
Hum were eventually snapped up by RCA Records and released their major label debut, You’d Prefer an Astronaut, in 1995. Producing their biggest hit ‘Stars’, the ensuing singles ‘The Pod’ and ‘I’d Like Your Hair Long’, and album tracks such as ‘Little Dipper’, this was the moment their sound crystallised. The album quickly sold 250,000 copies, and it looked like the quartet were set for the major leagues. However, it wasn’t to be. The other singles from the record failed to prompt as much interest as ‘Stars’ in a sign of things to come.
While 1998’s Downward is Heavenward is anointed by many fans as their finest work, with the music more emphatic and Talbott’s songwriting and lyrics more affecting – as evidenced by tracks such as ‘Comin’ Home’ ‘Green to Me’, ‘Dreamboat’ and ‘The Scientists’ – it failed to make any tangible impact. It shipped only 30,000 copies by the end of the year, in a sign that the times were changing.
The writing was on the wall, and disappointing sales and label mergers saw Hum dropped in 2000. The final straw was a minor accident the band’s van was involved in when touring Canada. They played their final shows of this chapter on New Year’s Eve.
Following the end of the group, each member would commit to different projects, including Talbott’s cult trio Centaur, who only released one album and heightened his out-there proclivities and would play a smattering of shows, including the one-off appearance at Furnace Fest in 2003.
Over the years, their healthy and long-lasting following started to become known, with new acts citing them as heroes and a younger generation loving their music online. Finally, they surprise-released their fifth studio album, Inlet, in June 2020, which might well be their finest effort, with studio technology finally appropriately developed to bring their towering sound to life in maximum fashion. On every front, the record clearly confirmed why Hum are so lauded.
Tragically, Bryan St. Pere died in 2021, aged 53. It is presently unclear what status the group now holds.
