MONKEY SEE MONKEY DO

Things have moved so fast for Dublin band Humanzi in Britain that they have hardly been heard in their home town - but their much-talked-about record deal is also an opportunity for the capital's other bands, lead singer Shaun Mulrooney tells Brian Boyd

IT'S some indication of how far new Dublin four-piece band Humanzi have travelled in the last 12 months that they're already being bitched about - even before their first album is released. In this city of too many bands with too few tunes, they made the mistake of attracting massive British A&R interest, signing a major label deal, bagging an NME tour and having their first release made single of the week on the XFM radio station. All within the space of a few months.

All in their early 20s, they're from (collectively) Donaghmede, Blanchardstown and Drimnagh and they deal in what they term "euphoric punk". With influences that range from Noam Chomsky to Iggy Pop, they combine declamatory lyrics with songs of real musical intent. They've been nominated in the Best New Irish Band category at the upcoming Meteor Awards, but there's many a person will tell you that they should have been battling it out in the grown-ups' Best Irish Band category instead, such is their patently obvious talent.

They formed the way bands in this city used to form - by drinking in city-centre pubs and initially hating each other before finding common cause in their musical tastes.

"We had all been in different bands before," says lead singer and main songwriter Shaun Mulrooney. "But it was the same thing - playing gigs every few weeks in the same venues around town. When we formed Humanzi, we thought 'no more gigs for a while', and we concentrated on writing and recording. We've still probably played more gigs in the UK than we have in Ireland."

Although Mulrooney was first attracted to music during the Britpop era - "it was all that was happening in 1994 when I first got interested" - over the years he's found more resonant inspiration in the works of The Clash, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

"I sort of went from normal, straightforward rock to darker, slightly weirder stuff over the years - and never came back," he says. "These days though, I feel like I'm on a mission to do something to stop all the singer-songwriter bollocks around - and, if not to stop it, at least to provide an alternative to it. That's probably the reason why the album sounds so full-on."

The as-yet-untitled debut gets released in March, and in the meantime the band have been busying themselves with support slots on Foo Fighters and Hard-Fi tours. The album, produced in part by former Nine Inch Nails drummer Chris Vrenna, was recorded in a brisk two weeks at the Grouse Lodge studios in Co Westmeath.

"Everything seemed to happen really quickly," Mulrooney says. "We knew someone who knew Thrills manager Alan Cullivan, and we got some demo tapes to him and eventually he agreed to manage us. We put on a showcase gig in Whelan's and got four record company offers. Surprisingly, they were all from majors, none from the indies. There was talk of huge money offers, but that really wasn't the case. We went with a small label called Fiction, who are owned by Polydor, in the end. There's just three guys working on the label.

"They have Snow Patrol and Ian Brown and they work with The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Queens of the Stone Age as well. We went for the deal that gave us complete control. There was a lot of rubbish reported about how much we signed for, but it just doesn't work that way with labels."

Mulrooney is aware of a certain expectation surrounding the band.

"It's funny for us in a sense because we appear to be known and liked in the UK," he says. "It's Ireland we have to put the work into - which is the reverse of what usually happens. I do understand that new bands are hyped-up so quickly now but, to be honest, at the moment we're more concerned about stupid things being said about us, such as that we sound like The Killers. We don't sound anything like them and just because there may be a bit of a synth sound on some of the songs doesn't mean you can get away with those sort of references."

What most impresses about their album is how they can nod in the direction of voguish art-rock but still bring a PiL-style dimension to their sound without sounding too affected. The fact that all four members are multi-instrumentalists does help their cause.

A clever and personable individual, Mulrooney is one of the most interesting lyricists to emerge in the last few years, especially in light of the "hello birds, hello clouds" doggerel of some of his more folk-inclined Dublin contemporaries.

"I like to think we're doing something different" he says. "Lyrically, it's a bit more political, if that's the word, than what's around."

Part of Humanzi's deal with Fiction is that they get their own label, Sound Foundation Records, to put out singles by other Dublin bands.

"I think there's a whole scene out there that is being totally ignored by the media," Mulrooney says. "There are really amazing bands in Dublin at the moment and we want to put out their singles. I'm talking about bands such as The Things, Channel One, Stagger Lee, Mainline, The Zealots and The Mighty Stet. We have a bit of leeway to do something now and with Sound Foundation Records we just want to get their music released. Maybe it is because we're all mates and all of that, but I genuinely believe there is so much ignored talent in Dublin at the moment."

Humanzi play Roisin Dubh in Galway tonight and Dolans, Limerick, tomorrow