Best known for the mid 90’s hit Stars, Hum's has traditionally been lumped into the "Space-Rock"
category due to it’s droning sound and scientific and space influenced lyrics.
A lot of people agree that the band was underappreciated and perhaps some of
that was by the band’s own doing. Today let’s explore whatever happened to Hum.
Hum’s origins dated back to Champagne, Illinois in 1989. By frontman and guitarist Matt Talbot’s own
words he would tell Escapist magazine the band’s beginnings were and i quote "kind of a long story,
not all that interesting. The typical 'hey I sort of play guitar and I like Tad and Union Carbide.
Do you want to, like, get together and jam sometime?' stuff." The band’s name would be
thought of by Matt Talbott with bassist Tim Lash telling an interviewer in 1998 There's
not a lot of legend or myth behind it. Matt (Talbott) started the band seven years ago,
and just thought it was a cool word. It was just a word he liked, and it stuck ever since then
Hum began with guitarists and vocalists Matt Talbott and Andy Switzky who met at
a cafe where Switzky worked in Champagne. They soon bonded over their musical interests and
had already been involved in the local music scene playing in various bands.
They would add a drummer and bassist but during the band’s early years they went through a lot
of lineup changes especially bass players. They would eventually find long time Brian
St. Pere (Pair) . St.pere was hugely influenced by Rush’s Neil Peart and the band found him
after walking by a room he was playing in one day and hearing him play Rush covers.
The band would secure their first gigs in 1989 thanks to local act Poster Children
who they opened for as part of some benefit gigs. In fact Hum bassist Jeff Dimpsey was once a member
of Poster Children The band also gigged in and around chicago and were well received,
but despite being heralded as a chicago band by those outside of the state
Talbott would claim that champaign was their real home telling billboard
“chicago isn’t as receptive as smaller college town like champaign. We had a following there,
but it took us a long time to get there.” The band also considered kansas city
more of a home than chicago with talbott telling alarm magazine There are more dirt bags out there.
It’s an evil place. We just seemed to fit in better and were always made to feel very welcome
The band would record their first demo titled kissing me is like kissing an angel in Steve
Albini’s basement. The band would release their debut record fillet show in 1991
but shortl yafterwards Switzky left the band due to creative differences
being replaced by guitarist Tim Lash. Talbott would soon take over lyrical writing and fronting
the band. . Soon afterwards the Hum would lose another bassist resulting in Jeff Dimpsey,
a member of Talbott’s other band at the time Honcho Overload joining the group.
The band would head to chicago to record their second album Electra 2000.
This recordrepresented the introduction of science and space themed lyrics and Hum would also appear
on a handful of compilation records. Hum’s first two releases would be put out on local act Poster
Children’s own label. Electra 2000 would be well received by local press and retailers.
While Seattle was the epicenter of a lot of popular rock in the early 90’s
by 1993 Billboard magazine was now hailing the midwest as the new center of alternative rock.
A cover story that read "Chicago: Cutting Edge's New Capital. " with other publications including
the new york times soon following suit. Billboard would point to New club openings,
a rash of new signings including Veruca Salt and even established musicians moving to the city
seeming to indicate something was on the rise. The huge success of Smashing Pumpkins, Liz
Phair, the industrial rockers Ministry and Urge Overkill were also cited as evidence of the city’s
emerging music scene..Billboard’s piece would also focus on the chicago neighbourhood Wicker Park
as ground zero for the next generation of alternative rock bands. But like changing trends,
Wicker Park would be overtaken by music from the suburbs and surrounding regions.
Bitsy Biron who ran the company Blackball music video productions
has worked with the likes of Soul Asylum, and Pantera, would tell the chicago tribune in 1995
"Chicago's been exploited," "It's happened. It's like Seattle in '93.
As soon as everybody in the neighborhood starts looking the way you do, it's time to move."
Billboard also pointed to Hum’s hometown of Champagne writing “without much
fanfare champaign has become a hotbed of alternative rock the past couple of years
starting with reprise’s signing of Poster Children in 1991.”
In addition to Poster Children being signed, Champagne had seen other high profile singings
in recent years included Hardvark, Menthol formerly known as Mother or Moon Seven Times.
A&R man Bruce Fiohr who worked for RCA Records would discover Hum while he was visiting a record
store in Chicago. Fiohr had most famously signed Foo Fighters and he would sign Hum in June of 1993
telling billboard how it all went down revealing “It was october of 1992 and i was on to the road
with gigolo aunts in chicago who were doing an in-store at blackout records. I asked the store
what cool local CD’s were selling and he gave me 5 or 6 and on the way home i put on Hum’s
Electra 2000 and it blew me away. I tracked them down and three days later i flew back to see them
play at Lounge Ax in Chicago and it was packed.” According to billboard magazine the members of Hum
weren’t actively pursuing a major and several of the members were playing in several bands
at the time. Fiohr and RCA weren’t the only people interested in signing the band as their
shows had already been attended by MCA, Island, beggars banquet, columbia and east west records.
For Hum choosing RCA was important because they sounded unlike anything on the label’s roster
with Talbott telling billboard “RCA is all over this record; they’re really working this hard
It was kind of a gamble because RCA doesn’t have a huge track record with what i would
consider cool bands. But we like them because they don’t have anyone who sounds like us “
The band’s major label debut you’d prefer an astronaut would be released in April of 1995.
The marketing plans for you prefer an astronaut had to be changed at the last minute after
washington dc radio station WHFS started playing the song Stars the same week the album came out.
By this point in time the label hadn’t even sent the single to radio stations Soon after
WHFS started playing Stars other stations across the country soon followed suit. . Tom
Derr director of artist development at RCA would tell billboard “we expected the song to react,
but it reacted quicker than we anticipated. We were going to college radio first,
then modern rock came at the same time. Now, we’re at the point where album rock radio is
coming on it fast too.” RCA had to scramble to issue the stars as a single as the song blew up
nearly a month before the single was supposed to be officially released. Soon enough stars would
become one of the top five most requested songs all over the country on rock radio including KROQ
in LA, WKQX in Chicago and KTOZ in Springfield, Missouri. Bryan St. Pere would tell St. Louis
dispatch "Yeah, I think [KROQ] helped us out the most, because from what I gather,
that's the station in the country, and when they decide to add a song, all the other stations kind
of follow suit. Their hit song Stars would be born out a jam session with frontman and guitarist Matt
Talbott telling billboard in 1995 “We usually write as a band as anyone else does. Usually the
lyrics are the last thing that comes together” The band’s label initially shipped 10,000 units
of you’d prefer an astronaut but thanks to Stars album sales took
off and re-orders were happening on a daily basis from records store across the country.
Local Champaign record store owner Phil Strang who owned two
shops Record Service with two locations in Champign would be interviewed by billboard
magazine in 1995 who told the publication “their independent records have done well
here. They’re one of the best selling local bands here and number 1 drawing
band live, especially among. You’d prefer an astronaut is a top five seller for us.”
The band would get support from the biggest radio host in America at the time Howard Stern who
loved the song ‘Stars’ and spent one morning playing the song half a dozen times or so.
It resulted in the band coming on the show and arguing with the staff about how to perform
the track live in studio. The band wold perform stars live on the air despite the fact that there
drummer was in the hallway while the rest of the band was in the studio. The appearance was a major
publicity boost for You’d Prefer an Astronaut. It was during this time the band were out on tour
with Smashing Pumpkins,Bush and Toadies two bands I’ve previously covered the careers of bush and
toadies on my channel. The link is down below. While the band had success with Stars their
attitude shared more in common with the rockstars from Seattle than the one’s from LA.
Bassist Jeff Dimpsey by his own admission would reveal that the band wasn’t easy to deal with
telling alarm magazine: When we recorded the video for “Stars,” MTV came back and said that
they’d put us in the “Buzz Bin” if we had some bigger-name director shoot it, and we told them,
“No, we’ve got our artistic integrity.” Then RCA told us that if we cut “ I’d Like Your
Hair Long” by 45 seconds, they would make it the second single, but we told them,
“No, we’re not cutting it.” The label would release Pod and I’d Your Hair Long as singles
and perhaps their unwillingness to compromise led to those singles not charting in the states.
In addition to that frontman and guitarist Matt Talbott was always cagey about what his
lyrics meant. with St. Pere telling an interviewer "Matt writes these really vague lyrics," d, "so
we like to leave it up to the listener to get whatever they can out of the lyrics on their own.
It's kind of like cheating to say what the songs are about. That's why Matt doesn't do interviews,
he's tired of telling people that his lyrics don't mean anything
Stars meanwhile would stay relevant being featured in commercials and on beavis and butthead.
The album would prove to be influential on other bands most notably the Deftones with
Chino Moreno telling Quietus an interview This is a heavy record, and it's where Deftones get
a big part of our influence from, tone-wise Despite their newfound success Hum always
gave back to their community taking bands from their hometown out on
tour with them and playing benefit shows in Champagne that also featured hometown acts.
You’d Prefer an Astronaut would move about 250,000 copies well above what their label expected. Two
years later the band would wrap up recording of their follow up Downward is Heavenward but due to
RCA’s policy of not releasing albums during the holidays the album wouldn’t be released until
early 1998. The lead single Comin’ Home would peak at number 37 on the billboard modern rock tracks
chart.During the tour to promote Downward is Heavenward, the band found thsemselves in an
accident on their way to calgary after leaving winnipeg resulting in 11 gigs being cancelled.
Downward is Heavenward wasn’t a success and RCA soon dropped the band from their roster.
. Matt Talbott would admit to MTV in 1998 how they had mixed feelings on their success "We were
a little confused after the last record,". "It took some time to adjust to having to
promote a record, something we had no interest in. We fought that a little bit,
but I think we've learned to accept it as part of the business." . "It's really a gift that
it's happened, and we couldn't be happier. But at the same time, it also has its downside. We're
living out of suitcases, eating fast food, and there are no phones to call home. And sometimes
it feels like we're playing cover songs, because we play the same songs so much that it's become
hard to find any more inspiration in them. Jeff Dimspey would talk about the band’s lack
of success with their follow up album telling alarm magazine I don’t blame anything on RCA;
most of it was on us. We were probably a more difficult band than we needed to be back then.
I really loved Downward is Heavenward,
but RCA didn’t hear a big single. They let us make the album we wanted, and I think that we
put out a really quality album that stands up over time, but labels need to hear a hit.
By 2000 the band called it quits performing a handful of reunion shows from 2003 onwards.
It wasn’t until 7 years ago in 2015 that the band started working on new music.It
would culminate with the release of the band’s album Inlet coming out in june of 2020, their
first album in over two decades. Sadly the in 2021 drummer Brian St. Pere would pass away with the
banddescribing his passing as and i quote “sudden and unexpected”. Putting out a statement that read
“Bryan was a dear friend, a loving father, brother, and was an incredible
person and musician. We all feel extremely lucky to have shared time and space with him.
Peace and love to all who knew Bryan, and those he touched. We will miss him dearly.”
Aside from playing in Hum frontman Matt Talbott according to the River front Times
coaches high school football, has a family and is a professor at Millikin University
teaching in the music department and plays in another band named Centaur.