Human Animal started at the beginning of 2012 as an idea for some old friends to create the type of hardcore they love listening to and as an excuse for them to hang out on a weekly basis. The band features Eric "EMS" Schauffele, former bassist of Brother’s Keeper on vocals, Bobby Williams — also of BK on drums, Adam Salaga on guitar (former drummer of xDISCIPLEx A.D.) and Ryan Zimmerman on bass.
Some of Human Animal's influences are East Coast staples like Agnostic Front, Sick of It All, and Madball, and at times, dabbles in the crossover world of Sheer Terror and Leeway. They also credit some of the more melodic styles of bands like Crown of Thornz, Life of Agony, and Quicksand as to the shape of their sound. The new album, False Realties, will be released soon, and also serve as sort of rebirth for Surprise Attack Records, an Erie, PA-based label owned by EMS.
In this No Echo exclusive, we're bringing you the premiere of the Trevor Vogt-directed music video for "The Pact," a track from the forthcoming Human Animal album:
EMS told No Echo the following about the song and its lyrics: “'The Pact' is definitely the shortest, fastest, most straight forward tried and true hardcore track on the album. It was super fun to write and I love a good chance to have some 'wooooahhh' sing-a-longs. That’s some of my favorite shit.
“I grew up quiet, passive, and a lot of times alone. It drove me nuts to sit idly by and to witness the verbal or physical bullshit that people would dump onto others. Years back, a friend and I made a pact to never take shit from anyone. Whenever it is tested, I always have our pact in the back of my mind. It somehow empowers me to stand tall in times of need. Take care of yourself and your neighbors.“
No Echo got the skinny on the video shoot for "The Pact" from EMS: “We threw a party complete with beer, wine, pop, veggie trays, pizzas etc. for all our friends. There were actually 4 generations of Erie hardcore, punks, and metalheads present, and dating all the way back to the late '80s til now. Included, were kids of some of our friends who are now into the DIY scene. We weren’t sure how a live video would go over but man it was even more bonkers than we expected. Everyone went off and it was a complete blast.
"At one point, I fell into the drums and broke some of Bob’s stuff and I split a homie’s face open during the sing along. Of course, it was a cold snowy Erie night and the floor got a little slippery. It felt very cathartic to record the video there as that was the very same room we had been writing and practicing in for the past 8 years including many, many nights working on this LP.”
Lastly, EMS talked a bit about the Human Animal album: "One thing I was excited to do with False Realities was write up little blurbs for each song and include them in the liner notes. That is something I had always wanted to do in a band. I had a handful of old records with little paragraphs about each song and it always made me connect to them that much more. We ran into some special issue’s layout wise since I’m a wordy dude and wound up having to do a double sized lyric insert in the LP and an additional 8-page booklet in the CD digipacks. But all in all, I think it will be worth it and it was important to me to wear my heart on my sleeves with this stuff.
"It’s personally the proudest I have ever been of something I’ve been involved with. It took a lot of effort and time to make all of this happen and we’re really excited with how it all came together."
False Realities was recorded in drummer Bobby William’s home studio, Under the Radar, at the end of 2019 and produced by the band. The record was mixed by Andy Nelson at Bricktop Recording in Chicago, IL, and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege in Portland, OR.
You can pre-order the album on both physical and digital starting today.
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