Human Love – PRESHOW RITUALS

In this Preshow Rituals segment, the indie rock band, Human Love, reveals what they do before taking the stage. You can check out the story, after the break.

Our pre-show rituals have evolved over the years. When we first started out we figured you just throw your stuff up on stage and that was it. Eventually, we found some routine things that would make the shows a lot better.

Emile’s and my voice both used to always get blown out after one show. We’d have to wait a week until we could sing again. In retrospect, this should have gone without saying, but we discovered that not warming up was the problem. So now vocal warm-ups are a big one. Usually, we’ll do them walking around outside the venue. Sometimes I’ll hear Emile in the distance, doing some oohs and ahs in an alley down the street. This is what Emile has to say about that:

“Before shows, I have had the constant ritual of warming up while walking around aimlessly in the town that we’re performing. Usually, I’d find some alleyway or quiet street behind the venue and sing these goofy warm-up exercises. It is a bit embarrassing and very un-rock-n-roll feeling but it’s a necessary thing to do in order to not lose your voice on the road. Every once in awhile I’d pass someone on the street while making a bubbling sound with my lips vibrating and felt like a god damned fool. Nowadays whenever I’m walking around a city and see an alleyway or quiet street it feels like I’m on tour and I miss it. The feeling from a decade and a half of playing shows comes flooding back and I get nostalgic and my lips start vibrating.”

Mark has adopted a 3 pronged pre-show technique, made up of drinking, stretching, and smoking.

As a band, we do something called pre show jumping jacks. You do them in a circle, and chant “pre-show” jumping jacks in unison. Not only is it good for you, but as you can tell from the description it also looks really cool.

Keep up with the band on their website, Instagram and Twitter.