The band talk us through Big Dumb Riffs and the twin influences of Parquet Courts and David Lynch soundtracks.

As their name might suggest, Peckham’s Human Resources offer a sceptical appraisal of modern-day mundanity, casting themselves as a business in knowingly oversimplified, Vincent Adultman terminology. They are also irresistibly fun, always prepared to set down their sardonic edge to go stretch their legs on the dancefloor and lean into the more elemental pleasures of being a band. They take us through their debut EP ‘Malperfect’, released today.

First up, where did Human Resources come from?

We started this band as just something to do on Thursdays – we didn’t have any songs for ages, we just played covers of Parquet Courts and songs from David Lynch movies. We began writing original material together when we realised you can actually just do whatever you want in a song, it doesn’t have to follow a certain pattern or structure. Suddenly, we started making music that we found unexpected and interesting. Packaging it all up with a sterile office image felt like the perfect juxtaposition to the unpredictable nature of our music.

Where does this EP come in the Human Resources story arc?

These songs represent what we’re going for conceptually; taking weird or oblique perspectives on things that are familiar, be that the absurd, unhinged poetry of Harry’s lyrics or the constantly surprising and shifting soundscapes and structures of the music. This EP represents a creative milestone and a statement of intent, a marker of what we’ve been doing in our little Peckham cubicle. It serves as the launchpad for our on-going trajectory towards business success.

Kinshasa Shuffle

To us, ‘Kinshasa Shuffle’ really cemented what makes HR different. Until this tune we’d kind of been aping a more down-the-line discordant post-punk sound, which we still love. But with Kinshasa Shuffle it felt like the time to make it more fun, with the danceable rhythm and the shout-along lyrics, and also doing more with melody. The conceptual narrative also opened up a playground for Harry to write increasingly absurd imagery – the lyrics continue to evolve in our live shows.

Ode to the Apostate

This song is probably the first one we ever finished as a band. It started life with the Angelo Badalamenti inspired intro, then we found it funny to imagine a Big Dumb Riff following that. The unexpected twists and turns in this song helped inform HR’s sound early on. It was also one of the first HR tunes to really benefit from the addition of the saxophone, with the lounging counter melodies fleshing out the jazz-infused feel of the verses.

Unverifiable Religious Experience Blues

This is all about the contrast between the jittery Gang of Four verses and the big choruses. The psych breakdown was the last piece of the puzzle, but is now probably our favourite part of the song (we layered about 30 tracks onto it in the studio – this is when we learnt Leo can play flute) and has kick-started an obsession with putting psych breakdowns in increasingly stupid places.

I Love Football

I Love Football is the odd one out musically on the EP, but in some ways it is the most HR song here. It’s the only one we wrote almost entirely together in the rehearsal space, and it came together in chronological order from us thrashing it out over and over, seeing how far we could push adding strange new pieces to the narrative, resulting in a tune that ramps up the insanity with each section.