"With this record, we wanted to take a bit of a chance, do things we haven't done before. Break the Human Nature mould" - Andrew Tierney
In a business where success can be measured in minutes, and a career can be getting to make a second album, Human Nature are a revelation. It's 15 years since the group was formed - four high school buddies, in it for the long haul, with one simple aim - to take their music to the world. And, over four multiplatinum chart-topping albums, that's exactly what they've done.
Andrew, Mike, Toby and Phil have also managed to "walk the tightrope" - churning out the pop hits while also winning respect for their awesome vocal abilities and songwriting prowess.
Fourteen Top 40 hits, international tours, no lineup changes, and a swag of entertainment awards. And plenty more to come!
Welcome to Human Nature's fifth album - Walk The Tightrope, which finds the group in career-best form - pulsating soulful dance tracks, some of the best ballads of their career, a surprising cover of ‘To Be With You’, the number one smash from 1992, and their stunning first single, ‘When You Say You Love Me’ (written by Darren Hayes). And the group dubbed "the Bee Gees for the new millennium" get to fulfill a dream - recording a previously unreleased Bee Gees song, Love Is Blind, given to them by Barry Gibb.
Walk The Tightrope is, put simply, an album of great pop songs. "The Bee Gees were, without a doubt, the major inspiration for this record," Andrew explains. "We looked at them, and above their image and what they wore, the thing that kept them current was the fact they consistently came up with incredible songs. Great songs sustain a career. So with this record, we just wanted great songs."
The title-track could be the biggest hit of the group's career (and that's saying something - they've already had five Top 10 hits). A throbbing dance track, it's instant and infectious. As Andrew said, laughing and exhausted at the end of one Human Nature show: "If I die, I die dancing." But he adds that "we haven't lost the lover inside of us". Walk The Tightrope features some beautiful ballads.
There's no doubt that Human Nature are true pop survivors. Not many of their '90s contemporaries are still around.
Andrew, Mike, Toby and Phil have come a long way since Monday, November 27, 1989, when they did their first gig, at the Bankstown Town Hall, representing their school, Hurlstone Agricultural High, at the "schools spectacular". The guys performed Earth Angel, a song that still regularly pops up in the Human Nature live set. "I don't think we were very good," Toby laughs. "We were very stiff and very nervous and I don't think there were any screams. But the seed was planted."
Since then, the group has done three sell-out Australian tours, stadium shows in Europe and Asia, Grand Finals, Awards shows, and of course in 2000, the Sydney Olympics opening ceremony.
What dreams could be left?
"We've got a lot of dreams left," Andrew smiles, showing the same determined look he had when the band released its debut album, Telling Everybody, way back in 1996. "With pop music always changing, with every release it's like we've got something to prove. I like that. "And, you know what, it still feels fresh. It doesn't feel like we've been together for 15 years. There's so much more we want to do."
Walk The Tightrope is the start of another journey. "We're really proud of this record," Mike says. "There's a real part of us in every song. And it shows all the elements that make up Human Nature."
A mix of blue-eyed soul and dance beats from a band that's always enjoyed walking the tightrope ...
This Biography comes courtesy of the Official Human Nature Website until an original can be written.