Human Drama has released their latest single titled ‘Dying In A Moment Of Splendor‘ from the upcoming album ‘Ten Small Fractures‘ dropping July 28th. The song is a solemn confessional set to a beautiful piece of music that, while giving the lyrics an almost dreamlike state, also set the tone in a beautifully lucid fashion.
You can’t deny that Johnny Indovina is an absolute legend in the annals of music, but you also have to acknowledge his vast contributions to songwriting. He is an artist that ‘gets it’. He is an artist that creates from the heart, and that heart is firmly on his sleeve. We learn as much as we love when we hear the music and listen to the lyrics. Good music happens when that music makes us better people. When we learn from what we listen. And love what we learn.
Listen to ‘Dying In A Moment Of Splendor’ in a dark room, with no distractions’ The world will shrink around you while you retain it’s vastness. And, for a moment, you will realize that moment, for you, is the song itself.
Check out our other features with Human Drama HERE.
About Human Drama
Human Drama grew out of the new wave/rock band The Models, which formed in New Orleans in 1980, and included Indovina, guitarist Michael Ciravolo, bassist Steve Fuxan, and drummer Charlie Bouis. The band relocated to Los Angeles in 1985, added keyboardist Mark Balderas, changed their name to Human Drama, and soon became an integral part of the legendary “Scream Scene” – a handful of bands including Jane’s Addiction and Guns ‘n Roses that regularly performed at the infamous downtown Scream club.
Human Drama signed to RCA Records and released their debut EP, Hopes, Prayers, Dreams, Heart, Soul, Mind, Love, Life, Death, followed by Feel in 1989, both produced by Ian Broudie (Echo and the Bunnymen, The Fall, The Lightning Seeds). Feel is an edgy, viscerally emotional collection of alternative rock with strong melodic hooks, deeply introspective lyrics, sweltering guitar and vocals ranging from tortured whispers to throat-shredding howls.
Unfortunately, Feel was a victim of label mishandling and did not approach its commercial potential. Tracks like “Death of An Angel”, “I Could Be a Killer”, and “Heaven on Earth”, could have been major hits on alternative radio, but the album went largely unnoticed. Undeterred by their disappointing experience with a major label, Human Drama chose the independent route for their next album, and despite working with a fraction of the budget, the result was their masterpiece, 1992’s The World Inside.
Human Drama set aside the searing rock of Feel for a more acoustic-based sound made magical by dazzling strings and Indovina’s powerfully resonant voice. Brilliant from start to finish, standouts include the single “Fascination and Fear,” the melodic folk-rock gem “Tears”, and the propulsive rocker “Look into a Stranger’s Eyes”. The album was showered with critical acclaim, and although commercial success remained elusive, Indovina and Human Drama had found their path for success.
The 1993 covers album Pin Ups, an homage to David Bowie’s 1973 classic of the same name, has Indovina taking on songs by Bowie as well as Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, The Rolling Stones, and Tom Waits, and features a breathtaking reimagining of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart”. A year later the band released the Human Drama EP including the newly arranged version of their epic “The Waiting Hour” utilizing only piano, strings and flute. In 1995 Human Drama unveiled Songs of Betrayal, a 25 track master class in songwriting with tense and raucous electric guitar-driven tracks like “Another Fifty Miles” and “It Is Fear”, and piercingly beautiful ballads like “Blue” and “This Forgotten Love”. The album was reissued four years later as two separate discs with the addition of several bonus tracks.
Human Drama’s blistering 1996 live album Fourteen Thousand Three Hundred Eighty Four Days Later, which refers to the exact number of days Indovina had been alive up until the date of the recording, then captured the full power of the band’s electrifying live performances. Particular highlights are a white-hot rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Who by Fire”, and a fervid take on their own early gem “Wave of Darkness”.
Another studio album followed, 1999’s Solemn Sun Setting, a deep, diverse collection, ranging from the exquisite ballads “Single White Rose” and “Love’s Way”, to the expansive and dramatic “March On”, to the deliciously eerie psychedelia of “My Denial”. Human Drama’s intended farewell album arrived in 2002 with Cause and Effect, where they set the strings aside and came out with guitars blazing on feverish rockers like “Goodbye Sweetheart” and “I Am Not Here”. However, Indovina did not abandon his gift for stunning balladry, and “Lonely”, swirling with sumptuous piano, is one of the finest of his career.
Human Drama then disbanded, and Indovina pursued a side project, Sound of the Blue Heart, with whom he released two albums: Beauty?… and Wind of Change. Indovina finally released his first solo album in 2014, Trials of the Writer, an intimate and deeply personal look at the intense emotional connection between the songwriter and the soul-bearing compositions that document his life with honesty, poignancy, and sometimes heartbreak.
But Human Drama’s fanatical following would not let their band die. Their relentless encouragement brought the band back together for two triumphant performances. The first was in August 2012 at El Plaza Condesa in Mexico City, and then again three years later, when the band marked their 30th anniversary by delivering a marathon performance on Halloween night at the Circo Volador in Mexico City. Forty two songs were played that night, concluding with the first new Human Drama track in 13 years, “The Liar Inside”.
The fans enthusiasm and the successful recording of “The Liar Inside” led Indovina into an intensive period of songwriting, which resulted in Broken Songs for Broken People, their 2017 release which delivers the essence of Human Drama – songs of both delicate beauty and aching pain.
An important moment in Johnny’s career was then captured in the 2020 documentary film Seven Days in Mexico. The film follows Johnny’s journey into rediscovering his musical purpose after years of feeling his creatively slowly drained by the music industry. A special bonus disc containing music from the film will be packaged along with Blurred Images to complete the two CD set.
SOURCE: Official Bio
LINKS:
https://orcd.co/HumanDramaTenSmallFractures
https://orcd.co/HumanDramaDIAMOS
https://www.humandrama.net
https://humandrama.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/johnny.indovina.7
https://twitter.com/JohnnyIndovina
https://instagram.com/johnnyindovina
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZF4F-IRFJXU5GJeQDfr4cg/featured
http://sevendaysinmexico.com/
