Lambertville’s Own: Human Adult Band

T Penn of Human Adult Band

by David Vanadia

a coffee cup with a heart on it

It’s not noise, but it’s noisy. There’s a lot of drone and a lot of dissonance. Sometimes it’s meditative, sometimes it’s chaos.

Listen to the music of Human Adult Band and you’ll be reminded that your future is larger than your past, and only accessible through the present.

Human Adult Band is not another cover song act. Human Adult Band is driving in the car late at night and you come across music on the radio that takes you into a trance. It’s Frank Zappa meets Dead Kennedys meets Daniel Johnston meets take-you-out-of-this-world noise and unexpected soundscape.

It’s music you haven’t heard before, because you haven’t tuned to the end of the dial, wandered on the other side of town, or walked far off the beaten path.

The Past

In 1993, a young T Penn formed a punk band with his middle school friends. When it came time to divide up the musical roles, T ended up on bass (now his main instrument). A decade later, T was living in New Brunswick, NJ where he formed another punk band. When the drummer moved away, T wanted to do something looser and more open so that musicians could sit in and jam.

The songs he wrote had structures, but there was a lot of room for creative improvisation. It was punk inspired by jazz in a way, with songs that allowed for personal expression so that different players could add their own musical flair.

While T Penn is the single driving member of Human Adult Band, King Darves has also been in the band for two decades. The rest of the band is made up of a rotating cast of players that changes every few years.

Human Adult Band created their first CDR (recordable Compact Disc) in 2005. Today they put out CDRs, tapes, and vinyl LP records, averaging about 3 to 4 releases per year on micro labels, and sometimes on slightly larger indie labels.

artwork from some Human Adult Band releases

The Present

It’s been 20 years since their first record release, and Human Adult Band is still very prolific. T cites a “need to constantly be creative” as the fuel that drives him to make and release music. He also has, “somewhat of a message.”

“People have warped visions of what success is, because they figure, like, you've to be a star to be a musician,” he explained.

“I’m very content entertaining my community, and maybe some communities I can drive to. That's relative success, right? As opposed to what you might believe what you hear on TV—that you’ve got to be a pop star or something. There’s so many things working against you, and life isn't always like that.”

T doesn’t care about the “television definition of success,” and said he didn’t think that would be healthy for him, even if he was able to achieve that.

“It’s perception, what you enjoy. A neighborhood coffeeshop serves X amount of people a day versus Starbucks, which serves thousands or millions a day. So what’s success? Someone who owns a small coffee shop and supports their family? That's successful, right? Starbucks? I don't know. It’s like a whole different world, right?

“A musician can be the same way, because you can entertain 30 to 40 people in the back of a coffee shop, have a blast, and be successful. You know—have fun making the music and the releases, make a little bit of money at it, you know? Or you can try to aim for the stars, but not many people make it, and that’s kinda like a killjoy in that way.”

T is a local musician with a global reach. Human Adult Band has performed in New Brunswick, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Worcester, Providence, New York City, as well as Florida, out west, and in Europe. Human Adult Band releases have shown up as far away as Finland, New Zealand, Greece, and South America.

Recently, T discovered that there’s an audience for the music he’s making right here in Lambertville, so he started to play local shows where he previously didn't play in town at all. As part of the Lambertville music scene, T has flyered for bands, begun collaborating, and added local music to his annual compilation.

“Sharing the joy of what you're into, those things are all important,” T said while citing Hal McGee. McGee is a Florida noise artist credited with saying the pillars of DIY music are collaboration, compilation, community, and correspondence.

While T enjoys being part of a network, he recently worked on a project that uses old-fashioned networking—in that it doesn’t exist on the computers at all.

”It's a completely analog recording, and I sent the raw tape material to the label. They compiled it and it’s never been on the computer, so it’s a fun project. It’s kind of conceptual to think about how it’s not online, and not compromised at all by being online. Like, it’s an analog thing that someone hands you the tape. That’s how it exists—almost like it’s in another realm—because you cannot access it online. It’s almost an alternate form of communication by not being online. And that kinda thrills me.”

The Future

If you see T walking around town, he often has a bag or a box with him that contains tapes, CDs, and zines. If you’re interested, stop him and he will sell you one! If you prefer digital downloads, check out the following links:

There are at least four other projects to be released this year. To keep up with Human Adult Band music and show information, visit d.i.h.d. records.

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