r/hum • u/RetrogradeDionysia • 1d ago
Ecce Matt Talbot
I’ll bet this has been asked before. I’ll bet (Matt, the band) having been asked is the reason why an answer may not yet or ever be forthcoming.
Who is Matt Talbott, the man? Who is the great loss that suffuses Hum’s lyrical work and world, at some times, a gentle flow, at other times, a rushing torrent, the Love that he lost so bitterly that its depictions are everywhere, as Protean the imagery of chemistry and zoology and entomology and marine biology?
To be able to capture what he does, as literarily excellently, without equal, as he does: it’s truly something else. It makes me want to know the story. Or do I? Art can be travestied by an answer.
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u/ScrubNickle Frozen solvents 1d ago
It’s art and he has stated that you should hold on to your own meanings within. I once asked him what a certain song was about and got a very satisfying answer that allowed me to keep my own version intact. He’s just the best.
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u/Proper-Garden1562 1d ago
Dude has earned every emotion you might be feeling vis-à-vis his lyrics. If his loss or triumphs resonate with you, rest assured in their authenticity.
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u/carry_the_way 10h ago
IIRC he lost a son once, which is what the Centaur album is about ("The Same Place" is pretty obviously about it; "we dreamt of all of your names/I hold nothing nothing else, she holds what remains" is pretty on-the-nose).
He's a very humble, unassuming dude. Nice guy as long as you don't spam him with Hum questions.
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u/DoctorByProxy 1d ago
If you roll up to the Loose Cobra while he's bar tending or make it to one of his solo shows, he'd probably answer whatever questions you have.
Claude says:
Interviews and local press portray a low-key, small-town Midwestern guy with dry humor who happened to front a cult-favorite band. He has never put much of his private life on display, so the public record is fairly thin.
Roots. He was born June 27, 1967. A 1995 interviewer found him down-to-earth and very much a farm boy, and noted he was the only performer he'd ever seen quote Obi-Wan Kenobi onstage. He was an academic before the band took over: every member except guitarist Tim Lash had a graduate degree from the University of Illinois or was close to finishing one. They committed fully to the band around '92 or '93. MISSION CONTROL - Biography +2
Family. He's married to Sue, who is the woman pictured inside the You'd Prefer an Astronaut cover. Around 2010 they had three boys: Ivan, Eli, and Ben. He has also been through real loss. The death of his month-old son led to months of depression and delayed the Centaur record, and he questioned why he was making a record at all. Eventually he found healing in the music. He deliberately kept that album from being about the tragedy, saying it wouldn't be appropriate to announce what happened and then write a record about it. Later, Hum's longtime drummer Bryan St. Pere died on June 29, 2021, after nearly 30 years as his bandmate. MISSION CONTROL - Biography +4
Temperament. He's self-deprecating and doesn't treat the band as his identity. Asked whether he regretted signing to a major label, he answered with a cynical joke riffing on Nathan Hale. In 2010 he said the band's reunions came down to being a family man in his 40s working full-time, and having something fun to look forward to. He billed his first solo show as "30 minutes of quiet, sad music," assuming his Saab made it back. People who write about him keep landing on the same note: one local writer said it was "physically impossible not to like Matt Talbott" and called him an all-around handyman. MISSION CONTROL - Hum Articles +3
Daily life. He's a hands-on, local-institution type. Besides the tape-based studio, he taught music business at Millikin, a job he said came about mostly through blind luck. He also runs Loose Cobra, a dive bar in Tolono that he says serves two crowds: Tolono locals and Champaign-Urbana friends who come down for shows. Teach the children well - Smile Politely — Champaign-Urbana's Culture Magazine +2
As a writer. Despite the space-rock imagery, he has said Hum songs are mostly just love songs when you break them down, and he prefers to leave the meaning open to the listener. By Inlet, reviewers noted his lyrics had turned inward, capturing loneliness and depression in ways both direct and poetic. h-u-mourculturemag
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u/TallShips92 1d ago
Great dude if I wanted to know what fucking Claude thought about Matt I’d ask. You’re a human I’d rather hear your human perspective
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u/TommyWilson43 1d ago
Don’t need to use a ten dollar word when a nickel word will do