Human Highway

Human Highway is the new collaboration from two of Canada’s most-loved troubadours: Jim Guthrie and Nick Thorburn. Both Guthrie and Thorburn have been long-time fixtures of Canadian pop music. Jim is best-known for his releases on Three Gut Records, both with Royal City and as a solo artist, whereas Thorburn first gained international exposure with the Unicorns in 2003, and now fronts the super-pop group Islands. Guthrie was also featured on the first Islands record, as well as in the group’s original live line-up.

Fittingly, Human Highway began on the road. “For me, Human Highway started in a hotel room on a U.S. tour with Islands,” Guthrie says. “Nick had this rad song called “My Beach” and asked me if I wanted to help him record it. He played and sang at the same time and let me be for a bit to do harmonies.”

But what started as harmonies on a simple pretty song soon blossomed into a full blown old-timey vocal romance. “Beautiful harmonies like the ones you’ll hear on this record can only be achieved when you look directly into the other person’s eyes as you sing. It also helps to slip into something ‘more comfortable’ and light candles.”

While folks can expect plenty of hot man-on-man vocal action, they can also expect a wide sampling of the kind of songwriting that has garnered both artists so many passionate fans over the years. “I think this album works because Nick and I both share a love for oldies” Guthrie says—citing the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison and the Kinks as a few touchstones for the Human Highway sound—“and we both really like the show ‘Scare Tactics’. It’s a new genre called ‘Golden Moldy Indie Oldies’. It’s AM radio rock for the babies of the future past.”

Plans for a video are in the works, and maybe, if we’re a lucky, a show or two in Canada. Says Guthrie, laughing, “Only for a 1 million dollars deposited directly into a Swiss bank account…unmarked bills…and a plane fueled and ready to fly us off to an island where your laws can’t touch us.”

[photo credit: Jamie Hogge]

Listen to 'The Sound' from Human Highway's upcoming record....

Pitchfork has a stream of one of the many lovely songs that pack Human Highway's Moody Motorcycle, which Secret City will be releasing this August. It's awesome. Once you've given a bazillion listens you can hit Human Highway on Myspace or Facebook, too. And keep watching all these spaces for more moody motorcycle music....

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