Following the release of his debut album, New Zealander Voodoo Bloo shares a single version of his track ‘Her Name Was Human’.
The Sheffield-born, now Wellington, New Zealand-based rock artist combines influences of acts such as Arctic Monkeys, System of a Down, Car Seat Headrest and Neutral Milk Hotel brings a great blend of emotional and conceptual songwriting with a very catchy and frequently danceable distorted mess.
The high-octane single is a fiery ball of big riffs, juicy drum beats and snappy vocals with deep meaning leave you in awe. After the two-minute 30 mark ‘Her Name Was Human’ breaks out into an instrumental solo masterpiece.
On ‘Her Name Was Human’ Rory McDonald says: “The track has a lot to do with broken relationships, and the idea of Stockholm syndrome which I felt that some of my close mates were experiencing to some degree at the time of writing the lyrics.
“You know something’s bad for you, but you keep going back for more, in hopes something better comes of it.”
Following themes of his debut album JACOBUS, the record revolves around how his friends are struggling with mental health and what he can do to bring comfort. Voodoo Bloo’s music has always been conceptual and very personal with ‘Her Name Was Human’ sounding and feeling no different.
Rory added: “Last July, a close friend of mine for many years, took his own life while I was away overseas.
“This was obviously a massive shock to myself and the people around me, but being isolated from my friends while in a different country led me to writing a lot of lyrics during one of the strangest and scariest points in my life.
“The writing of JACOBUS was a very cathartic process at a time when I didn’t have many people around me to talk to.”
New Zealand currently has one of the highest teen suicide rates in the world and recently the band played multiple charity shows for Lifeline Aotearoa (an organisation focused on suicide prevention and mental health treatment).
