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humble bee
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humble bee
Genre: Indie, Pop
Region: Adelaide, SA
Members: carly, ben, neil, emily, oz, brendan and carly. yes, there are two carlys. together they play an assortment of instruments including guitar, bass, keys, drums, glockenspiel and tamborine. they also sing.
Sounds Like: Angie Hart, Angus and Julia Stone, Clare Bowditch
Influences: The Lucksmiths, sarah blasko, the national

Some people slave night and day to perfect their various talents. They emerge after a lifetime with but one masterpiece, leaving behind trails of smudged pencil marks and collapsed prototypes, all scented in incense and melted in candle wax. Some people, on the other hand, are effortlessly creative, scattering countless gems behind them as they quietly go on their merry way. Carly Whittaker is a card-carrying member of the latter group.

Sure, she may spend her days cataloguing books in a public library, and singing to small children about frogs and scarecrows. But in her spare time, she is unstoppable: blogger, zinester, photographer, collector, poet, singer. And somehow, she's able to do all this while spending hours and hours in bed.

Humble Bee is her band. It all started a long time ago now, putting songs together with her (now ex-)fiancé. Time moved on, and an almost-endless suite of song lyrics lay dormant in an unused blog. But life, as always, has a way of making cycles repeat. And so, in mid-2007, after a period of heartbreak, new songs emerged.

Perfect On Paper was the first of these new Humble Bee songs. She then e-mailed the words to friend and cheerleader Ben Revi, who threw a melody behind it and convinced her to sing, twice, in harmony. It seemed like a one-off, but after spending a few months backpacking around Europe, Revi returned home to find two more songs sitting in his inbox. Many of the songs that would follow were written while Whittaker was half-asleep; they were typed into her phone, then rediscovered upon waking the next day. Quietly, more melodies were crafted, and more bedrooms were turned into studios. Beer garden conversations led to offers of gigs. Humble Bee joined the now-defunct Popsicle collective, and started to find themselves in demand around their hometown of Adelaide, Australia. Gradually, Ms Whittaker spent so much time making music, she stopped spending so much time in bed.

Playing quite often around Adelaide (and once in Melbourne) has given them the absolute honour of playing with the likes of The Honeypies, The Keepsakes, The British Robots, The Hawks of Alba, and many more amazing Adelaide bands, and (how exciting) The Lucksmiths.

It’s all been pretty great.

The band's first full-length album, When I Should Be Sleeping, was released in June 2009. It is available for your listening pleasure right now at http://www.humblebee.com.au.

"I thought it was lovely. Sad though. Made me feel like throwing everything I own out onto the lawn. Maybe you could write some happy songs?"
Carly's Nanna

" Humble Bee - When I Should Be Sleeping
Happy
This album is so darn nice in it's own simple little way. I'm not sure why I enjoy it so much, but it's something between Carly's happy, sad but always endearing lyrics and delivery, Ben's nimble little little guitar arrangements and melodies and that general feeling of intimacy and warmth that is exuded across the album's 10 home recorded tracks. It's the kind of unassuming debut that few bands would dare to make, and it is all the more special for that."
purple prose - prosepurple.blogspot.com

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reviews

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flight risk
rating:  4/5
Absolutely gorgeous song! such a sweet and catchy melody and the boy/girl chorus is just what you want to hear. nice little muted bass sound on the r...




chinese whispers
rating:  5/5
awesome




chinese whispers
rating:  5/5
My favourite Humble Bee song. Definitely one worth listening to.




happy
rating:  5/5
This song is a very clever, well crafted indie pop song. It has many shades that contrast the overall feeling it leaves you with. The acoustic and el...
more reviews



This project is supported by the Australia Council, the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body, through its Music Board Section.