South London artist, producer and bassist Bad With Phones, the musical alias of Manny T Deroy, returns with “Human,” a high-energy new single that disguises a deeply personal story beneath its infectious, club-ready exterior.
On the surface, “Human” is built for movement. It is bold, playful and unapologetically energetic, carrying the kind of restless momentum that makes it easy to imagine filling a dancefloor. But underneath the rhythm sits something much more intimate. The song was written for Deroy’s son, who passed away just days after being born, turning what might initially sound like a carefree club record into something far more profound.
“I wrote Human for my son who passed away days after he was born,” Deroy explains. “The whole thing felt like an out of body experience.” Rather than allowing that experience to exist only as grief, he transforms it into a reflection on birth, death, resilience and the strange unpredictability of life.
For Deroy, “Human” is ultimately about accepting the way life unfolds while choosing to celebrate the fact that we are here. He describes the song as an anthem of liberation, extending beyond the obvious idea of freedom into the emotional freedom that can come from confronting difficult experiences and continuing to live fully.
That philosophy fits naturally within the wider world of Bad With Phones. Deroy has built a reputation as a self-proclaimed luddite and an artist suspicious of our increasingly phone-dependent existence. At one point, he went six months without carrying a phone, treating the experiment as a way of questioning why modern life has become so dependent on constant connection.
His answer has increasingly found its way into the music. Bad With Phones encourages listeners to step away from the endless scroll, reconnect with themselves and remember that there is a world beyond the screen.
Musically, however, there is little interest in staying still. A Deptford native raised by Togolese parents, Deroy grew up around gospel music through his preacher father and brothers who played in the church band. His own musical education expanded when he discovered their record collections, developing an appreciation for artists such as Wu-Tang Clan, The Notorious B.I.G. and TLC alongside the gospel foundations of his childhood.
That eclectic background has made Bad With Phones difficult to categorise. His music moves freely between alternative R&B, rap, post-punk, pop and more experimental territory, often balancing strange and familiar elements in ways that feel uniquely his own.
His 2024 album “CRASH” demonstrated that ability, pairing intimate songs with the aftermath and energy of nights out. Now, he is pushing that instinct even further with The man who eats metal meat EP, a five-track project that moves through spoken word, alt-pop and atmospheric experimentation.
The EP’s title character is an alter ego created by Deroy as an embodiment of resilience and determination. This version of himself travels through different worlds aboard spaceships, surrounded by other travellers and observing realities that sometimes allow them to blend in and sometimes demand something different.
“There’s not so much blending in,” he says of this version of reality.
“Human” feels like a fitting entry point into that world. It carries the energy of an artist refusing to be defined by a single genre or emotional state, turning one of life’s most painful experiences into something that can move, breathe and ultimately celebrate existence.
There is no attempt to disguise the sadness behind the song. Instead, Deroy allows grief and joy to occupy the same space. The result is a record that can function as a club anthem while carrying a message that reaches far beyond the dancefloor.
For Bad With Phones, being human means accepting the heartbreak alongside the happiness, acknowledging what has been lost while still choosing to embrace what remains. And with “Human,” he turns that philosophy into music: a celebration of life, a confrontation with loss and an invitation to feel free.
