Quite a lot, according to Human Noise guitarist-vocalist Eddie Boyd. That's why he decided the rebrand his Sydney indie-rock four-piece, after they were previously known as Boydos.

"It didn't feel like a band name, it felt like a solo artist name," Boyd says. "I wanted it to come across as more of band than a solo act. I didn't like that it was kind of my last name and it didn't feel imaginative. It felt rushed."

After forming in 2017 initially as Boyd's solo project, Boydos released their debut album It's Alright, Look At Me I'm Young in 2019. But by the time the album was released Boydos had already morphed into Human Noise and travelled to Lyttelton, New Zealand - the hometown of Marlon Williams and Aldous Harding.

At Lyttelton's The Sitting Rooms Studios, Human Noise laid down tracks with producer Ben Edwards, who Boyd knew from his time playing guitar for Blue Mountains indie-folk singer-songwriter Julia Jacklin on her stunning 2016 debut Don't Let The Kids Win.

Almost three years later those tracks will be released on Friday in Human Noise's new album Animal People.

"I actually feel really good about the songs, which is super different to the last record we did," Boyd says.

"The same thing happened last time, we released the songs a couple of years after we recorded them and by the time we released it I was off them. With this batch of songs I feel really good about them and more confident in their quality."

While Animal People was written by Boyd, the album is a far more cohesive band project than Boydos and the songs greatly benefit from Monty Richmond (guitar), Josh Spolc (bass) and Clayton Allen's (drums) increased involvement.

Boyd lists Lou Reed, Wilco, The Strokes and Radiohead among his main influences on the writing of Animal People, and you can certainly hear it.

How Is It You Do That carries a frantic post-punk energy, latest single One Time would delight fans of Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot period and Hard To Know meanders with that fragile intensity Reed was renown for.

Heartbreak and the subsequent negative thoughts are Animal People's main lyrical theme as Boyd eloquently sings "I went dark in a colourful shirt" on the opener Colourful Shirt.

"Because the songs weren't super specific to that relationship, but about feelings, I don't feel distant from those feelings," he says.

"Maybe you'd think I've moved so far on from that relationship so they don't mean as much, but because they deal with a wider range of topics, I still feel really close to them."

Human Noise's Animal People is out now. They begin their album tour at the Stag & Hunter Hotel on November 5 with support from Slow Cinema and BoysnLove.