Win or lose, The Howlers have made a debut album to be proud of
Rarely is an album title quite so on the nose as The Howlers’ forthcoming debut: What You’ve Got to Lose to Win It All.
The Portsmouth/london band have been through the wringer in more ways than one in recent years.
It looked like things were going well for the trio with their self-described brand of ‘desert-rock’ – their singles were getting national airplay, and they were getting in front of the right people. But then frontman Adam Young had two family members die during the pandemic and he also had two strokes which forced everything to come to a halt. On top of that, original drummer Cam Black left the band and for a while it looked like it could be over.
But now Young, along with bass player Guus
Ter Braak, and new(ish) drummer Tom Triggs, they are about to release the LP.
“It was a bit of a weird one at the time,” recalls Young. “We did that debut EP and the tour (in 2021), and it was all going really well, but then it was like there was a bit of a line drawn under the band in terms of whether we even knew if we'd carry on.
“Then 2022 was spent trying to get back on our feet, and 2023 was a continuation of that.
“So here we are, two and a bit years later, having somewhat rescued what could have been the end the band.”
When Triggs was invited to join the band he had to learn 14 songs in four weeks for the tour they already had lined up.
"We actually say now that the band wouldn't be where it is today without Tom, because he's completely changed everything for the better in terms of our dynamic, how we enjoy the band, the music, and stuff like that. He's an incredible musician.”
He also gives a lot of credit to the Brighton band Black Honey for keeping the band together. Young admits that the songs he’d written nearly became a solo project, but the guys from Black Honey encouraged him to work on it as a band.
“They basically banded around me, and said ‘no, we're not going to let this this band fail’, so we're going to buy you some time, and we're going to record this EP (2023’s Further Down
The Line) all together. At that point, Guus had come back into the frame – he just needed a bit of time. We all needed a bit of space.”
From there they pushed on with the album, again with Black Honey producing.
“The album sounds great, it's definitely a development of what the Further... EP was. There's 15 tracks in total. We actually recorded 17 tracks in about eight days, which was pretty psychotic. It was pretty mad.”
The trio begin a busy 11-date instore and outstore tour tomorrow in Glasgow, finishing on home turf at Staggeringly Good Brewery in Portsmouth in conjunction with Pie and Vinyl on Friday, May 17.
As Adam says: “Who have we made this album for? As soon as you put that final vocal down, that final guitar down in the studio, it ceases being your album, it becomes the fans’ album, it becomes everybody else's album, so that's who we wanted it for.”
When it came to planning the tour’s route, Adam jokes: “We needed to end somewhere, and I really can't be bothered to drive back up to London, so let's end where I can go to my own bed that night!
“I’m really excited to be playing Portsmouth again, it’s been a while.”
For tickets go to pandvrecords.co.uk.