Howls - Hammock

Stephen Fretwell – Vocals/Bass
Dan Carey – Guitar
Jay Sikora – Drums
Oli Bayston - Guitar

“When he writes lyrics it’s like he’s seen a family film and then spliced it with a video nasty,” says Howls guitarist Dan Carey of his bandmate Stephen Fretwell. “It’s filmic; beautiful, yet very dark.”
It’s an attribute permeated throughout Howls’ music, notably in their upcoming debut single ‘Hammock.’ Focusing on sinister imagery, unsettling rhythms and eerie melodies, Howls twist Southern Gothic characteristics into something distinctly informed by the band’s Manchester and London roots. Before Carey and Fretwell were first introduced by a mutual friend, a musical connection appeared unlikely. Carey, a producer, writer and remixer had turned his talents to
projects by artists as successful and diverse as Franz Ferdinand, Lily Allen, Kylie Minogue and Roisin Murphy. Fretwell, who had released two solo albums to critical acclaim, was looking for something new. “I thought I should get out of that mindset of being a musician and artist and get a job,” he says bluntly, the tone of his voice rejecting any need for sympathy or drama. “I wish I’d joined this band when I was sixteen. I learned a lot from my solo work, but I never had as much love for it as I do for this band.” The first incarnation of Howls was completed in the summer of 2009 with the addition of Fretwell’s old friend Jay Sikora, at the time part of Badly Drawn Boy’s live band, and was soon completed by Oli Bayston, previously frontman of Manchester band Keith. Howls immediately possessed an innate connection, perhaps subliminally born from so many unrealised links on the Manchester music scene, and their first musical explorations yielded surprisingly rich results. Working entirely independently gave the band freedom to express themselves without any outside pressure.

Simultaneously writing and recording in Carey’s studio informed the resulting sound. As Bayston states: “If you’re not thinking that you have to write a song and that this bit should be a verse, it provides an immediacy, yet it also makes it interesting to listen to again and again because it’s not just a verse-chorus-verse structure.” The Howls collective dynamic feels resolutely balanced. Fretwell is eager to emphasise that Howls is a band rather than his band; Sikora and Bayston focus on highlighting Carey’s production talents while also reiterating that in the context of Howls he’s a musician like anyone else; and everyone is fascinated by Fretwell’s uncanny ability to evolve a brief visual into a dark, compelling concept that can underpin an entire song. With just a handful of gigs to their name, one of which was a high profile Glastonbury debut, the Howls experience is like a secret worth cherishing before it slowly infiltrates the consciousness of a much wider audience. For now, though, ‘Hammock’ and the looser, garage rock style of the b-side ‘Thomas St.’ offer the vibrant energy of a talent undiscovered and quickly hurtling into brave new boundaries.

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