Howlers (The) - Heavy *Pre-Order

Tracklist:

"At the end of 2024, The Howlers had released their self released debut album ‘What You've Got To Lose To Win It All’ an album that represented the emotional toll of personal loss, Written and conceived by lead-vocalist / songwriter Adam Young as a means to express and share his own experiences, With the album arriving to significant critical acclaim across Europe, whilst seemingly being shunned by the UK, Young had pushed the band to achieving multiple Top 10 chart positions in the UK and resulting in a sold-out debut album tour, seeing the band undertake 18 dates and announce their debut European Headline tour for March 2025.

Outwardly at least the band was riding the high of independent success, However behind the scenes the band had fallen apart, The sole burden of releasing an independent album had been forced on youngs shoulders with his fellow band mates at the time actively refusing the calls by management to help carry the burdens of independence whilst all the while expecting equal share of the plaudits, this became evident when Young pushed to perform a handful of new songs on the tour, to which was met with great resistance, but ultimately became fan favourites during each sold out performance, The imbalance that had been forced on Young, lead to all the band members parting ways in November 2024 mere days after the completion of a sold out tour.

Young remembers ‘Following that meeting our manager, Agent and whole team sat me down and asked the question “What has actually changed, the band has always been you and always will be” and it rang true, For a long time I had been forced into a position by people I shared a stage with that had made me deeply unhappy allowing them to take credit for work they had no part, It was like a weight had been lifted and to see how every single member of my team stood with me, It was validating to say the least’

In the wake of the new year, Young set about working on the foundations of what would become the bands second album ‘Heavy’ a record that was once again shaped by his experiences, only this time the young songwriter was seemingly galvanised by his new found independence, and lack of desire to appease what was the band, quickly reshaping the band into a 2 piece, The Howlers recorded and released their Rebirth singles ‘Night Crawling’ and ‘You Can Be So Cruel’ ultimately choosing to release the former as their return, A song that saw Young's songwriting take on a new found confidence

Released just ahead of the band’s awaited European Tour, the single propelled the band across the continent seeing the tour sell out in 8 countries, and giving Young the opportunity to ‘Test the waters’ on a host of new material and re kindling his love for performing alongside the bands new drummer Toby Richards, with Young stating ‘Performing as a two piece in the way we rebuilt the band has changed my entire outlook on my career and given me back something that was taken from me’

Returning from Europe Young sat down with long time collaborator and producer, Black Honey's Chris Ostler to discuss how to approach the band's second album and between them it was decided that the band would do everything in its power to not step foot in a recording studio whilst Ostler challenged Young to be a better writer at every stage pushing what was possible, the pair also set about laying down the gauntlet for themselves to write, create and record a record that would exceed the band’s debut album but in a modern and robust way with Young citing ‘for the past few years i keep going back to a rehearsal we had where the head of a major label came down and listened to every song we had and after it he said this mad thing to me, that we weren't modern enough and that if we were wearing Pink jumpsuits right now he would of signed us, ultimately he was joking around but that term modern, kept haunting me’

Over the following Months Young and Ostler recorded a series of tracks using ‘Skype’ ‘Teams’ and a host of online meeting platforms sending each other recordings to mix and shape into what would become the album focusing on steering away from traditional recording methods and instrumentation and instead looking for every opportunity to do something that remained the band but was reflective of the journey Young had been on, Only finally entering both bands rehearsal spaces to allow Toby to record drums, resulting in the bands second album ‘Heavy’ an album excluding in confidence and identity, an enthusiastic and reinvigorated return for a band shaped around a songwriter that has seen so much hardship.