I HEAR IT’S HOWL
Words: Rachel Short
Fresh out of High School, new-craze-garage-punk band, Howl, have had quite a lot thrust onto their adolescent plates. Post winning Triple J’s Unearthed High last year, the band have been non-stop, playing gigs all over the country, including spots at festivals and a mess of their own shows. Having just released their debut EP and finished their most recent single-launch, they let public their first video clip on MySpace this morning, and are about to embark on a nation-wide tour with Yacht Club DJs. Spook spoke to Guitarist/Vocalist Michael Belsar about Howl’s adventures thus far.
Since their last house party gig – run by their label, I Oh You, and also where their video was shot – the anticipation surrounding the release of the clip has been big. “This guy that works in the same office as the people who manage us had this idea and he also had a camera, and we didn’t have any money so we were just like, yeah, fuck yeah do it. And it cost us like $21 and we basically just put a camera on the roof for 20 hours and he just changed the tape every now and then that’s literally it, that’s the whole clip.” Belsar explains frankly. Despite the span of filming verses the lack of editing, the video goes for fewer than three minutes. Yet it still maintains a tattered quality that shows you don’t need to be a famed supergroup with money to make a good video.
When asked about their recent slew of single launch shows, Belsar speaks with zeal, “Yeah it was good, a lot of people, more than we expected, a few fights…” he laughs awkwardly. For a new young band like Howl, it is only expected that their audiences will be young and excitable themselves. As it turns out for Howl, this won’t always result in a happy ending. At one of their shows, a school friend was assaulted by security during their set. “It was our friend’s 18th that day… so he came out and the crowd was getting pretty crazy… everyone was kind of dancing around and flying over the barrier… a bouncer just grabbed him and another friend… by the hands so they couldn’t defend themselves and they just smashed one of our friend’s heads into the wall and he was just bleeding everywhere… So we just dropped our stuff and walked off stage in the middle of our set and we found our friend by following the trail of blood that led downstairs. So it was pretty fucked up. We fucking nutted out. I’ve never been so angry in my life.”
Aside from the one bad tour incident, Howl is about to embark on two new trips. One with Yacht Club DJs over March and April, and one, announced today, with the USA’s musical Ron Jeremy, singer, Har Mar Superstar. They also have a support slot with British India at their Melbourne Album Launch show at the Hi-Fi, which Belsar and the rest of Howl are pretty pleased about. “That’ll be a fucking good show, I’m actually pretty excited for that. We’d be more than happy to do the whole country with them. They’re all good guys.”
Howl’s EP has had a profusion of positive reviews, and retailing for the rate of almost one dollar per minute (the record duration is just under eight minutes), it is selling quite well since it’s release on the 19th of February. “Hopefully people get the EP and realise we’re not just that one single that was smashed on high rotation.” Belsar says with an air of ambition. Now that the EP is out, the boys will concentrate on playing shows and writing more music. Belsar speaks with positive ambiguity, “[We’re] …in the midst of writing a lot of music… We’ve got like 6 or 7 new demos. It could be for an album, it could be for another EP, I don’t know …It’s a lot different. It’s like garage club music.”
There are no more predictions of where Howl will head after their next travels. Though Belsar admits there will be more touring. “I’m actually pretty excited to see what the next tours are. But I’ve heard a few mentioned bands that we could be touring with and they’re all pretty fucking good, so I guess we’ll see.” There is also talk of the boys relocating from Ballarat to Melbourne eventually. “Probably next year, we’ll definitely be moving down to Melbourne. I think the best thing about Ballarat is there’s nothing to do here, so there are no distractions. You just kind of spend your days either watching Go, Frasier, or writing music.”
You can watch Howl’s new video clip for “Anyone but Us” at
http://www.myspace.com/thehowlmusic
Howl’s debut EP is available in stores now.
