INTERVIEW: Howler

Early in the year we featured Minneapolis five-piece HOWLER who’ve been making waves with their hybrid of ‘60s surf and punk rock. Touted as a must-watch act for 2012, lead vocalist and guitarist Jordan Gatesmith called in from Rough Trade’s London office to chat with Alean Penaflor ahead of their Australian visit. A conversation about koalas, rabid fans, and drunken shows ensues.

PS: You’re heading down to Australia in July for Splendour and a couple of sideshows with Zulu Winter. Will this be your first trip here?

JG: It will. We’re very excited! You know, for a long time, I didn’t think Australia really existed. I thought it was just like some made up islands, made up of bits, but you know…I’m kidding. No, we’re really excited.

PS: Anything in particular you’d like to do during your visit?

JG: I want to find a bear. Like a tree bear and give it a good old hug.

PS: A koala?

JG: One of those! But I want to find one.

PS: Unfortunately that’s not going to be that easy -- we don’t just have koalas in our trees!

JG: Why not?! I thought that they were practically citizens there.

PS: Truthfully which crowd have you enjoyed the most at your shows, the US or the UK?

JG: It’s hard to say because we get some really, really good crowds in the US and we’ve had some really, really good crowds in the UK. The UK’s just stronger…so I don’t know, I like both.

PS: Surely there’s been some crazy fan encounters by now?

JG: Yes.

PS: Can you name a few?

JG: See the thing is, I can’t give you any crazy fan encounters because…the crazy fan encounters I’ve had, those fans will probably be reading this or listening to this at some point. And then they’ll come after me and try to kill me or something like that. I’m really terrified so, I can’t give you any crazy fan examples, because they’re listening.

PS: Your latest video for 'This One’s Different' just came out. What’s it about and more specifically, what’s with the blood?

JG: What’s it about, what does it look like it’s about? Nothing; we were just on the road. Do you seriously want the true story? This is the true story. On the road, our label’s like, ‘Hey, you should do a little promo video for us’ and we don’t really want to do anything. And they’re like, ‘Well, you have to do something’ and they hired someone. Then we’re like, ‘Okay, we’re bored’ so we decide to paint blood all over me and that was it! We just fucked around after that.

PS: There’s a very cheeky notion to Howler, as I can tell by this interview and taking your debut album title ‘America Give Up’ as an example also. Do you guys find yourselves purposely doing things out of irony?

JG: You just have to have fun with it. There’s a lot of press attention, there’s a lot of advice directed towards us, we don’t want to be too serious about it because if we’re too serious about it all, it’s not going to be fun. We try to goof around as much as possible with it.

PS: So HOWLER live by enjoying things and not taking shit too seriously?

JG: Sort of. There are some things we’ll take seriously, but we’ll never show you what that is.

PS: In a sentence, what can we expect from your live show?

JG: Depends on the night. There’s four shows you can get: you’ll get a really boring sober show, where we won’t do anything; or you’ll get a really exciting sober show where we’re really friendly and feeling healthy and stuff; or you’ll get the worst drunken show you’ve ever seen in your entire life, in which we’ll be fighting on stage and act really nastily; or you’ll get a really good drunken show which is always my favourite: we’ll all get really drunk and then have a really good time. It's kind of a coin toss.

HOWLER will be playing at the SOLD-OUT Splendour in the Grass 2012. Details for their sideshows with Zulu Winter are:

24 July, Corner Hotel, Melbourne

25 July, Oxford Art Factory, Sydney

Words by Alean Penaflor