For those who attended SXSW this year, you’ve probably heard of the band Howard. And those who didn’t may have spotted them listed on our editor’s festival picks. The Brooklyn-based band have displayed a unique take on folk music with a cheeky, electronic twist. With the release of their debut album Religion and reaping all kinds of success from their single “Money Can’t Buy”, it’s only up from here. Frontman Howard Feibusch spoke to us about his ideal future music collaborations, The Beatles and what he has learnt so far in the band.
So you recently performed at SXSW. How does that experience compare to your live shows that you’ve done so far?
I mean generally when you do a show in a city, you kinda load in and do a soundcheck and play a gig. We were there a couple of days before and it was just a complete mayhem. It’s kinda hard to navigate in the sea of people when you have gear to load in when it’s pouring rain but we propelled and the show was really magical.
So how did the sound of the band develop?
You know, it sort of started in the studio first and you have no limits when it comes to sound and the amount of tracks that you can use or how you wanna develop that sound. I think most bands sort of have their sound come from a live setting. This was started as a recording project and it was a challenge itself to re-create this.
I was listening to the track Religion and it sort of has this Radiohead and Bon Iver type of vibe. Were those artists in particular influenced the sound of Howard?
Definitely Radiohead. I’m familiar with Bon Iver but I wouldn’t say he’s one of my bigger influences but I think we both pull from the same pool so I’m not surprised that you would hear that as a reference.
What was the story behind the title?
Well, after the songs were done, I was thinking a lot about most of those songs and when I looked at the lyrics – it sort of came about in isolation that I felt growing up as an Orthodox-Jew, entering the world as a musician and an artist and sort of being stuck in the middle of that dichotomy. There was already a track that I’d written called “Religion” and it seemed appropriate to call the album that.
What was the recording process like for that album?
It was really just me working on fifty things at once and these were the ten that compelled me and I sort of shaped them over a period of time. It wasn’t until when we entered the studio, we tracked each song as a band. It was really just minoring, minoring and minoring and erasing, erasing and erasing so it contributed to the final result.
What challenges did you come across while recording the album?
I mean there were significant challenges. First off, we did not do it in a big recording studio, I did it all on my own. There were a lot of limitations of money and gear that we could use and I’m a big believer that limitation is conserved to enhance creativity and I tried to look at the positives within that. I was really excited to see a lot of the results come out of those limitations but there were definitely certain challenges. You sort of have a concept in mind of how you want things to sound and sometimes without a proper studio or equipment, you can’t really achieve that and it’s about accepting those limitations and just kind of using them to your advantage.
It’s obvious that you’re no stranger to the world of music as you were previously in another band called Orange Television. What has been your biggest learning curve so far in your journey with Howard?
I’m someone that is constantly looking to improve and move on and move forward. Every couple of months or every year, there’s a lot of new hurdles and new ideas that I need to confront; whether it’s on the creative side or the business side of things. I think creatively a big challenge with this project is how to translate the songs from a studio to a live setting. From a business standpoint, it is still a tricky feel to navigate on how this music is handled to most people.
Folktronica is a relatively new genre. How did you combine the two genres of Folk and Electronic music? Was it always your intention?
I wouldn’t say it was premeditated but you know, this album was just an amalgam of ideas and influences that I was listening to at the time; you know, just really feeling at home with an acoustic guitar while feeling like a kid in a candy store with production techniques and ideas that I was learning. A lot of those were stemming from an electronic direction so I think these were folk songs that were arranged with an electronic mindset because that’s kind of what I was learning from.
So being in a small band at the moment, how has social media been in terms of promoting your music?
It’s been alright. We’re not social media experts that’s for sure but it’s sort of a necessary evil and it’s a tool let your fans know what you’re up to and what you’re doing and to get people excited.
You’re very active on social media. Some bands don’t really like to use things like Spotify to promote their music. What’s your opinion on that?
Unless you’re Jay-Z, you don’t really have the foothold of how music is being marketed. It’d be really nice to have that level of success where you can determine how your music is being heard but as a young, emerging artist you just have to think about any way you can get yourself out there and if people are listening to Spotify then it motivates you to put your stuff out there.
I was listening to “Money Can’t Buy” and that’s your most played single on Spotify and it’s reached over a million plays. How do you feel about that?
I mean, it’s an amazing feeling – I wasn’t expecting that at all. I knew the song was good and I knew it was accessible and I thought it would be a little bit slower in terms of reception. I mean, I’ll take a lot of plays over little plays any day.
I think it’s pretty cool that Rob Thomas (of Matchbox Twenty) managed to come across your music as well. How did you feel when you found this out?
It was definitely cool. I mean, he’s the ultimate paradigm for this and it’s kind of funny in a way. He’s a name and he’s got a lot of followers and I’m glad he got it out there.
So your music is well-suited for a movie soundtrack. If this were to happen one day, how would you react?
I’d be excited. I’m not opposed to having my music in commercials or ads as long as they’re not promoting things I don’t agree with; I’m not above that, like I said. If I was on the same level as Radiohead or Jay-Z or Björk, I might feel a little bit more picky on where my music would end up but I would allow the movies to put me in the position where I would have a choice one day.
So I’m guessing your dream collaboration would be with Radiohead right?
It’d be one of them for sure. There’s plenty of people I would love to collaborate with. I would look to collaborate with Gordon Hempton. I also think Beck and Philip Glass would be a cool collaboration – there’s a lot I have to learn from many different artists.
So seeing as you’re a Radiohead fan, what’s your favourite album by them?
It’s funny because it was recently Radiohead week on Stereogum and they had a lot of people talking about the same thing. They all sort of feel like old friends to me but I guess I would have to say Kid Aor In Rainbows.
Kid A is one of my favourite albums too. When I first came across it, I was really impressed by its sound dynamics and experimentation. In terms of experimentation, how do you approach that as an artist?
I think it’s really about letting yourself and your creative self go and not being afraid of being wrong or failing. When you sort of let yourself open up to the possibility of failing, it’s a lot harder than it sounds; it’s really just about letting go of all the constraints that can hold your music down. So for me, it was just about not giving any weight and just doing your best to feel like a kid with toys, you know. I mean, that’s really all it is – it’s just music. It’s not life or death or foreign policy.
So what has challenged you most about working in the music industry?
I think that the way people become successful is such an enigma and you know, there’s just so many strokes of luck that define who’s successful based on a) on the level of art and b) the level of reception from the rest of the world and c) the level of reception from the industry; but if I figured it out, I’d probably be a lot richer.
Well, I feel like Howard are growing in terms of reception. When I gave Religion a try, I found it a really diverse album and it’s obvious that you guys have many musical influences coming from that. When it comes to music, do you think diversity is an important part in making an album?
It depends. I mean there’s something to be said or really contained to a specific work of art; but I’ve always personally been affected by the influence of bands that had diversity while maintaining their own sound definitively. So like, The Beatles could play any kind of genre they wanted and still sort of sound like The Beatles and that’s always been a point of interest for me and that’s something I’d strive for in my own art. I think diversity is important but I also do believe that you need to make a specific statement and it should all sound like the same band.
So what do you believe are important qualities to have as a musician and why?
I think you need to have resilience, you know – it’s one of the hardest fields to kind of keep doing and you just have to be okay with connecting yourself and that can be harder than it seems. Also being honest with yourself because that’s really creating the best art; it’s not being a skilled technician so once you’re good enough to play, that’s all you really need to be a songwriter. It’s about being aware of portraying music in an honest and clear way and that takes a lot of soul-searching; it takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of patience but those I think are all the virtues great musicians have.
—–
Religion is available now on iTunes and Spotify!
———-
