The Howlers' desert rock debut What You’ve Got to Lose to Win It All has its launch party at Staggeringly Good, Portsmouth

The Portsmouth/London band have been through the wringer in more ways than one in recent years.

It looked like things were going well for the trio – their singles were getting national airplay, and they were getting on front of the right people. But then frontman Adam Young had two family members die during the pandemic and he also had two strokes which forced everything to come to a halt. On top of that original drummer Cam Black left the band and for a while it looked like it could be over.​

But now Young, along with bass player Guus Ter Braak, and new(ish) drummer Tom Triggs are about to release the 15-song debut LP.

"It was a bit of a weird one at the time, recalls Young. “We did that debut EP and the tour (in 2021), and it was all going really well, but then it was like there was a bit of a line drawn under the band in terms of whether we even knew if we'd carry on with the band.

“Then 2022 was spent trying to get back on our feet, and 2023 was a continuation of that.

“So here we are, two and a bit years later, having somewhat rescued what could have been the end the band.”

And as Young reveals, Triggs had been their first choice when the band began.

“When we started the band, just prior to the pandemic, Tom was our original first choice of drummer. We knew him anyway on the scene that we were in in London and things, and he was in another band at the time. He basically said ‘jog on’ at the time, because we weren't very good!”

However, this time around, the stars aligned, and Triggs had to learn 14 songs in four weeks for the tour they had lined up.

"We actually say now that the band wouldn't be where it is today without Tom, because he's completely changed everything for the better in terms of our dynamic, how we enjoy the band, the music, and stuff like that. He's an incredible musician.”

He also gives a lot of credit to the Brighton band Black Honey for keeping the band together. Young admits that the songs he’d written nearly became a solo project, but the guys from Black Honey encouraged him to work on it as a band project.

"They basically banded around me, and said: ‘No, we're not going to let this this band fail’, so we're going to buy you some time, and we're going to record this EP (2023’s Further Down The Line) all together.

"At that point, Guus had come back into the frame – he just needed a bit of time. We’d all needed a bit of space.”

With his friendship and working relationship with Ter Braak back on track and Triggs now in the fold, there was work to be done – with the three musicians from Black Honey helping behind the scenes.

"We had one evening in (notorious Camden pub) the Hawley Arms where we all went out for a drink, got pretty smashed, and then ended up on a lockup for the next couple of days recording that EP, all six of us, on a shoestring budget of about 250 quid.”

From there they pushed on with the album, again with Black Honey producing.

"The album sounds great, it's definitely a development of what the Further... EP was.

There's 15 tracks in total. We actually recorded 17 tracks in about eight days, which was pretty psychotic. It was pretty mad.

“We didn't mean to do that. We went in with 14 tracks and a couple more appeared in the studio, and they were like, yeah, that's great as well. Two of them didn't make the cut, and one get binned completely!

"Chris, Tommy and Al, in Black Honey, they've really been behind us. They were just fully invested, fully involved. They've been really great with us, and particularly me as well, pushing us to be better, and pushing me to be a better songwriter.”

The trio have been on a busy 11-date instore and outstore tour which started last Friday in Glasgow, and finishes tonight on home turf at Staggeringly Good Brewery in Portsmouth in conjunction with Pie and Vinyl.

"It was one of the weird things. You only get to do a debut album once, so for better or for worse, we thought let's do an in-store thing. Whether there's stores that have sold five, or there's stores that have sold 100, it doesn't really matter.

“For us, it's part of that fan experience, that we wanted to go out there and meet the people that were willing to invest in us ahead of even hearing the album.

“Who have we made this album for? As soon as you put that final vocal down, that final guitar down in the studio, it ceases being your album, it becomes the fans’ album, it becomes everybody else's album, so that's who we wanted it for.”

When it came to planning the tour’s route, Adam jokes: “We needed to end somewhere, and I really can't be arsed to drive back up to London, so let's end where I can go to my own bed that night!

"In all seriousness, it's nice to do London on the release night, the 16th, and then to do our second home on release day. I’m really excited to be playing Portsmouth again, it’s been a while.”

They play Staggeringly Good Brewery on Friday, May 17. For tickets go to pandvrecords.co.uk.