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Howling Bells are an indie rock band formed in Sydney, Australia in 2004 by sister and brother Juanita Stein (vocals/rhythm guitar) and Joel Stein (lead guitar/keyboards), and Glenn Moule (drums) and Brendan Picchio (bass), all former members of the disbanded band Waikiki. They released their eponymous debut album Howling Bells in 2006 and followed it with Radio Wars in 2009.

History

Early years: 2004-2005

Howling Bells formed after Waikiki disbanded, which, as a pop rock band had enjoyed reasonable chart success in Australia. After releasing an EP, Presents, in 2000, and the album, I'm Already Home, in 2002, they sought and found a new identity and re-emerged as Howling Bells. Juanita Stein explained why: "I realised onstage night that I wasn't into it. I didn't believe in what I was doing. I thought, 'How will feel it if I can't?'" The band members met backstage and Juanita asked whether they should continue on their "straight and narrow" path or take an "extreme left turn" in an attempt to achieve something greater. "I didn't have to finish the sentence", she said. "They were on the same track."

Demos of their new material were sent to several record producers, including Ken Nelson. Upon learning that Nelson was interested in working with them they moved to England in 2004. “It was when we were talking about producers that the idea of England came into play", Juanita Stein recalled. “We made about 20 or 25 demos and Ken there were about five other producers we were interested in and we actually just sent them to him. It wasn’t that ridiculous an idea because sometimes people connect with music, regardless of where they’re from, and he just connected with the music.”

At the time, Nelson was preoccupied working with Coldplay, so for several months the band lived together in one room in a house in London and took menial employment. Brendan Picchio sold double glazing over the telephone and Glenn Moule held the more usual occupation for an Australian visitor to Britain of working in a pub. Moule also worked in a car workshop; Joel Stein worked on a farm, collecting goose eggs and looking after the gardens.

Joel Stein later admitted: "We stole to eat when we first moved to Britain." "We dropped everything we were doing at home. We went from being semi-comfortable in Sydney to living almost in poverty." "We moved on pure faith", Juanita Stein acknowledged.

Howling Bells: 2005-2008

They recorded their debut album at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool in early 2005. The recording process was, according to Juanita Stein, greatly affected by both the band's long wait and the cold of the British winter, which they had never before experienced. She said: "Two years of waiting to record an album, that's a long time in the music world. When you've got a bunch of songs sitting round for that many years, by the time you get to the studio you're just exploding with anticipation and frustration and anxiety and love and lust and desire and all these things that you've been holding in for so long. It's always great to hear people's response to the music or the vocals - it means that they're hearing that." She later explained: "Howling Bells was recorded in the middle of winter in Liverpool so it really affected the tone of the record."

The 'poppier' style of Waikiki had given way to the more brooding sound of Howling Bells. The change in musical approach was driven by Juanita falling in love with someone "at the same time as falling out of love with someone else." She said: "I felt a passionate longing for something to happen. Everything about music came from some kind of desperation." "I was 16 when I wrote some of songs. It was time to move on."

On the completion of recording, but many months before the release of Howling Bells, talent agency A&R Worldwide brought the existence of the band to the attention of the music industry. Its 5 July 2005 newsletter selected the band as its 'Pick of the Week', calling the band's sound as "an enigmatic alternative/pop sound which can be described as a modern-day Mazzy Star on a soundclash with Radiohead." The band's style of music was described by Mojo as "blues-noir desolation", and by The Guardian as "bruising, narcotised rock'n'roll."

The album was released in May 2006 on the Bella Union label and received critical acclaim, including scores of 9/10 from NME and 7.8/10 from Pitchfork. Reviewing the album, NME wrote: "By turns beguiling and enthralling, this is an extraordinary album." It placed 11th in NME's 'Albums of the Year' list. Metro said: "Two months into 2006 and already the best debut album of the year seems settled."

The final track on the album, "I'm Not Afraid", was written by Juanita's and Joel's father, Peter Stein, himself a musician. Peter was a big influence on the young Steins, whose upbringing was filled with music and the performing arts. Their mother, Linda, was a stage and television actress. Juanita called her family life "very musical, bohemian" and added: "I would rise and sleep to a constant soundtrack of music. All kinds of music. If it had passion, melody and a strong energy you'd hear it blasting from our four walls. Our neighbors tried suing us a couple times for noise disturbance. They didn't know how good they had it. 60s and 70s rock, soul, jazz, world music, pop, folk, but mainly Bob Dylan and The Beatles. It seeps deeply into your consciousness whether you like it or not."

Other qualities were provided to the band by Italian-born bassist Picchio and drummer Moule, who was brought up on a small-town ranch in the Australian bush. He learned to ride horses at two years old and became proficient at a young age at lassooing and branding cattle. He once owned a pet kangaroo, rescued from a road accident that killed its mother, but released it into the wild when it became aggressive. Moule is also a qualified pilot and on the band's early UK tours acted as mechanic for their 1976-registered tour bus.

Howling Bells have also frequently cited the influence of films on their musical style, mentioning Rumble Fish and Amélie as two films of particular significance to them. Juanita Stein explained why films are so important: "You've got all of my favourite things in one medium: art, film, expression, performance, fashion – it's just everything hitting you at once. When all the elements are spot on I think it's the most ferocious kind of feeling when you watch it all come into place."

The success of Howling Bells and the increasing numbers of people attending the band's gigs showed that their decision to move to the UK was the correct one. As Juanita remarked: "Going over to the UK was a decision we were told was stupid on all counts. So we did the stupid thing. And it worked out for us."

However, there were low periods too. The band was robbed of money and other possessions in Manchester in August 2006, as they were unloading baggage and equipment. Then, in the middle of 2007, despite having just finished a US tour supporting The Killers, the band's future was uncertain. "I thought we were never going to make another record", Joel said. " had just been pepper-sprayed in some bar, we had no manager, no record deal, and it just seemed hopeless." Picchio was having a tough time; he was forced to miss three gigs on The Killers tour when he injured his back lifting equipment. The band's guitar technician Adam Carr stood in for him before Picchio returned wearing a full upper-torso body brace.

Radio Wars: 2008-2009

In 2008, Howling Bells signed a deal with London-based record label Independiente and recorded their sophomore album Radio Wars, mainly at The Sound Factory in Los Angeles, California with producer/mixer Dan Grech-Marguerat. Three songs were recorded at Air Studios in London and one at Sing Sing Studios, Melbourne. It was mixed at Olympic Studios in London by Cenzo Townshend. Radio Wars was released in the UK in March 2009 and, after signing to Nettwerk Music Group, in the USA in July 2009.

Glenn Moule explained how the album title came about: "When writing for the record in a country house in Victoria, Juanita and I would hop in my folks' beat-up 'Ute' and try tune into certain stations, however, clearly the radio had a mind of its own, constantly tuning in and out different stations and frequencies. It became a resistant friend of ours. We called this Radio Wars." Juanita Stein added; "Out of that experience came the title to Radio Wars Theme as well as the lyrical content for Digital Hearts, a song about the struggle we now have between us and it. Humans and the technological revolution.".

Radio Wars signalled a change in direction; the band's music had become brighter and more accessible, and placed a greater emphasis on keyboards. Consequently, reviews were mixed. A review on the BBC website claimed "the second chance may well have been squandered", while Gigwise.com called it "an album of mashed-up half ideas." More positive reviews came from The Independent on Sunday ("Bigger, brasher...this might be the album that elevates Howling Bells from a band you wouldn't switch off to one you would actively seek out"), Music Week ("This longplayer could help cement their position as pioneers of eerie indie"), IndieLondon ("Howling Bells' return is a resounding success") and ABC ("Anthemic, edgy, stomping indie rock at its best").

Juanita Stein explained the band's different musical approach: "The first record was more me in my bedroom kind of wallowing over lost love and falling in love – it was a very, very romantic and brooding process. But with this one, it's pretty much been a unanimous process, like every member of the band has added their flavour. In terms of the new songs, they have a very, very different energy – hugely different. In general, the lyrics are a lot more immediate, whereas the last record was a lot more nostalgic. This album is a lot more modern in a way and instant. You know, it's talking less about innate feelings and more about the impact between myself or ourselves, and the world around us."

Radio Wars was also affected by the band's environment at the time, much in the same way as Howling Bells. Juanita contrasted the cold of Britain with the heat of California: "I don't think you can control how your environment controls you and that was the predominant difference . The first one was recorded dead in the middle of winter in Liverpool and there were forces around you that were beyond your control. It felt like a very atmospheric time. In comparison, we were recording Radio Wars in Los Angeles in the middle of summer and it was sweltering and you're surrounded by this kind of glitzy starlight that we'd never experienced before, and it ever so creepily just smokes its way into your music."

Remarking on the disparate reviews of Radio Wars, she said: "It's difficult to know where to draw the line with presenting an unbiased account of the band's history. However, I guess the beauty of art is that it presents an array of brilliant colours."

For the band, the recording process was new, and sometimes difficult: "When we got into the studio it was quite a conflicted process", Juanita explained. "It wasn't the most effortless record-making experience. He had a lot of ideas that we struggled with and vice versa and there were a few little arguments here and there, but in retrospect it was an absolutely amazing experience."

During 2008, Juanita became noticeably more confident, animated and outgoing when playing live, in terms of the clothes she wore and her hairstyle, and her interactions with the audience. It was a conscious decision to change her on-stage persona, as she remarked in early 2009: "For a long time I treated the stage as some kind of holy grail and I would be petrified in a way to be myself - who I am off stage and with my friends and family - because I didn't want to give that much to the audience. I'd say in the last year it's been the absolute polar opposite experience. That has a lot to do with personal changes in my own life and it's made for an incredibly different performing experience. I've now only started to be the same person on and off stage, which is a hell of a lot more fun." In March 2009, Gigwise.com proclaimed Juanita Stein "the sexiest woman in rock". She was also named in the top ten of ClashMusic's 'Top woman of 2009'.

Third album: 2010-2011

Howling Bells expressed hope that their third album would be released in 2010. Another change of musical direction was in store, as Juanita Stein described the band's new writing as "real organic and real jammy."They played two new songs - The Loudest Engine of All and Crossroads - on their December 2009 Australian tour. The new material was described by one critic as "a more rollicking, rock & roll approach." Juanita Stein explained that the third album would be "very melodic but very raw", adding; "We’re definitely keeping away from using technology! It’s really tricky because you can get a bit carried away with technology but just because it works doesn’t mean you should completely get lost in it. Radio Wars gave us the chance to explore that side of things and it was a very different experience than the first album. This time around we’ve come out wanting to return to a much more organic state.”

She had earlier stressed the importance of a band's third album, calling it "defining". She noted: "There was a quote from, I think it may have been Kings of Leon, who were saying that the third record really defines the band because your first is obviously your introduction and you've been working your whole life up to that point, and then the second is always a reaction to the first one, which I think is what Radio Wars was to our first record. is the band being a little bit more comfortable about where we're at and who we are and I think it really will define the band."

The band expected the process of making the third album to be a lot easier than they had experienced previously, after they had changed record labels between their first two records. "There was a lot of red tape", said Juanita, while Picchio added: "There's no bureaucracy this time, it's just going to be straightforward making the record."However, later in 2010, Juanita admitted that recording had been delayed by the very "red tape" they had hoped to avoid. She wrote on the band's Myspace page: "We have been busy writing, recording demos, changing labels, sifting through red tape, being frustrated and equally enlightened at various results and changes in the band's life! But the good news is we finally have a date to start recording our third album. September 15th we're off to record in the desert, where the Mojave meets the lights. We have a bunch of songs to work from and a damn good idea of which direction we wanna to head in." The recording location, "where the Mojave meets the lights", was Las Vegas. The album was recorded at Battle Born Studios and was produced by The Killers' bassist Mark Stoermer. The mixing engineer was Robert Root.

Touring

Between July 2005 and December 2009, Howling Bells played over 370 live gigs in many countries, including around 50 festival appearances. Their earliest recorded live appearance was at the Spectrum, Sydney on 1 July 2005, although the band has spoken of playing live in Liverpool during the period of recording their debut album in early 2005.

Howling Bells spent much of the two years after the release of their first album touring Europe, Australia and parts of the USA. They played on the NME New Music Tour in 2006 and at the 2007 NME Awards show, and performed at numerous festivals over the 2006 and 2007 summers, including Reading and Leeds, Latitude, and others across Europe.

Howling Bells' first tour, in October and November 2005, was supporting Editors in Europe. They supported The Killers in the USA, Europe and Australia, Placebo in Australia and Europe, The Futureheads and Razorlight in the UK, and Mercury Rev in Europe, as well as Snow Patrol on their Australian tour. They supported Coldplay on the 2009 North American leg of their Viva la Vida Tour and on some dates of Coldplay's 2009 European tour. Howling Bells impressed the big-name bands they supported on tour; Killers' drummer Ronnie Vannucci told Channel 4: "Howling Bells are the greatest band I've ever toured with," while Coldplay's Chris Martin advised audiences at Coldplay's North American tour to download Howling Bells' song "Nightingale". In July 2009, Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody named Howling Bells as his 'Band of the Week' in Q Magazine.

Howling Bells headlined a tour of the UK in March 2009, supported by The Joy Formidable and Chew Lips. They played V Festival in Australia in April 2009. The band returned to Europe to play summer festivals in the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Turkey, Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Their UK appearances included Hop Farm Festival, Hard Rock Calling and V Festival. The band then supported Coldplay once more on three nights of their European tour in August and September 2009, after which they returned to Australia to write for the third album and tour there in December.

The city they have played in most frequently is London (over 35 times), followed by Manchester (13), Sydney (13) and Glasgow (10). The venue they have played most often is the Academy complex in Manchester (5 times).

Other work

Howling Bells have covered Dolly Parton's "False Eyelashes" (performed live and recorded as the b-side of the 7" vinyl single Setting Sun) and Britney Spears' "Toxic" (performed live).

Juanita Stein has performed with several other artists. She sang on two songs on Australian group The Givegoods' album I Want To Kill A Rich Man - the title track and "Black and Blue". She also sang with Australian group On Inc, on a song entitled "Spooky", and performed a duet with brother Ari on a song called "LA To San Fran", which was played on Ari's Myspace page for a time. She performed backing vocals on two tracks on father Peter's album Tear It Down - "What Would It Take?" and "Still Waters". She also contributed vocals to The Sleepy Jackson's 2006 album Personality: One Was A Spider, One Was A Bird. In September 2010, she performed a duet with Australian singer/songwriter Steve Smyth live on stage at The Days of Decadence in Shoreditch, London. Glenn Moule played drums for Smyth at this gig, and soon afterwards played drums for C.W. Stoneking at a gig at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow. He also played on American sisters The Pierces' 2010 EP Love You More and Australian group Brat's 2003 single "He Said She Said". Moule and Brendan Picchio played live with My Idle King at various gigs in Australia in June and July 2010.

Picchio spent time on an alternative venture in Australia in 2010 and 2011, performing as a DJ at a number of clubs in Sydney. Guitarist Joel Stein played a solo gig in Berlin in September 2010.

Tom Smith of Editors joined Howling Bells live on stage at Bella Union's tenth birthday party at the Royal Festival Hall, London in July 2007 to perform Nick Cave's "Where The Wild Roses Grow". At the end of this show Howling Bells, Beach House, My Latest Novel and Simon Raymonde together played Johnny Cash's song "A Thing Called Love". In November that year Howling Bells joined The Killers, The Vines and Louis XIV on stage at Sydney Entertainment Centre to play The Beatles' song "Helter Skelter".

Discography

Albums

• Howling Bells (2006)
• Radio Wars (2009)

See also

• Howling Bells related media

References

1. ^ Winterford, Brett (23 June 2006). "theage.com.au interview 1". The Age. Melbourne.
2. "Glenn and Joel's jobs".
3. "Howling Bells interview, Sydney Morning Herald, 14th March 2009". The Sydney Morning Herald. 14 March 2009.
4. ^ "theage.com.au interview 2". The Age. Melbourne. 3 April 2009.
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference abc.net.au interview was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. "A&R Worldwide newsletter, 5th July 2005".
7. Peschek, David (23 March 2006). "Howling Bells, Glasgow School of Art review 23rd March 2006, The Guardian". London. Retrieved 2 April 2010.
8. "Bella Union, Howling Bells profile".
9. "Howling Bells album review, Pitchfork, 2nd April 2007".
10. "Howling Bells album review, NME, 5th May 2006".
11. "NME's best albums of 2006".
12. "Howling Bells album review, Metro, 9th February 2006".
13. "Stein family".
14. "Howling Bells robbed".
15. "Brendan Picchio injured".
16. "Explanation of Radio Wars title".
17. "Radio Wars album review, BBC, 20th February 2009".
18. "Radio Wars album review, gigwise.com, 2nd March 2009".
19. Price, Simon (8 February 2009). "Radio Wars album review, The Independent on Sunday, 8th February 2009". London. Retrieved 2 April 2010.
20. "Radio Wars album review, Music Week, 5th January 2009".
21. "Radio Wars album review, indielondon.co.uk".
22. "Radio Wars album review, abc.net.au".
23. "Juanita Stein interview, Repeat Fanzine, September 2008".
24. "musicforlisteners.com interview, 2009".
25. "Juanita Stein Radio Wars comment".
26. "gigwise.com's sexiest women in rock".
27. "clashmusic.com's top woman of 2009".
28. "Rave Magazine description of new songs, December 2009".
29. "Juanita Stein comment about third album".
30. Cite error: The named reference Music For Listeners Interview 2009 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
31. "Myspace blog, August 2010".
32. http://www.nme.com/news/howling-bells/54596
33. "Q Magazine Band of the Week".
34. "Howling Bells Gig List".

External links

• Template:MySpace
• Howling Bells on Facebook
• Howling Bells messageboard
• Howling Bells - 2009 interview with Juanita Stein

• 2000s music groups
• 2010s music groups
• Musical groups established in 2004
• New South Wales musical groups
• Australian indie rock groups