The Wolf Howls When I Scream Your Name are an Alternative rock/emo band from Cheshire, UK. Originally a studio project that started with lead singer Matthew Awbery, the urge to develop the sound and start playing shows as a band grew, and now the project includes bassist Harry Woodrow and drummer Sam Johnson. The band released their debut two-track, ‘In My Bed I’ll Rot’, in September 2018, to a great reception, and supported this release with a string of shows.
The band’s second release, and debut EP, entitled ‘To Be Where There Is Pale Light’; a dark, ethereal body of work released in March 2019, saw greater opportunities for the band, including a series of stellar reviews, and nationwide shows with bands such as Petrol Girls, Crywank, Slow Crush, and Nervus. This EP was followed by the band’s darkest work, ‘Where Flies Will Reign’ in February 2020, further evolving the band’s sound, aesthetic, and imagery through new sonic atmospheres and more vivid themes.
During 2020, they released a trio of independent singles, marking a change in their sound, and reflecting on many important social themes. TWHWISYN are set to release their debut album ‘Grief Songs’ in Autumn 2021. This 8-track concept record tells a story of grief and loss in different forms, and is set to be accompanied by a string of national shows between September and October 2021.
Check out latest single ‘Wilting’ below!
We managed to catch up wit lead singer Matty Awbery about the band’s latest single, upcoming album and more!
So how has the release of Wilting gone down so far?
Easily blown everything we’ve done out of the water, we’ve just got a new manager out of the song, the YouTube video is currently at 12k views. Beyond my expectations for sure.
Can you tell us something about the single no one else knows?
I haven’t said this to anyone actually, I was sat just listening to Black Honey by Thrice and I kind thought “I want a song like that” that song revolves around a very similar chord pattern, and I just twisted it into what it is. The song is about someone feeling as though they would do anything to take or understand someone’s pain because they love them so much. A lot of this album is about other people’s business that I felt kind of compelled to write about because I was around it so much, so I can’t be too revealing as it’s about some raw topics.
It’s received some good feedback so far, will there be another single release soon?
Hell yeah, Wilting was the first single as I think it sets the tone for our new sound the best, the plan was for in late July to release this said 8 track epic, but my grandmother as you know as you kindly sent your condolences on the email before jumping into this past away today (thank you for that and I am also sorry to hear about your recent loss, I truly am). Anyway there is a song on the album named after her called “Doreen” that I wrote when I last thought she was going to meet this fate a while ago after sitting at a hospital bed with her, that may be taking priority now so it’s all up in the air. But July we’ll be sharing some more definitely
So there’s going to be a new album this year, can you tell us anything about this?
Well, it’s called Grief Songs, unlike before I went in with all of this album rehearsed with the other two, usually with our e.ps they’ve known half the songs and then the others have been me and our producer getting far too into effects, that used to mean we’d have to drop songs live. This album is designed in a no bull shit way, we all sat down and said “look at nirvana, look at green day, let’s just go by that quiet loud dynamic and we’ll be fine”. So alongside that ethic it’s like julien baker made a three piece with a Foo Fighters feel. 6 out of 8 of the songs tell a narrative of the absence of a soul mate, addictions destroying families and so on.
How long has taken you all to write and record this album?
Well, I recorded a track on it called Guilt over two years ago, didn’t want to release it because it was just about something I wanted to leave behind so that was left sat a while but that’s on there. Then! I was at university and had to write an 8 minute long song which is going to be one of the singles because the label, management and few friends I’ve shown just tell me that it’s the stand out track which is crazy for an 8 minute long song! So basically we had two songs sat for absolutely ages, then I just went through this inspired couple of months and we just hammered the other six tracks out and said “fuck it” and put them all on the record.
How has Covid 19 and all of the lockdowns in the UK affected your motivation during this difficult time?
It absolutely destroyed my work rate, I used to be really prolific in my writing I could write a good song a day easy for honestly years. then I went 6 months living at my girlfriends house and it just disappeared, I couldn’t do it, nothing. So this is our first album and it’s the fastest written thing I’ve done, I’ve just started going through phases, I don’t chase the songs anymore, I let them come to me. Since this year we took being able to practice for when the real deal happens seriously. We are twice as good live because we re grouped and spoke about, everyone’s set up has changed, we were like well if we can’t do anything else let’s do this.
Is there any venue in particular that you want to perform at this year or the future?
I’d like to play The Joiners in Southampton I saw an old screamo band called Kerouac there about 8 years ago, I think my interest in more intellectual music like we play was born of that show, I kind of started drifting out of a lot of the really heavy stuff i thought I liked, I used be in a fucking awful metalcore band back then, and I kind of started figuring out what path I was going to take. And of course I could meet you! Haha!