Scottish trio, The Howling Lords will reveal their new album, Texas Medicine, this Friday (30th November). Expressing a guttural, dirty garage rock sound with heavy riff laden tracks evoking everyone from The Black Keys and Queens Of the Stone Age, to The Who and Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Howling Lords are primed to break by the end of this year.
Born in late 2015 and hailing from Isle of Lewis in Scotland, which is a windswept and salt-blasted rock on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, The Howling Lords have a steely grit and determination to persistently expand their horizons – this trio are not bound by any geographical complexities. The band are prolific live performers, playing and hosting gigs throughout Scotland and embarking on a series of self-organised tours across the UK. From busking on the streets of Portugal to entertaining crowds at some of Scotland’s best-loved music festivals, this threesome are going from strength to strength and making it look easy.
Vocalist and guitarist, Felix Saunders has given us this unique insight to the album with an exclusive track by track breakdown ahead of Friday’s release.
Looking at Me
This song is full confident swagger and people presuming to know who you are from glancing at small parts of you. I always felt this song had a very country rock vibe but with that big rock chorus, to give it some balls.
Black Dog
This is has a heavy feeling like your soul is about to disappear into the song itself. It was once suggested to me that it was more about depression in the form of a hell hound. For me this song is all the riff and the timing.
Moves to Keep Me
The riff is me doing a bad impression of something Jens had come up with and we developed it to be fun to play and have a good pace. The drumming is what stands out most as the rhythm in are so odd to do.
Talk Like That
This song is pretty much about running your mouth and back stabbing just to suit yourself. The track shows of the drive from all of us but also highlights how much I can lean back and let Eoghainn and Jens hold everything down.
Green Dress
This is quite simply a party song to dance to and excuse for me to use a slide. We have developed it to make it fun for the crowd too. This is a song where everyone helped write the drums in a way or gave ideas in some form.
Howling at the Moon
This one is all about a couple that are less in love with each other and more addicted to each other, in quite a violent way, needing each other to validate themselves but hating themselves for it. I feel it really kicks once the band are fully in.
She Devil
A track that has been a live stable since its conception and its one of the few songs with a drum solo. It’s so much fun to play and one of the tightest for us to have to get right. Live it can go forever at times as I get carried away with the guitar soloing at the end…
Still Waters
This came a long way from the original, very slow and trippy vibe, it’s now got a more bluesy and finger picked vibe, which helped me gain lyric ideas very fast. I am always a fan of both versions and putting opposites together to create a concept.
Soul to Sell
This song is by far the spacey-ist on the album with dark undertones and religious imagery. We live in a very religious town and can be very strong with its beliefs, so we have a lot of religious knowledge for better or worse.
God on the Stairs
This is one I wrote when I was feeling at my most physically and mentally exhausted. I was getting just tired of people, and what they expect from each other, which sometimes seems like emotional greed and manipulation.
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