The Howl & The Hum

FRIDAY MAY 2ND

£10 + Booking Fee

[Photographed by Stewart Baxter]

Yorkshire-based songwriter The Howl & The Hum (Sam Griffiths) performs an exclusive intimate solo set for the first time ever in Harrogate, at Rooster's Taproom, after recently selling out Leeds' Irish Centre, following the release of second album Same Mistake Twice.

As The Howl & The Hum, Griffiths has spent the best part of the last decade honing this capacity for raw, vulnerable storytelling combined with music that artfully traverses everything from finger-picking folk to indie, country and electronica. With the release of his second album, Same Mistake Twice, Griffiths confronts the pain and chaos of recent tumultuous years across 12 tracks of his most direct songwriting to date. Surviving the breakup of his band, the global pandemic and reckoning with his future in music, Griffiths opens with the lines “I never make the same mistake twice/ I always aim for a third time,” before spiralling into finely-spun tales of dread, anxiety and self-destruction. “It took me a few years to get back to writing,” he says. “I wanted to be able to look back and laugh at my anxieties at what I was going through, to fill that pain and difficulty with words and melodies.”

Joining forces with songwriters Elanor Moss and Matthew Herd, as well as producer Joseph Futak, Griffiths drew inspiration from music by the likes of Big Thief, Phoebe Bridgers and Randy Newman. “I wanted to make music that’s quieter but that still holds loud things,” Griffiths says. “There’s an incisiveness and sharpness to the lyrics that cuts through. You don’t need bombast to make someone feel something.”

Travelling from his home in Leeds to Futak’s Hackney studio most weekends from April to November in 2023, Griffiths penned his expressive, soul-searching lyrics before setting them to an expansive range of music. The opening title track sets the tone, with Griffiths singing in a forlorn baritone of whether we would change our mistakes if given the chance, before drums and strumming melodies erupt into an explosive chorus that sits somewhere between Bruce Springsteen’s saxophone-driven euphoria and the dark introspection of The National.

As the record continues, the exposing songwriting never falters. On the finger-picked country influences and sweeping strings of “Pale Blue Dot”, Griffiths is quietly devastating, admitting that “I just want to be loved/ By everyone all the time,” while the thundering guitar riffs of “No One Has To Know” revel in the pleasure that can come from allowing ourselves transgressions. “It’s asking what love means when you’re not feeling good about yourself,” Griffiths explains.

The album traverses the raw harshness of Neutral Milk Hotel as much as the unblinking self-reflection of country pioneers like John Prine or Townes Van Zandt. Throughout, Griffiths’ voice is acrobatic and powerfully emotive, even while singing about the most vulnerable of topics. Effortlessly veering between gravelly introspection to soaring falsetto, it is a unifying counterpoint to his themes of anxiety and dread.

Ultimately, Same Mistake Twice is a joyous and immensely brave new chapter for The Howl & The Hum, one that will also be taken on the road throughout the UK later this year. Encompassing the free musical range of the open mic nights Griffiths started out in, while turning his lived experience inwards to address the pain that comes through personal growth, it is a full-circle progression. “The lyrics are almost too direct, which is what I wanted,” he laughs. “It’s finding the beauty in the pain and looking for forgiveness through it all.”

In being honest – in singing fiercely of those deathbed songs – Griffiths finds solace in the imperfections that make us all human. Sometimes, we have to make the same mistake twice.

The Silver Reserve will be joining as the support on the night. His delicate & sparse music on classical guitar weaves intricate melodies around thoughtful & evocative lyrics. At times creating dense, layered atmospherics, his music takes its time to unfurl & sneak under the skin.