There’s a particular kind of freedom that comes from finally being able to make music without asking anyone else’s permission.
For The Howlers, that freedom sits at the heart of Heavy, their sophomore album, released October 9 via FLG Records.
The title might suggest something oppressive, but the record tells a more complicated story. It’s about the emotional weight of difficult experiences, the intoxicating appeal of self-destruction, and the clarity that sometimes follows. Above all, it’s about rediscovering yourself after a period when your identity no longer feels entirely your own.
“A lot has changed since the release of the band’s debut album,” frontman Adam Young explains. “I had to go through a lot of not nice experiences to ultimately find my feet again as a songwriter and reshape the band into something that is true to itself again.”
That transformation wasn’t merely philosophical.
Following a period of transition in late 2024, Young rebuilt The Howlers as a two-piece alongside drummer Toby Richards, establishing a new creative dynamic after the success of their debut, What You’ve Got To Lose To Win It All.
For the first time, Young says, he felt completely self-assured.
And that confidence has changed everything.
The Seduction of Bad Decisions
Where The Howlers’ debut was shaped by grief and personal loss, Heavy explores the tension between desire and consequence.
Its world is populated by after-dark conversations, impulsive decisions, addictive relationships, and the inevitable moment when the excitement fades and reality returns.
Young describes the record as a reflection of the seductive nature of recklessness, but also the morning-after confrontation with its consequences.
That contradiction is particularly evident on focus track “Late Nights.”
Built around a pulsating bassline, cinematic instrumentation, and Young’s distinctive vocals, the song captures the magnetic pull of surrendering to the moment.
But beneath its nocturnal atmosphere lies a more uncomfortable story.
“The track was written as a mirror to someone whose addictions hurt the ones they love,” Young explains.
That distinction is important. Heavy doesn’t simply romanticize reckless behavior. It examines the damage that can emerge when temporary pleasure becomes more important than lasting relationships.
The album’s title, then, carries multiple meanings.
“It’s a sort of tongue and cheek word play on both,” Young says, referring to its emotional and musical weight.
The record is grittier and more modern than its predecessor, but it also contains some of the band’s most difficult personal material.
Still, Young insists that its ultimate message is hopeful.
Rebuilding the Band, Reclaiming the Voice
For Young, the transition to The Howlers’ current lineup represented more than a personnel change.
It meant recovering his confidence as a songwriter.
Asked which songs on Heavy he couldn’t have written several years ago, his answer is immediate: all of them.
“Four years ago I was trapped in a band where the members at the time made me feel like I had to appease them with the songs, now I feel for the first time I can breathe.”
It’s a revealing admission.
For a band whose identity has always been tied to emotional honesty, the ability to write without compromise is essential.
Working with longtime collaborator Chris Ostler of Black Honey, Young developed the album through an unconventional recording process, exchanging demos, arrangements, and production ideas remotely before bringing the material into rehearsal spaces to record live drums.
Despite the record’s rawer sonic character, Young says the creative objective wasn’t to make something less controlled.
“We actually did the opposite,” he explains, describing a more refined and consistent album designed for a modern musical landscape.
The challenge was to become more adventurous lyrically and more confident as a storyteller without sacrificing the immediacy of the band’s sound.
That approach is evident across tracks like “Cold Sweat,” with its atmospheric synth textures, and “D.R.I.V.E,” which channels the energy of an open-road rock anthem.
The result is a record that expands The Howlers’ musical vocabulary while remaining unmistakably theirs.
Rock Doesn’t Need Another Resurrection
The Howlers have always drawn from the mythology of rock music.
Their sound carries traces of the genre’s past, but Young is wary of nostalgia becoming imitation.
For him, authenticity matters more than faithfully recreating a particular era.
“It’s easily transparent if you try to emulate another artist,” he says.
That attitude extends to the endless cultural conversation about whether rock music is dead, experiencing a revival, or in need of reinvention.
Young has little patience for those declarations.
Instead, he questions the industry’s growing tendency to measure artistic relevance through streaming statistics and social media visibility.
“Just because a band has 1 million listeners on Spotify doesn’t mean they sell tickets and visa versa!”
It’s a pointed observation from an artist whose band has built its following through extensive touring.
Following their debut, The Howlers completed a sold-out 18-date UK headline run and sold out shows across eight European countries. They’ve also shared stages with Wolfmother, Alice Cooper, ZZ Top, and Deep Purple.
For Young, those real-world connections carry more weight than abstract numerical success.
“This world has got lost in the numerical value of art rather than how it connects with people in real terms.”
It’s a philosophy that places the audience relationship—not the algorithm—at the center of the band’s identity.
Keeping the Mistakes
Although Heavy was created through a carefully considered production process, Young remains committed to preserving the imperfections that make recorded music feel alive.
Some songs on the album were completed in a single take.
Small mistakes survived.
Rather than correcting every irregularity, the band allowed certain moments to remain because they contributed to the recordings’ character.
“The very thing that makes something perfect is its imperfections,” Young says.
It’s a deceptively simple idea, particularly in an era when digital production makes it possible to correct almost every element of a performance.
For The Howlers, technical perfection isn’t necessarily the same as emotional truth.
The slight inconsistencies, spontaneous decisions, and unpredictable moments are often what make a recording feel human.
And despite the band’s rough-edged aesthetic, Young also rejects the idea that emotional openness should be understood as a weakness.
“I’ve always been able to communicate how I feel, I don’t feel vulnerable doing that at all,” he explains.
He also points to the band’s female-led team, including its touring crew, as part of an environment that doesn’t subscribe to the stereotypical machismo often associated with rock music.
For Young, expressing difficult emotions isn’t an exception to the band’s identity.
It’s fundamental to it.
The Weight of Becoming Yourself
There’s something fitting about an album called Heavy emerging from a period of creative liberation.
The record carries the consequences of difficult experiences, but its creation also marks the moment when Young began to feel less constrained by them.
Perhaps that’s why its emotional landscape extends beyond grief and recklessness into something more optimistic.
The album doesn’t pretend that bad decisions can be undone or that difficult experiences automatically produce wisdom.
Instead, it acknowledges that change often begins with recognizing what can no longer continue.
With Heavy, The Howlers have transformed that recognition into a renewed musical identity.
And when asked whether finishing the album made him feel lighter, Young refuses to offer a convenient conclusion.
“Not sure yet, ask me again when it’s been out a while.”
It’s an answer that feels appropriate for a record so concerned with the difference between immediate experience and lasting consequence.
Sometimes the meaning of what you’ve created only becomes clear once you’ve had time to live with it.
For now, The Howlers are moving forward with a record that belongs entirely to them.
And perhaps that’s enough.
In Conversation With The Howlers’ Adam Young
Heavy is an incredibly simple title with potentially enormous meaning. What was heavy in your lives while you were making this record?
A lot has changed since the release of the band’s debut album, I had to go through a lot of not nice experiences to ultimately find my feet again as a songwriter and reshape the band into something that is true to itself again and for the first time I felt completely self assured.
Does “heavy” refer primarily to the album’s sound, its emotional weight, or the circumstances surrounding its creation?
It’s a sort of tongue and cheek word play on both, as a writer the emotional weight of these songs is a progression from the band’s debut album, but also sonically the sound is more gritty and modern, there are themes on this record for sure that were tough life experiences but ultimately it’s a hopeful record.
The Howlers have always drawn from rock history without sounding purely nostalgic. How do you take influence from the past without becoming trapped by it?
I think it’s just remaining authentic to who you are as a writer and as a band it comes naturally to me to do my own thing, it’s easily transparent if you try to emulate another artist, and there are a lot of successful artists copying those that came before them without a second thought on being themselves.
What did you want to make rougher, stranger or less controlled on this record?
We actually did the opposite we made a more refined consistent record, a record that was created in a modern way for a modern world, but also lyrically or perhaps as a storytelling exercise I wanted to push what I was comfortable with and be better.
Did making Heavy require you to confront anything about yourselves that you might previously have avoided putting into songs?
Maybe, I guess the process went hand in hand with my life at the time so there is clear messages within the songs that represent what I was feeling, experiencing and doing but I guess as I’ve said remaining authentic was the key.
Rock music is constantly being declared dead, revived and redefined. Does that conversation matter to you at all when you’re actually making records?
People who declare anything are always full of shit, art is subject to every individual which means nobody has the right to declare anything, whilst also simultaneously having the right to express an opinion on their own taste, we live in a world where social media is the average person’s window into the world, and that’s a tool that shows you what it wants, not what is actually happening. Just because a band has 1 million listeners on spotify doesn’t mean they sell tickets and visa versa! This world has got lost in the numerical value of art rather than how it connects with people in real terms. Always be an artist that has real fans, that’s all we care about! I dont write for clickbait i write for myself and if people dig that then great! If they dont then who cares.
How has your understanding of masculinity and vulnerability evolved through songwriting and being in a band together?
I’ve always been able to communicate how I feel, i don’t feel vulnerable doing that at all, were not a toxic masculinity type band were the opposite, our entire team is female including our touring crew that’s only possible because we’re not those type of people and never have been.
What’s the song on Heavy that you couldn’t have written three or four years ago?
All of them, four years ago i was trapped in a band where the members at the time made me feel like i had to appease them with the songs, now i feel for the first time i can breathe.
How important is imperfection to The Howlers? Are there moments on the album where preserving the feeling mattered more than getting the “perfect” take?
The very thing that makes something perfect is its imperfections, there’s songs on the album that were done in one take, theres little mistakes that somehow work, those little things make it fluid, I’ve always insisted on keeping it human.
After carrying everything that went into Heavy, did finishing the record make you feel lighter—or did it simply teach you how to carry the weight differently?
Not sure yet, ask me again when its been out a while.
Heavy is out now via FLG Records.
Listen: “Late Nights”
Follow: Official Website | Instagram
Upcoming touring: The Howlers continue their UK in-store appearances through October 21 before beginning their European album tour in Oslo on October 30. The tour includes dates in Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Milan, and Paris, followed by UK shows in March 2027.
