Track: The Howl And The Hum – Same Mistake Twice

Leeds-based songwriter Sam Griffiths has announced the return of The Howl & The Hum and shared the band’s first new material since 2021. The follow-up to their acclaimed 2020 debut, the unfortunately named ‘Human Contact’, second album ‘Same Mistake Twice’ will be released on the 6th of September via Miserable Disco.

Until then, Griffiths has shared the title track. It is an introspective lyrical masterpiece backed by a huge sonic wall from frantic plam muted strumming to full-on sax arena rock. Griffiths delivers one hell of a vocal performance. It’s a wonderful world to be in, where the Howl And Hum are creating.

Surviving the breakup of his band and the global pandemic and reckoning with his future in music, he points the spotlight directly at the anxiety involved in any breakup we experience: how am I perceived? How do people speak about me? How will I be remembered? Am I a good person?

The answer Griffiths reaches is a complicated ‘No’.

Joining forces with songwriters Elanor Moss and Matthew Herd (Seafarers), as well as producer Joseph Futak (Tapir!, Lilo), Griffiths drew inspiration from music by the likes of Big Thief, Phoebe Bridgers and Randy Newman.

“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.”

Commenting about the album,

“This is an album about Dread. About a very real, everyday dread so many of us feel surrounded by screens showing us how we should be, what a good person is, what a bad person is. It’s about trying to have and handle and process big messy emotions in a world that wants things to be small, simple, and quickly decided. Every person is flawed, every person has baggage, shrapnel they take with them that makes the airport security beep. This album is about acknowledging that shrapnel, poking it, flipping it and seeing what lives under it, and learning to fall in love with the version of yourself full of holes and missing pieces.

This is a breakup album mourning the loss of a band, and all that comes with it: ego trips, insecurities, lost friendships, fading love, rekindling old fires and a path to acceptance.”

Check out the single, below: