Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Howels
Hi Matt, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born in South London, England and from a very early age fell in love with music. Both my dad and uncle introduced me to bands like The Beatles and Pink Floyd (I became, and I still am, obsessed with The Beatles) and I remember thinking that’s exactly what I want to be doing with my life! I went through several instruments before finally settling on the guitar, and taught myself how to play from the age of 11. By the time I was 18 I was really into the blues and I began guesting at the ‘Ain’t Nothing But The Blues…’bar and other venues in London, as well as playing shows with my da’d’s band. I ended up attending university and studying engineering, but I always knew that ultimately all I ever wanted to do was be a musician, to play guitar and express myself that way. Unfortunately it is incredibly tough to earn a living as a guitarist! So after graduating I started to work some office jobs in the city, and when I wasn’t doing that I was regularly performing at blues jams, as well as around London with the couple of bands I was in.
In late 2007 I made a huge life choice and moved to New York City, and within a few months I had co-founded The Glorious Veins, a rock/alternative band that met via Craigslist. We spent the next 9 years gigging all over the city, touring the US a few times, and recording 3 albums. Some of my fondest memories during this time of my life are of being in the studio creating new music and having one of our albums pressed to vinyl so we could sell records on our tours. Good times!
After almost 10 years of recording and performing, The Glorious Veins took a hiatus in 2016 and so I felt the need to re-focus my energies a bit. I also got sober and stopped drinking in 2017 which had a huge impact on not only my personal life, but my musical life too. I actually put the guitar down for a few months and wrote some poetry, self-publishing a collection called ‘Carnivores Are People Too’. You can find it on Amazon! I found it to be quite cathartic and since music and drinking were so linked together for so long in my life, I needed that break to kind of pull the two things apart from each other. Eventually I picked the guitar back up and I put a lot more attention into songwriting and developing my guitar playing even further. I turned back to one of my first musical loves – the Blues, and around early 2018 I re-formed an old side-project group I had occasionally performed with around the city, The Matt Howels Project. We started playing some gigs in Manhattan and Brooklyn and even entered the NPR Tiny Desk competition in 2021 (didn’t get picked!). At the same time I started to work on performing solo sets where I would play older, more traditional blues songs on acoustic guitar. Performing solo was a bit more of a challenge for me as I’ve always been more used to being part of a band, and I had to work on my voice a bit since all the singing was now my responsibility. To this day I still get anxious about performing solo, but I’m always grateful for the chance to do so when it comes around.
In 2022 my wife and I made a huge decision and decided to move to Athens, Georgia. We definitely live our lives at a slower pace down here, which is really what we were looking for, and that is also reflected in my musical career. I play in a blues band that gigs around Atlanta/North Georgia, and I write and record songs in my home studio and upload the results to Spotify. Right now I’m working on new material for an EP that I’ll likely release around the autumn/winter period, and as always, performing at local jams in the Athens area. But mostly I just love hanging out with my wife and our cats and enjoying having a yard and a porch!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
life is never as smooth as you’d like it to be! By far the biggest struggle I’ve had along the way is my addiction to alcohol. Getting sober in 2017 was the best thing I ever did, and I’m not sure I’d still be here if I hadn’t stopped drinking.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a guitar player and I also write songs. I’m definitely more of a guitarist than songwriter, but I love the challenge of writing a piece of music that sounds good to me, and writing lyrics that I think work and make sense for the song. But “who I am” in a creative sense will always be a guitar player first and foremost. It’s important to me to keep learning the instrument, to know it better and to continue to make it a part of me as a person. This will sound corny, but I honestly believe it is my way of communicating with the universe. Or rather, when I’m playing guitar I lose the sense of “self” that is my ego etc and just become part of something bigger that pervades everything around us. It is quite the same as mediation in that way.
Artistically, I’m probably most proud of my time in NYC playing and recording with the bands I was in there, more specifically the studio albums I made with The Glorious Veins. I also sat in on some live performances at Terra Blues in Greenwich Village in Manhattan (one of the premier Blues venues in NYC), and that was really cool. But I’m also proud of the music I write and record today, and whenever I come off stage having played a good set and knowing my guitar playing was on point is enough for me these days.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I love Atlanta for its quirkiness and diversity! There’s a lot going on in the city and it just has this very cool, hip vibe. I like the driving the least haha
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.matthowelsmusic.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hitmanhowels/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheMattHowelsProject/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/user/TheMatt5104
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/matthowels
- Other: https://matthowels.bandcamp.com/
Image Credits
Ali Bill
