Now that’s a story.<\/p>\n\n
There’s something wonderful about discovering a band before everyone else starts talking about it.<\/p>\n\n
Write down the name.<\/p>\n\n
You listen to a song.<\/p>\n\n
Then another one.<\/p>\n\n
And twenty minutes later, you find yourself wondering:<\/p>\n\n
How is it possible that I didn’t know these guys?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n That just happened to us with Howlin\u2019 Jaws<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n There are three.<\/p>\n\n They’re from Paris.<\/p>\n\n They’ve known each other since they were children.<\/p>\n\n And if your record collection includes King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Tame Impala, The Black Keys, The White Stripes, The Beach Boys, or The Soundtrack Of Our Lives<\/strong>, you should probably keep reading.<\/p>\n\n Their new song is called:<\/p>\n\n \u201cMaximum Speed.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n And the title says it all.<\/p>\n\n The song is 3 minutes and 49 seconds long and has just been released through Bellevue Music. The official credits list Kalle Gustafsson Jerneholm and Gy\u00f6rgy Barocsai<\/strong> as producers and the three members of Howlin\u2019 Jaws as songwriters. <\/p>\n\n But the credits don’t explain what happens when you press play.<\/p>\n\n A guitar.<\/p>\n\n Boogie.<\/p>\n\n Psychedelia.<\/p>\n\n A chorus processed through a vocoder.<\/p>\n\n Vocal harmonies that sound like they came straight out of a particularly trippy Beach Boys session.<\/p>\n\n And then everything blows up.<\/p>\n\n The song picks up speed until it builds to a breakdown<\/em> that seems tailor-made to make a concert crowd go wild.<\/p>\n\n There is a garage.<\/p>\n\n There’s pop music.<\/p>\n\n There’s psychedelia.<\/p>\n\n And there\u2019s something about that sense of controlled danger that makes King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard<\/strong> a pretty logical point of reference. The description of the new album itself links \u201cMaximum Speed\u201d to the Australian band\u2019s wildest excursions. <\/p>\n\n But then we found out how the song came to be.<\/p>\n\n And we like it even more.<\/p>\n\n There are albums that are obsessed with eliminating mistakes.<\/p>\n\n Howlin\u2019 Jaws just turned one into a song.<\/p>\n\n \u201cMaximum Speed\u201d started out as a jam<\/em> session.<\/p>\n\n So far, nothing too strange.<\/p>\n\n But during the recording, someone made a mistake while copying and pasting on the computer.<\/p>\n\n The second line lost its structure.<\/p>\n\n The song changed.<\/p>\n\n And instead of pressing Ctrl+Z to put everything back where it belonged, the band decided to listen to what that accident had just created.<\/p>\n\n It worked.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n The error remained.<\/p>\n\n It’s a small anecdote, but it says a lot about Howlin\u2019 Jaws.<\/p>\n\n Because his music seems to exist precisely in that space where a seemingly old-fashioned idea can suddenly take a different turn and become something contemporary.<\/p>\n\n That’s the interesting question.<\/p>\n\n Howlin\u2019 Jaws are:<\/p>\n\n Djivan Abkarian<\/strong>, vocals and bass.<\/p>\n\n Lucas Humbert<\/strong>, guitar.<\/p>\n\n Baptiste Leon<\/strong>, drums.<\/p>\n\n Three childhood friends from Paris. <\/p>\n\n And its history doesn’t exactly begin with psychedelia.<\/p>\n\n It begins with…<\/p>\n\n rockabilly.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Toward the end of the last decade, they began to attract attention with *Burning House*<\/em>, an EP released in 2018 and built around much more classic roots.<\/p>\n\n But they did something smart.<\/p>\n\n They didn’t stay there.<\/p>\n\n The next step took Howlin\u2019 Jaws to London.<\/p>\n\n Specifically, Toe Rag Studios<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n For garage rock fans, the name has a certain sacred quality to it.<\/p>\n\n It is the analog studio of Liam Watson<\/strong>, the producer and engineer associated with one of the seminal rock albums of the early 2000s:<\/p>\n\n “Elephant<\/em>” by The White Stripes.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Howlin\u2019 Jaws worked there with Watson to record *Strange Effect*<\/strong><\/em>, released in 2021.<\/p>\n\n And they captured it on tape<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n Suddenly, that rockabilly-influenced band started opening windows.<\/p>\n\n Garage.<\/p>\n\n Pop.<\/p>\n\n Psychedelia.<\/p>\n\n Melodies.<\/p>\n\n Textures.<\/p>\n\n Two years later, they worked with Watson again.<\/p>\n\n The result was Half Asleep Half Awake<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n And the windows grew even larger.<\/p>\n\n *Half Asleep Half Awake*<\/em>, released in 2023, confirmed that Howlin\u2019 Jaws wasn\u2019t particularly interested in becoming a revival band.<\/p>\n\n The second album expanded their musical universe into more psychedelic territory and even incorporated Eastern influences. (Radical Production<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n That is perhaps the aspect of them that interests us the most.<\/p>\n\n Howlin\u2019 Jaws knows exactly where he comes from.<\/p>\n\n But he doesn’t seem interested in living there<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n And that brings us to their third album.<\/p>\n\n For their new album, they decided to change the setting.<\/p>\n\n Goodbye, London.<\/p>\n\nFirst, listen to \u201cMaximum Speed\u201d<\/h2>\n\n
“Maximum Speed” exists because of a computer error<\/h2>\n\n
Who the heck are Howlin\u2019 Jaws?<\/h2>\n\n
Then they traveled to the studio where The White Stripes recorded *Elephant*<\/em><\/h2>\n\n
From The White Stripes to Eastern psychedelia<\/h2>\n\n
Living The Dream<\/em> \u2014and this time they went to Sweden<\/h2>\n\n