The Howl & The Hum has released his long-awaited second album ‘Same Mistake Twice’ via Miserable Disco alongside new single ‘All Your Friends Hate Me’.
The Leeds-based songwriter will also be heading on a run of UK & European dates throughout November.
As a follow up to The Howl & The Hum’s 2020 debut, the awkwardly titled ‘Human Contact’, ‘Same Mistake Twice’ is Griffiths confronting all the monumental and life-changing challenges that have since been thrown his way. From the original incarnation of the band breaking up in front of his eyes to living through the pandemic and wrestling with the uncertainties of a creative future, ‘Same Mistake Twice’ is 12 tracks of Griffiths’ most direct and disarming work to date. Unafraid to air his anxieties in public, Griffiths explores the idea of image, including the ones we project and the not-so-secret impressions that others have of us, as he ultimately asks of himself – 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. ‘Same Mistake Twice’ 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.
Arriving with the album is new single ‘All Your Friends Hate Me’. Sam divulges “this is my ode to country music and melodrama, a guilty anthem about the things that haunt us, and learning to let them go. When men screw up, our immediate response tends to be avoiding accountability. I wanted to write something that absolutely and completely absorbs the blame, swallows the guilt and transforms it into light: I hope you find someone who loves you like you should be loved.”
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.”
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 & Europe this November.
Sam Griffiths on ‘Same Mistake Twice’:
“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.”
Find The Howl & The Hum online:
instagram.com/thehowlandthehum
Photography by Stewart Baxter.
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