In the early 1980s Howard had moved to Europe, following a path beaten by his contemporaries in the Melbourne punk scene, including his elder brother, Young Charlatans and Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S Howard. Howard went on to join Simon Bonney’s Crime and the City Solution (which also featured at one time Mick Harvey), as well as teaming up with his brother a few years later in These Immortal Souls. After 13 years, Howard returned to Melbourne, where he transferred his musical energy into Pink Stainless Tail. It wasn’t long after – having pushed music into the background while he went to university and started a family – when Howard’s health began to falter.
Howard’s black sense of humour led him to call his new band the Near Death Experience. Howard’s partner Edwina Preston was drafted to play keyboards, before Dave Graney – whom Howard had known since Graney moved across to Melbourne with The Sputniks (later to morph into The Moodists) – rang Howard up to ask if he could play bass. When Graney’s wife and long-time collaborator Clare Moore volunteered to play drums, the Near Death Experience was born. “That’s what you really want – to have your friends in your band,” Howard says.
Released in 2012, Howard’s first solo record was heavily influenced by The Modern Lovers and the progenitors of the 1970s New York punk scene. While Howard’s second album, Pretty, suggests more of a Richard Hell influence, Howard says it was PJ Harvey and Queens of the Stone Age who provided the musical backdrop to the writing and recording of the album. “I went and saw PJ Harvey and really loved the show,” Howard says. “I’d always liked her music, but I’d never investigated her that much. I really like her directness, and I relate to the rhythms she uses. So I got hold of her back catalogue and listened to it extensively.”
While Howard’s interest in PJ Harvey is probably unsurprising, even Howard was surprised when he found himself listening to Queens of the Stone Age. “PJ Harvey did a Desert Sessions record with them,” Howard says. “Before I listened to that, I thought Queens of the Stone Age were a bit lame-brained, but I suddenly realised that Josh Homme is really, really smart. I was fascinated how he used a very broad expanse of influences, and a lot of European musicians.”
The songs on Pretty reflect Howard’s blunt and evocative lyrical style: tales of love, death, hope and forgiveness are delivered with an endearing directness that reflects both Howard’s personality, and the pragmatic mindset that comes with a brush with mortality. “I’m largely straight forward as a person – even though I beat around the bush a bit,” Howard laughs. “I think in the way I play music, and my words, I’m quite direct. I don’t disguise lyrics in mystery, unless I’m creating an atmosphere. There’s nothing better than having something real to write about – once you’ve got the idea and work out what it is, then you can keep throwing things at it, and expand it.”
Howard hopes to take the band over to Europe later this year for what would be his first European sojourn since returning to Australia in the 1990s. Howard also hopes to have more opportunities to showcase the work of his late brother. “Mick Harvey has always got his feelers out for more shows,” Howard says. “We’ve really enjoyed doing those shows, and it’s such an honour to be able to play Rowland’s songs.”
BY PATRICK EMERY
