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Howie B
When the story of inspirational music is written, there’ll be a wee buzzing Scottish guys with a whole page of the back index to himself. Howie B is a human nexus for contemporary music: a walking, cackling, smoking particle accelerator with three days stubble and too much imagination. To account for him as an Aritst/Producer is to box him too tightly. Howie B is at the very least a tale-bearer, audiophile, meta-DJ, rhythm designer, voice aficionado, noise texturist, label owner, film sound tracker, remixer, off kilter genius, lateral conversationalist, enthusiastic generator and highly convivial bald angel.All that inter-connectivity makes Howie difficult to chronicle. You might turn up in the U.S. to write about his experiences as show producer/DJ on U2’s ‘Pop Mart’ tour and discover he’s been hanging out with William Burroughts. He’s been going like this for decades. Howie’s body of work crosses many genres and has seen him work with Bjork, Tricky, Goldie, U2, Brian Eno, Robbie Robertson, Ry Cooder, Wim Wenders and others. The high profile involvements are just the most visible points in a fascinating history of artistic alliances with some of the edgiest music minds around. And unusually for a producer, Howie B goes into the studio for the purpose of self-articulation rather than to pay off the alimony.
Aside from his studio work, he regularly performs live and DJ’s across Europe and South East Asia, including residencies at Fabric in London, Goa in Rome and Yello in Tokyo.
More recently Howie has provided his musical production input to a variety of projects and artists, including Sly & Robbie and Horace Andy (Massive Attack) tracks for Wall of Sound’s ‘Two Culture Clash’ project, Serge Gainsbourg’s remixes and a Lloyds TSB ‘Jump’ ad for Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R.
Written: 25th Jun, 07
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