Howards Alias

Southampton based Howards Alias came to life at the tail end of 1999, and after a various self released demos and gigs, released their debut album "The Chameleon Script" (2002) on Good Clean Fun Records, to a very positive reaction. After touring the album relentlessly, in January 2004 the band recorded 3 songs for a split release with US band DESA, ready for the bands' joint UK tour together. Their second full length "The Answer is Never" (2004), showed a new mature Howards Alias, taking in a huge range of influences. The album was recorded mostly live, to give an honest account of the 'Howards Alias' sound and get across the intimacy of the songs and band. Over the next 12 months the band toured hard but growing up with the grass roots ethics of bands like The Police and The Beatles, the band were also keen to record another album - returning to work with 'TAIN' engineer Peter Miles. In early 2005 the band went into the studio and emerged 3 months later with their third album "Beat, Heart Beat" (2005) which took their sound into a more ambitious and intelligent area. The album was very well received by fans and press alike, the press often noting the bands very unique sound and "Howards Alias sound much more at home with British rock counterparts Biffy Clyro and Reuben than their American cousins" The band like to put forward a message of non-violence and anti-elitism, and like to consider themselves musicians playing music together, rather than a band that has to keep playing a certain type of music in order to conform to the punk rock cliche. The band split up in 2005, then later reformed in 2006. They are now set to record a new album, which will no doubt take them in yet another change in musical direction, with new songs on their MySpace page having a more rock feel, than the ska-punk sound which the album "The Chameleon Script". On April 15th 2008, Matthew Reynolds announced that Howards Alias were to permanently disband. This was the first official announcement from Howards Alias in 2008, although Reynolds had been promoting his solo album - The Wreck of The Hesperus - throughout February. Drummer Robert King had left the band in January to continue his career, and - following the initial shock - the band had decided to try to recruit a new drummer. In March, however, Matthew Roberts went on tour playing saxophone for Foals and subsequently started tour managing other bands; feeling that he could no longer commit the time to Howards Alias, he also left the band. With almost half of the core members of the band gone, Matthew Reynolds, Nicholas Horne and David Ransom agreed that it would be "a next to impossible task to replace them". Although disbanding, Howards Alias released [ep.i.phan.ic] in a limited run for any fans who express an interest in pre-ordering a copy.