“Give me a fighting chance!”: Sheffield musician, Howarth, talks about his new single ‘I Need You’

Local Sheffield singer, Howarth, is not new to the South Yorkshire music scene having performed across the area at some of the most iconic music venues. Now, he is focusing on working towards an EP, starting with the release of his brand new single ‘I Need You’.

Exposed sat down with Howarth to talk about life-changing albums and what it is like being an unsigned artist in a world saturated with chart-toppers. 

Why did you decide to become a musician?
It’s from a long time ago. Through growing up listening to fantastic music through my mum and dad. My dad’s friend played guitar and I said I want a go at it!

I suppose it’s just something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and something that I have been doing for a very long time. I’ve been gigging now since I was 14 and I’m now 32 so, as you can imagine, it’s just something that has stuck with me and I just keep going. 

Where do you draw inspiration from for your music and are there any musicians in particular that influence you?
I’m quite an old-fashioned music listener at heart so I listen to The Beatles. But I love my modern stuff as well like Catfish and the Bottlemen. I think they’re still really great. 

I suppose listening to everything that’s going on, as well. Just through gigging alone, you come across certain things and you think “Ah I could use that”. Just whatever sort of grabs you. 

“I always tend to come up with a melody first then start focusing on lyrics. But a lot of them are quite a spur-of-the-moment thing.”

Is there a particular album that changed your life or perspective surrounding music?
That’s the hardest question in the world. I really can’t pick just one, there are that many! Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is absolutely unreal. Purple Rain by Prince is another unreal album. Any Foals album. There are numerous. 

What is your writing process like?
I play guitar quite a lot. You can just be messing around with some chords and all of a sudden you go “Oh they work. Those chords really work. Where can I go from that?”. Then you build a chorus or a bridge. 

I always tend to come up with a melody first then start focusing on lyrics. But a lot of them are quite a spur-of-the-moment thing. Whatever comes to me. 

I know you’ve been playing gigs for quite a long time, but is there one show, in particular, that has been your favourite?
Obviously, I’ve played some really amazing gigs and supported some really amazing artists over the years. I’ve played with Catfish and the Bottlemen a couple of times and Steve Cradock from Ocean Colour Scene. 

But I suppose I’d have to go back to when I was 16 years old and I played at the Boardwalk. It was one of my first-ever gigs. It was fantastic! And I was a lot lighter back then and I managed to do a crowd surf. I don’t think I’d be able to do it now, I think people would drop me!

I’ve been gigging now since I was 14 and I’m now 32 so, as you can imagine, it’s just something that has stuck with me and I just keep going. 

You’ve got your new track ‘I Need You’ coming out, how did that come about?
It has been in the pipeline for a while. I released a song called ‘Losing Man’ four years ago and I pretty much wrote this one to follow it up. But then things like Covid got in the way and put a massive halt on everything. 

I teamed up with a lad called Ross Hooley, who is a fantastic musician. I drew in a bass player called Jack Ansell and a drummer called Richard Hunter and we got together in a room and worked out our parts, made it work. I thought this could be something quite great.

Lyrics-wise, it’s a classic old love song where you need somebody to need you, which is fundamental to a loving relationship. Some of the lyrics are “I need you to move me like a force that is hitting into something that can’t be moved”. It’s that level of needing someone, but if you need someone at that level, you want them to need you at the same level in order for it to work. 

Download it! Buy it! Give me a fighting chance! 

Why do you think it’s so important for people to be supporting local artists like yourself?
You can like all the people that are in the charts and singing on Radio 1 all you want but all of them were unsigned artists at some point. If you don’t support them at the start, why support them now? 

I think people should be going out and listening to live music. They might just find a song that changes their life. I guarantee you that your chances of finding a song that changes your life are drastically improved if you go out and watch unsigned artists. 

After the release of ‘I Need You’, what are the next steps for you?
Once this is released, I’m going full promotion rampage. Then hopefully, I’ll be doing a waterfall of singles to lead up to putting an EP out. 

I’m hoping to get a lot more bigger gigs under my belt. It would be great to expand outside of Sheffield and the local area. I’ve played all over the country before but it would be amazing to expand and get to that stage again. 

‘I Need You’ is out now. You can keep up with Howarth via his social media: Facebook