Howler Honey est 2022, consists of vocalists/multi-instrumentalists, Matt Wayne and Julianne Jean. The two grew up in the same town in Southern California and met through neighborhood friends when they were kids. Howler Howler began by accident when Matt and JuJu were living in Austin, Texas for a brief stint and began writing and producing music in their home studio which later became their debut album “1st St Dream”. The smokey, downtempo and sultry atmosphere of Howler Honey transports listeners to their favorite neon lit fantasies right in their own head.
Through their formative years, each developed their own musical skills and tastes: Matt picked up the guitar at 9 years old. Growing up, he was in multiple bands with wide ranging influences and studied with legendary Shrapnel recording artists including Paul Gilbert (Racer X, Mr. Big), Scott Henderson (Tribal Tech), Bruce Boulliet (Racer X, The Scream) and more. After studying with Bruce Boulliet, he chose Matt to be his right hand axe man in his solo project. Later Matt joined The Changing with bandmates Kalen Chase (Korn, Vimic) and Tina Guo (Hans Zimmer, Foo Fighters, Joe Bonamassa, Carrie Underwood) working closely with producer Logan Mader (Machine Head, Soulfly, 5 Finger Death Punch, Gojira) where he built an established performance history.
Similarly, JuJu grew up as part of a singing quartet with her sisters—a background heavy in Jazz, R&B, Motown, Musical Theater and performance beginning at the ripe age of two, winning grand champion at her first regional talent competition at 3 years old. As she grew older and expanded her repertoire, she studied with some of the most well renowned experts in the field including Quincy Jones, Seth Riggs (Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Prince. Ray Charles, Madonna, Barbara Streisand), Mike Meros (Beach Boys), Mary Harris-Drummond (Jimmy Buffet, Ambrosia) and many more. By the time JuJu was eighteen, she had played thousands of shows at many different venues, opened for Coolio at a private event for Gold Medal Olympian Carl Lewis and performed at Jay Leno’s “Look To The Stars” Charity Ball. With these unique and extensive music backgrounds, Matt and JuJu started playing together in 2013 and brought together a collection of styles, and performance repertoires to create raw, soulful, jazzy blues influenced songwriting, layered on top of west coast feel and energy.
On their way to creating Howler Honey, Matt and JuJu have created multiple music projects together over the years with their first ever released single, recorded in their bedroom closet, reaching over 1.4 million streams and climbing, being featured on Spotify’s “LovePop” playlist with over 3.4 million followers and Spotify’s “Love Songs & Chill” playlist with over 500,000 followers. Also, being featured as the Artist Spotlight on SoCal’s 88.5 FM multiple times, a featured band on the AUX RTN Podcast affiliated with 88.5 FM, played the first ever virtual reality Burning Man Festival (being the largest virtual reality event in history), performed as a featured artist on Norm’s Rare Guitars Web Series, featured on Jam In The Van, Sunset Sound Studio’s “Into The Vault” series, Medicine Box's “Tree Talks” web series and have also contributed guitar work to the Emmy Award winning Netflix documentary, “Wild Wild Country” as well as featured vocals on the new Hulu series “Death and Other Details”.
Additionally, Matt and Julianne have worked and recorded with renowned musicians and producers such as Jim Messina (Loggins and Messina, Poco, Buffalo Springfield), Stanley “The Baron” Behrens (WAR, Canned Heat, Santana), Glen Sobel (Alice Cooper, Hollywood Vampires), Greg Bissonette (David Lee Roth, Joe Satriani, Ringo Starr, Spinal Tap, Steve Vai, Electric Light Orchestra, Toto), Jacob Sciba (Gary Clark Jr., Black Pistol Fire, Black Angels, Willie Nelson) at Arlyn Studios, John McBride (Martina McBride, Stevie Nicks, Train, Dolly Parton, Buddy Guy, Kesha, Garth Brooks) at Blackbird Studios, Gary Mallaber (Steve Miller Band, Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt), John “Spazz” Hatton (Brian Setzer Orchestra, The Stray Cats) and Scott Wittenberg (Zen Robbi) on various music projects along the way.
Their debut album, “1st Street Dream” was mixed by Grammy-Award winner, Will Chason (Kanye West, RZA, Tyler The Creator, Mono Neon, The Head and the Heart), at Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco, CA and their sophomore album, “Casa De Bernardo” was recorded in Los Angeles, CA and mixed by Tyler Karmen (Alan’s Morisette, Warpaint, My Morning Jacket, MGMT) of 64 Sound.
Since being released, their albums have been spreading like wildfire globally all over platforms and publications, magazines, blogs and radio. Recently they have been featured on Radio Venice TV, MusicOTFuture Global TV “Behind The Song Series”, Apple Music’s Official Playlists “New In Alternative” and “New Music Daily”, Speed On The Beat Blog exclaiming, “I’m reminded of a mix between The Alabama Shakes and Amy Winehouse on this as it’s got that old-school bluesy feel to it with an edge.”, KRXM Radio’s “Tunes At Noon”, Tasty Licks Music Web Series, Adam’s Archive Show KNNZ 89.1FM, KXLU 88.9FM’s Wildwood Flower Radio Hour and The Mystic Pete Chronicles and most recently becoming official artists for SXSW 2024.
“Casa De Bernardo” OUT NOW.
