ABOUT

“Howie has struck up a brilliant balance on this album, making sure every song has purpose. His empathetic songwriting is what really sets it apart from the rest. 8/10.”
Maverick Magazine

“An album of the year contender upon first listen.”
Rockin’ The Suburbs

“A stunning selection of songs… a great album.”
– Scots Whay Hae!

“Not just intriguing, but insightful, not only beautiful, but hauntingly spectacular… this is the music not just of a musician in the prime of his career and output, but of a spokesperson for a generation. 8.5/10”
– Liverpool Sound and Vision

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Andrew Howie is a Scottish singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer & community music tutor who has been writing, recording and releasing his own music for over two decades. He combines confessional & empathetic lyricism with acoustic instruments, noisy electronics & ambient textures to create introspective, hook-laden songs about uncertainty, doubt & love.

Pale White Branches – his most recent album, released in 2021 – is his strongest collection of songs yet. For a musician who often favours working alone, Pale White Branches marked a rare foray into collaborative territory; three of the songs were co-writes, Howie shared production duties with esteemed engineer/producer Iain Hutchison, and a five-piece band played on all eleven tracks.

From 2000 – 2013 he made a vast amount of music under the name Calamateur, releasing 5 albums and several EPs, singles and mini-albums, while receiving a good deal of radio play and critical acclaim along the way.

His 2015 album The Great Divide was the first to be released under his own name. It retained many of the characteristics of his work as Calamateur (guitar-based songs submersed in other-wordly electronica) but was a huge step-forward in terms of songwriting and production.

Since then he’s released the Victory EP, Scars Are Like A Beacon (an ambient reworking of The Great Divide), I Can Sing A Rainbow (another ambient album), Lonely Hummingbird (a collection of co-writes with American songwriters, including Rebecca Pronsky, Denison Witmer & Amy Allison), Solo Guitar Loops 1 & Solo Guitar Loops 2 (two collections of improvised electric guitar pieces), the electronica album Micronations and the accompanying Fragile EP, as well as the afore-mentioned Pale White Branches.

His music has been used in BBC Three drama Lip Service, as well as in several short films. He has completed several songwriting commissions, including work for Refuweegee, Macmillan Tayside PEOLC Network Vox Liminis, The Falkirk Music Pot Project, Blythswood Trust and Inverness Old Town Art. As part of IOTA’s Street Texts project, the lyrics to one of his songs were permanently inscribed into a paving stone in one of the city’s main streets.

Andrew is also in demand as a songwriting and music tutor. Having gained an MA in Songwriting and Performance (made possible after winning The Gerry Rafferty scholarship) and a BA in Popular Music, he has worked with several schools, prisons and youth organisations throughout Central Scotland. You can read more about this here.