Brian Howes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article does not cite any references or sources. (February 2008)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (March 2008)

Brian Howes is a Canadian rock producer, singer, and member of the band Closure

[edit] Discography

Band

Producer

 This article on a Canadian musician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.


[edit] Bio

Brian Howes’s background, experience, talent and savvy created the perfect storm for a sought after heavy weight producer/writer/record executive and artist developer. Like most producers, Brian played in bands through high school starting with cover songs and eventually writing original material, landing record deals, gaining airplay, shooting music videos and touring the world. Brian fronted the influential group DDT which blended punk, ska and rap. The band were signed by Lars Ulrich from Metallica’s label through Elektra in the late 90’s. DDT’s Urban Observer album was supported by the first single “Walkabout.” While climbing up the charts they played huge venues with Kid Rock and Public Enemy among others. Unfortunately, as these things go, the band imploded during the take off. While making of the DDT record, Brian discovered a passion for songwriting and production.

After DDT’s demise, he began to write songs and produce other artists. Brian landed several cuts which charted internationally and licensed to film and television. Having honed his craft, he started a new band called Closure fueled by heaps of hooks and melodies. It wasn’t long before the Closure demo had a number labels willing to crack their piggy banks. In 2003 TVT Records released the Closure’s self titled debut and single “Look Out Below.” Brian hit the road again played shows across North America with contemporaries Trapt, Sevendust, 12 Stones and Buckcherry.

In 2004 Brian was bursting to get into the studio to write with and produce other acts. He spent months developing new artists HInder and Faber Drive with Joey Moi, who he produced the Closure record with. Brian not only styled the songs and production model but groomed these young artists for success and focused their live performances, imaging and work ethic. In 2005 Hinder were signed to Universal Republic Records and Brian went back into the studio to complete their debut Extreme Behavior. The band’s first single “Get Stoned” went top 5 at Rock radio in the U.S. and scanned 200,000 albums up until several mid-western radio stations discovered the power ballad “Lips of an Angel” (a co-write between Hinder and Brian). The stations started spiking the track and listener call out was extraordinary. Suddenly Hinder’s label discovered they had a crossover smash on their hands. By summer 2006 “Lips...” reached #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart and the album was certified Gold. It was at that point Brian was tapped to write with the #4 contestant of that year’s American Idol, Chris Daughtry. Brian and Chris clicked instantly and wrote the singles “Over You” (currently Top 10) and “What I Want" (Top 5 Rock). After that, Vancouver’s secret weapon Brian Howes was no longer a secret.

Brian went on to produce grammy nominated Skillet’s Comatose album for Atlantic and Hedley's self titled debut for Universal Canada. Hedley went platinum in Canada and had 3 #1 singles. After signing to Universal Republic Records, Brian produced the Faber Drive album Seven Second Surgery with Joey Moi and wrote songs for record with Chad Kroeger of Nickelback.

Hinder’s Extreme Behavior album’s sales were exploding by the end of 2006 where it sat in the top 10 album charts for months. Sales quickly went from gold to platinum, to double-platinum and beyond by late 2007. Several label giants were astounded by Hinder’s success and learned about the artist development story behind them. Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine brought Brian into the family with a joint venture label where he could sign and develop new acts. Brian spent much of 2007 working on singles for a number of artists including Avril Lavigne, I Nine, Lifehouse, Puddle of Mudd, Chris Cornell, Takota, Lesley Roy, Serena Ryder, Hedley and Rachel Page in addition to opening his own new world-class recording studio Van Howes Studios in downtown Vancouver. He recently signed rock band Revelation Theory to his label Wreck Beach Records / Interscope and began working on the album for an early ’08 release. Brian will be back in the studio with Hinder in the beginning of next year working on a new album.

Brian’s success can be attributed to his authenticity as an artist who can relate to other artists. That along with lots of hard work. He puts the artist’s vision first and believes the song will carry the message.