Howler Honey est 2022, consists of vocalists/multi-instrumentalists, Matt Wayne and JuJu Jean.
The two grew up in the same town in Southern California and met through neighborhood friends when they were kids. Blending Americana-Noir Indie Soul with Funky Psychedelic Surf Pop, Venice California duo, Howler Honey produces emotionally charged soundscapes that sit between late-night confession and cinematic escape drawing vast influences from Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass to Portishead and Sublime.
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.
On the other hand, 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 met back up when both of them ended up getting asked to play the same show in 2013 and immediately started playing music together after that. They 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 created multiple music projects together over the years with their first ever released single, recorded in their bedroom closet, reaching over 1.5 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 and most recently Howler Honey’s debut album being featured on Apple Music’s Official Playlists
“New In Alternative” and “New Music Daily”.
Other notable highlights include contributing music to the Emmy Award winning Netflix documentaries, “Wild Wild Country” and “The Kings of Tupelo” as well as the new Hulu series “Death and Other Details”, being featured as the “Artist Spotlight” on SoCal’s 88.5 FM for multiple weeks in a row and 88.5FM’s “The AUX RTN Podcast”, as well as a featured performing artist/interviewed for SXSW Music Festival, Abbot Kinney Fest, KXLU Radio 88.9FM’s “Wildwood Flower Radio Hour” and “Mystic Pete’s Chronicles Radio Show” and KUSF College Radio. They played at Topanga Banjo & Fiddle Fest, Mountain Town Music Fest, Mesa Music Film Fest, Highland Park Film Fest, 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, Jam In The Van, Kurt Russell’s GoGi Wine & Music Annual Event, Sunset Sound’s, “Into The Vault” Series and Medicine Box’s “Tree Talks”, Unquiet Live Web Series, Radio Venice TV, MusicOTFuture Global TV “Behind The Song Series”, KRXM Radio’s “Tunes At Noon”, Tasty Licks Music and Adam’s Archive Show KNNZ 89.1FM, as well as headlining notable venues such as the Ventura Theater, The Venice West, House of Blues and the Whiskey A Go Go.
Howler Honey has collaborated with Brian Viglione (The Dresden Dolls) contributing the music for the song “Time Warp” featuring Tim Curry, Connie Britton, Rosario Dawson, Jason Alexander, Wilmer Valderrama, Lance Bass, Seth Green, Nell Campbell, Josh Gad, David Arquette, Eiza Gonzalez, Rachel Bloom and many more, for the 45th Anniversary remake of the Rocky Horror Picture Show playing alongside Miss Peppermint, Bob Weir and Mike McCready as well as collaborated with renowned musicians, 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), Gary Mallaber (Steve Miller Band, Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt), John “Spazz” Hatton (Brian Setzer Orchestra, The Stray Cats) and Scott Wittenberg (Zen Robbi) and producers 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, Will Chason (Kanye West, RZA, Tyler The Creator, The Head and the Heart) at Hyde Street Studios and Tyler Karmen (Lola Young, MGMT, My Morning Jacket) for their debut and sophomore albums, “1st Street Dream” and “Casa De Bernardo”.
