What does it take to be a band? Creativity. Connection. A spark of something bigger than the sum of your parts and the almost delusional ability to dream that maybe, just maybe it could all go right. But what it takes to stay a band in 2025 is far bigger. It’s an extraordinary tenacity in the face of a thousand odds, driven by purpose and a still-bubbling well of potential. And it’s something that Howling Bells have been thinking about extensively as they make their thrilling reemergence with ‘Strange Life’.

Since their beginnings, breaking through with their acclaimed self-titled debut back in 2006 amidst a landscape of scrappy British indie and skinny-jeaned male dominance, the Australian trio – vocalist/guitarist Juanita Stein, her brother and guitarist Joel Stein and drummer Glenn Moule – have been something of an anomaly. They might have moved to the other side of the world in pursuit of the dreams that soon became a reality, playing at an NME Tour and then in stadiums supporting Coldplay whilst whipping up acclaim from the most credible ends of the music press. They may have seen various members come and go, but Howling Bells’ hypnotic indie-rock always stood separate from the pack and very much a reflection of their unbreakable union. Influenced by the likes of Tom Waits and Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Fleetwood Mac and Bjork, their recipe created a heady, submersive stew – equal parts sepia-toned romance and gritty rock’n’roll thrills.

“It’s amazing to me that the new bands that I find really exciting now are making the kind of music that we were making 20 years ago. This kind of narcotic, bluesy, dream pop; all the stuff that really turns me on to this day,” Juanita says. “I’m listening to new albums and I’m like, that’s exactly what we were jamming in the studio 20 years ago. I think that probably says a lot about the kind of music we were making, you know?”

The music they were making continued to develop over three more albums – 2009’s ‘Radio Wars’, 2011’s ‘The Loudest Engine’ and 2014’s ‘Heartstrings’. There was no dramatic dissolution or even an announcement of an intended hiatus but, shrugs Juanita, “life just happened” and the Bells rang silent for a decade. In the interim, all have continued with various music projects – Juanita releasing four solo albums under her own name; Joel making music under the name Glassmaps, and both he and Glenn intermittently playing in Brandon Flowers’ solo band. Most crucially, all three also continued to be firm friends that always left the door open for more. “I always, always felt deep down in my guts that we would come together again at some point,” the singer nods. “That was always a certainty for me.”

And so when the opportunity to give their debut a slightly belated 15th anniversary outing on the road arose, the three musicians found themselves sharing a stage once again for the first time in seven years. Thrilled by the feeling that there was “absolutely zero disconnect between us in the band and those songs”, Juanita began writing at home and then taking tracks to Joel’s studio. Very quickly, the familiar energy began to make itself known. “There’s a consistent theme with the band that we’ve had these really holy glimpses of success and magic and glory. And when you come so close to magic, that’s hard to throw away,” Juanita says. “There’s this constant drive to want to take it further, and that’s where I think the commitment lies with us: that we know how much power and beauty arises when the three of us come together.” And with long term collaborator and friend, Ben Hillier, in the producer’s chair , they were able to bring all these elements together at his Agricultural Audio Studios. 

‘Strange Life’ is both a vibrant document of and an exploratory testament to this alchemical magic. Its title is an acknowledgement of the madness that lies at the heart of music, but also, increasingly, all around us. “I love the word ‘strange’,” says Juanita. “It can encompass a myriad of experiences: being fantastic, being tragic, and everything in between. What it takes to persist as a band is beyond strange, and just being alive in 2025 is the strangest experience. It feels like there’s a pre- and post- timeline of existence where around 2016, when certain people were elected and then the pandemic hit, everything after just got really, really trippy.”

An album that harnesses the unique musical perspective that pricked up the music world’s ears back in their beginnings, but transposes it onto a lifetime’s more experience, ‘Strange Life’ is both familiar and new; a record that will unfurl like an old friend to long term fans whilst speaking in a language that only hard-won experience and a few more trips around the sun can understand. It is, suggests Juanita, a record about experience and wisdom. “If you’re not able to acknowledge the mistakes and the pain and make beautiful music out of it, then they’re left festering inside of you,” she says. “And I don’t ever want that to happen.”

Lead single and album opener ‘Unbroken’ directly speaks to the band’s journey, its weighty guitars and soaring melodic pay-offs wrapping around lyrics that still aim skywards: “Always been lost in a big dream”. “You can either call it childlike or stupidity, but you have to have that in order to believe that something greater can happen,” she says. “I’m not a realist per se, but I have an extraordinary well of persistence inside of me, which the guys do as well, and I think that really drives the band: it’s kind of like persistence, sugar-coated with cotton candy.”

‘Heavy Lifting’ is all loose-limbed drums and bluesy intonation as the singer points her crosshairs at the entitled and the opportunist, while the grittier desert rock of ‘Sacred Land’ finds her casting her gaze to the horrors of the world at large. “It’s a war song. I’m not an outrageously political musician, but I’m deeply moved and paralysed by pain and there’s just so much of it in the world. It also feels very much like an homage to where we grew up in Australia. There was no education or real acknowledgement in our schools about the wiping out of our indigenous people and then you get older and you realise just how grave and tragic the reality of that is.”

The incredibly affective ‘Melbourne’ brings everything back to home as Juanita documents the traumatic day she lost her father, whilst taking an emergency flight back from touring her old city to try and make it to his bedside in London. “I had two suitcases, one full of merch, so I was literally carrying so much weight; so much beyond what I could carry on top of the emotion of it,” she recalls. “And then, unfortunately, he passed away whilst I was on my way back. So that experience was traumatic, and it felt important for me to tell it, and it felt really important for Joel to play it.”

Elsewhere, there are tales of romantic struggle and self-reclamation on ‘Angel’, and echoes of social turmoil on ‘The Looking Glass’. ‘Dreamer’, meanwhile, captures their lightning-in-a-bottle mix and leans into the fantasy. 

From the biggest pictures to the most intimate snapshots, ‘Strange Life’ traverses it all with heart and humanity. “When you’re moving really fast you don’t have time to reflect,” Juanita says. “But between the last album and now, becoming a mother and all those things infusing together has made for a really profound reflection of my life and the music we’ve made in the band.”

It may be a ‘Strange Life’ and a weird old world, but it sounds better with Howling Bells back in it.