Ben Howard

The Arc of Ben Howard

The pivots — what forced Ben Howard to reinvent.

1. 01

   The Island Major Label Push

   After signing to Island, Howard was polished up by producer Chris Bond for Every Kingdom, resulting in a clean, stadium-ready folk sound that conquered the radio. The record was recorded in a converted barn in Devon, capturing a bright acoustic resonance that made him a household name and a Brit Award winner. You can hear the struggle between his natural percussive grit and the commercial sheen required to sell a million copies. It made him a star, but he clearly hated being the poster boy for 'Stomp and Holler' folk.

2. 02

   The Darkness of I Forget Where We Were

   Howard retreated to Iberia Studios in Clapham and self-produced his follow-up, a move that felt like a deliberate attempt to alienate the casual listener. He traded the sun-drenched acoustics for electric guitars soaked in reverb and long, moody instrumental passages. The songs stretched out past the five-minute mark, abandoning the pop structures of his debut for something colder and more atmospheric. This was the moment his touring band, including India Bourne and Mickey Smith, became an inseparable part of his wall-of-sound live identity.

3. 03

   The Dessner Modular Shift

   Seeking a way out of his own head, Howard tapped Aaron Dessner to produce in Paris, moving away from the guitar as the primary engine of his songwriting. They leaned into the sonic palette of 22, A Million, utilizing glitches, synth pulses, and fragmented lyricism to create a record that felt more like a collage than a folk session. This era stripped away the last remnants of his 'surfer-songwriter' image in favor of an experimental, art-rock aesthetic. It’s the sound of a man who finally found a way to hide in plain sight.

Influences

• John Martyn — Howard has repeatedly cited Martyn’s Solid Air as his holy grail and even covered 'Couldn't Love You More' during his early sessions. You hear it in the percussive 'slap-and-pick' guitar technique and the way Howard treats his voice as an instrument to be processed through effects.
• Nick Drake — The DNA of Five Leaves Left is all over Howard’s complex alternate tunings and his penchant for pastoral, English melancholy. He performed 'Which Will' for a session early on, acknowledging the debt he owes to Drake's intricate fingerstyle patterns.
• Joni Mitchell — Howard often mentions Hejira as a primary influence for its fretless bass grooves and open-tuned wandering. The shift toward more abstract, travel-focused lyrics on his later albums mirrors Mitchell’s transition from folk queen to jazz-inflected experimenter.
• Bon Iver — The influence is documented through their shared creative circle and Howard’s move toward the experimental vocal processing found on 22, A Million. You can hear Justin Vernon’s blueprint in the way Howard began using the studio as a modular instrument rather than a capture device.
• Simon & Garfunkel — He’s gone on record stating that Bookends was one of the first albums he truly obsessed over as a kid. The DNA shows up in his melodic sensibilities and the occasional vulnerability he lets slip through his otherwise dense arrangements.