Features Halls

From personal experience, university halls are stagnating, dingy places. Sure, the perks of a good social life and coffee addiction are all there, but creatively you feel somewhat construed by the thin walls and the new people with different tastes and different interests. In short, you feel quite self-conscious. Knuckling down and writing an essay is one thing, recording music is another altogether. But Sam Howard managed to - hence the name he’s given to his project Halls - and he’s created something quite divine; something so lacking in self-judgement and self-doubt that you wonder how on earth he’s achieved what he has.

“I recorded the vocals when I was sure no-one was in the flat… the vocals are the thing I was most self concious about,” confesses Sam. Sharing a flat with two others allowed him a little more privacy, without the burden of having drunken lads stumbling across the corridors at 4am (again, speaking from experience). Eventually, he produced an EP of majesty; six differing, electronic tracks bursting with ideas. The response has been positive, to say the very least. “It’s all been happening pretty fast, so I’m just trying to stay focused and keep up with it all,” says Sam, who is already prepping a follow-up EP - titled ‘Fragile’ - for sometime later in the year. An enticing prospect, it features “more classical instrumentation”, “distorted samples” of cellos and violins, all kept “within the electronic side of things”.

Now, having settled into his surroundings, Sam Howard looks set to develop as an artist keen to push any boundary he steps in front of. For this young student, trapped in claustrophobic halls, he’s the most exciting electronic artist around.