Review Fix Exclusive: The Howling Tongues’ Nick Magliochetti Talks Boo Hiss And More

Review Fix chats with The Howling Tongues’ Nick Magliochetti about their new album, tour, creative process and goals for the future.

TOUR DATES:

5/20 – Atlanta, GA @ Vinyl (Boo Hiss Release Show)
5/25 – Louisville, KY @ 91.9 WFPK Waterfront Wednesday
5/26 – Nashville, TN @ The 5 Spot
5/27 – Burlington, IA @ The Washington
6/02 – Hamilton, OH @ River’s Edge
6/24 – Macon, GA @ The Hummingbird
7/01 – Covington, GA @ The Listening Room
7/30 – Rensselaer, IN @ Rock The Arts Festival

Review Fix: How did you guys get together?

Nick Magliochetti: We’ve all known each other for years. Some of us have known each other since the 3rdgrade. We all really became close when we were juniors and seniors in high school and our group of friends consisted of all musicians. I knew I wanted to be in a band with TJ cause we liked a lot of similar music and wanted to shake it up, but we didn’t know who would sing. Then Davey texted us late one night and asked if we wanted to start a band. And everything fell into place.
 
Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Magliochetti: A lot of the time someone will come in with a song idea, whether it’s a riff, a part, or even a cool song title or theme and we will work it out together. Someone might come in with a small idea and by the end of the night we have an entire first draft arrangement for it. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll get finished or make the record. It’s the songs that everyone feels electric about. A lot of times we don’t even have to say it to each other, it’s just understood that this song is going to be on an album or released as a single. “Raw Power In A Red Dress” was like that for us. Where as a song like “Vivian” actually came out of taking a guitar part from another demo and changing the key to match what we had of the verses. Then it was like, okay now we’re onto something special. 

Review Fix: What do you think makes this band special?

Magliochetti: Passion. Heart. And we’re all for each other. We have five guys that believe in the idea of this band. We’re not a singer-songwriter with hired on guys, we all believe in the songs and the shows that we put on. We have a specific vision for our band and of course we each have our own opinions, but somehow it works out into this thing that we all created together. We’re always bouncing song ideas, show ideas, and even merch ideas off of each other to keep things fresh. I think long ago we realized that it’s bigger than any single one of us. 
 
Review Fix: How would you describe your style?

Magliochetti: A rock’n’roll hurricane.

Review Fix: What are your goals for this album?

Magliochetti: Our goal is to be able to continue to make records that we love and play lots of shows. We want to tour this album and have fun with it in a live setting and start writing the next album.
 
Review Fix: Why did you name the album “Boo Hiss”?

Magliochetti: We loved the idea of theater audience cues, like when production people hold up APPLAUSE signs cueing the audience to laugh or applause. Or when a bad guy comes out on stage and the crowd naturally starts to boo and hiss at them. Boo Hiss was simple and memorable to us so we went with it.
 
Review Fix: What’s the standout song? Is there a story behind it?

Magliochetti: The standout song is probably different for everyone in the band. “Vivian” has a story behind it because it was a song that we couldn’t ever figure out the chorus to. We had a different guitar part, and sound to it and it just never felt right. Then we took this other song idea’s chorus and shifted the key and in like 5 minutes the chorus for Vivian was done. A song that was shelved for a long time became an anthemic jam. That was an exciting moment. 
 
Review Fix: How is this album different from your first album?

Magliochetti: Everything we did with the first album, we kind of did this opposite with this one. There were a lot of rules with making the first one, cause we worked with a successful producer. This time around we did it ourselves and it was a lot looser, pressure was off. Creativity was very welcome, if we wanted to spend an extra 20 minutes trying out running Davey’s vocal through a guitar amp and pedal, then we tried it. If I wanted to go work out a guitar part or sound in the live room, I would just do that. No one would tell me no. So it felt good to have a little more freedom cause we were kind our own bosses. Our engineer, TJ Elias, and I were talking about the atmosphere that we recorded in and how it was very relaxed and fun and that definitely translates on the album, especially when you track everything live together. That was the biggest change for me that I saw and felt. 
 
Review Fix: How have you grown as musicians through this album?

Magliochetti: We stretched ourselves a little bit further. We wrote a lot of songs together preparing for this album. That amount of writing, whether you keep it or not, makes you better as a musician and as a group of songwriters. 
 
Review Fix: Review Fix:What’s next?

Magliochetti: Taking over the world.