Catch the Wahoo Wave: Rustic Howler Brothers Drops Exclusive UVA Collection

“We bought this laptop, and we had no concept what we had been doing in any respect, however we simply went for it and made this album,” Stepanian stated.

“Yeah, loads of it was recorded over at somewhat home on Rugby Place,” Heard added. “A whole lot of it was recorded at a farm in Esmont.”

“Oh, and in Duck, on the Outer Banks,” Stepanian added.

“Oh yeah, that’s proper,” Heard stated quietly, nodding on the reminiscence.

Music critics and followers beloved how Stepanian’s raspy, sandpaper voice blended with Heard’s guitar and banjo work, and Brent’s mandolin and lead guitar. The stripped-down, uncooked bluegrass-influenced band flourished on the tour circuit within the early to mid-2000s, releasing six albums and burning a path on Interstate 64 between Charlottesville and Richmond, the place they performed quite a bit.

Fishing the Gulf Coast and the Delivery of Howler Brothers

Because the years handed, Stepanian and Heard married their UVA school sweethearts, Liz Nau and Helen Van Clief, respectively, and have become extra concerned of their skilled lives. Stepanian, a 1997 English main at UVA, earned a legislation diploma on the College of Richmond and started working as an lawyer within the beer distribution enterprise. Heard, who earned levels in economics and positive arts at UVA in 2000, later earned a graduate diploma in structure and was working within the area.

A aspect gig designing a T-shirt bought Heard pondering there needed to be one thing extra fulfilling. He needed to make a go of beginning a males’s clothes firm.

“I had loads of pent-up artwork inside me that wanted to get out, and Howler Brothers was an amazing automobile for that,” he stated. He known as on his previous inventive pal Stepanian to see if he needed in. The reply was sure.

Along with music, the pair linked over their love of browsing, surf tradition and the outside. They’d each relocated to Texas and had been kicking again one afternoon after a day spent fishing on the Gulf Coast, pulling in redfish “and tarpon for those who’re fortunate,” Heard stated.

“That’s the place loads of this concept hatched,” he stated. “It was like, ‘Hey, we will make cooler-looking stuff.’ Like, we prefer to fish in additional flavorful issues. We used to put on loads of embroidered shirts after we performed within the band.” That’s when he and Stepanian determined to make their funky wardrobe a way of life.

The pair launched Howler Brothers in 2011, and its pearl-snap, embroidered Western shirt-influenced line has steadily grown in recognition since then. This yr, comic Will Ferrell sported a Howler Brothers cap in a lot of his new documentary, “Will & Harper.”

New Wahoowa Collegiate Line

Not too way back, the College approached Stepanian and Heard with an concept: Would they think about designing a collegiate line of clothes for UVA? 

At first, there was reluctance. The pair was not too excited by getting into that market. However quickly, nostalgia and an abiding fondness for UVA gained them over.

They’ve curated a completely distinctive “capsule assortment” of Wahoo-inspired menswear that subtly blends classic College emblems with muted pigments recalling the varsity’s signature orange and blue hues.

Heard, utilizing the abilities he realized at UVA as a positive arts main, designed the gathering.

“I believe a part of this was introducing ourselves to a brand new viewers, which is loads of of us who perhaps don’t know who Howler Brothers is,” he stated. “So, we went with loads of our staples, that are an embellished shirt, in addition to an all-over sample shirt and a few cool hats and issues.”

The road will be on the market Friday at a particular tent occasion outdoors Peabody Corridor, the place Stepanian and Heard will introduce their items.