Sunshine Coast music producer and singer/songwriter Billy Howler hopes to inspire a generation with a new vision for the future of music. The 31-year-old is about to release his debut song, “Keep My Fire Lit”, acknowledging the woman he says believed in him long before anyone else.

Billy Howler is not just a musician he’s a movement.

The 31-year-old music producer from Yaroomba is about the full spectrum when it comes to creating a record.

Allowing raw, unfiltered emotion and real-life experiences pour authentically into his music, Billy is ready to challenge the status quo of the music industry.

And inspire change.

Part of his mission is to help people take back the reigns of their lives, like he has done so many times before.

Billy will share his own personal tragedy through music and storytelling, in the hope to heal others and make revolutionary change.

Now brimming with ‘otherworldly-wisdom’, Billy will release his first single, “Keep My Fire Lit” on March 29, as he prepares to tell the story of how he put the pieces of his life back together.

“Keep My Fire Lit” is out on March 29 on all major streaming platforms. Pre-save it here: https://gyro.to/KeepMyFireLit.

Finding a ‘home’ and ‘family’ in music

Pictured at his favourite Eumundi bookshop, Billy wants his fans to share the front seat with him on his musical journey.

After losing his mother to suicide when he was 20, Billy has learned the importance of speaking his truth and finding a strong community.

As a full-time music producer at Easy Tape Studio in Burnside, he works with a tight-nit group of supportive creatives, who are like family to him.

Since turning his life around, Billy wants his music to be a vessel to others on their healing journeys. And encourage his followers to share their stories, through making music, connecting and sharing.

“It’s been a process of love and loss, and gain and sacrifice. And a lot of hope,” Billy says.

“Music really locked me into my reality in a strange way… and gave me purpose.

“It was the vessel that gave me words for what I was feeling.”

Billy Howler and The Badlands

With his Clint-Eastwood-swagger and gentle hippy nature, Billy Howler’s ‘wolf-man’ image couldn’t be more appropriate.

The Badlands is his band, which represents his tribe; their shared community.

Billy hopes his online tribe will be the landing platform where they can connect on a deeper level. And allow them to forge their own long-lasting connections.

In an extraordinary 64-page business document outlining his “band’s proposal’, Billy has detailed a brilliant business plan.

It depicts a positive future of community, connection and innovation.

His proposal also maps out a plethora of heart-felt dreams and visions for humanity.

The Badlands is about “building a strong, inclusive movement of change-makers and dreamers”, Billy says.

“(It’s an) inclusive tribe that stands united in pursuit of meaningful change.”

A personal video brings Billy closer to his fans

On the 10-year-anniversary his mother’s passing, Billy posted an emotional video to Facebook.

In a cosmic twist only the universe can explain, the video – posted a year ago – only started blowing up days ago.

The video has taken his Facebook followers from 100 into the thousands overnight. And it couldn’t have been better timing, as Billy gets ready to release his music to the world.

The video has provided the launch pad Billy always wanted: a vision to give to others everything he has learned himself.

Billy believes through honest storytelling and collective action, a more inclusive future can be built.

It’s positive futurism.

Together.

Photo: Billy as an infant while travelling with his mother. Supplied.

‘Music gave me words for what I was feeling’

Billy has long dreamed of being a musician, yet like many creatives he didn’t believe in himself.

“Music was something that I always wanted for myself. But I had this fear that I’d never bridge that gap,” he says.

“But back then because I couldn’t play music, it felt like this thing that I couldn’t do. Or this thing that people were born with.”

With “a sea of different musical tastes”, Billy’s home was always full of music, from Celtic to blues, music, pop and country.

“Everything was kind of constantly playing in our house,” he says.

“I came from a family where I’ve had a really talented grandmother who taught herself the piano. And is one of the best pianists I’ve ever met. And her mother was the same on the organ.

“So I came from this line of really incredible women who played beautiful music. And every time I asked or got taught or something, it just wouldn’t click.

“So I just assumed that it just wasn’t for me.”

Music is right where Billy ‘needs to be’

Living in the surf-side suburb with his partner and dog, Billy now spends his days making music, surfing, boxing and meditating.

It wasn’t until his mum’s passing when he realised he was in the right place.

“I think I was always looking for an excuse to connect with (music) deeply in my heart,” he says.

“It wasn’t until Mum’s passing that I found it was something I was really searching for.”

Early in his grief process, Billy picked up the guitar his mother had bought him for Christmas two years prior.

Thanks to the support from a mentor who “almost forced him to sing”, Billy started strumming and untangling his past.

“She would say: ‘OK next week we’re going to do another one, and another one. I think I got used to sharing what I was doing.

“It started as a way for me to process. I had so many emotions and things I was going through.”

Turning tragedy into triumph

Left with the support of his dear grandparents and a local spiritual community, Billy leant on the only advice he knew.

He chose to face his fears and adversity, just as his mum had always taught him.

“I think what really got me through… was to be able to face challenges. And to never give up, no matter how hard life got,” he says.

To gain some confidence back, he took a holistic approach.

Billy put himself through an audio engineering college in Melbourne, which he says he took to “like a fish to water”.

“Intuitively, I knew it was going to take me time to get better musically to a point where I was creating what I knew that I could create.

“I thought, ‘how can I maximise my ability to be on that journey’? And for me it was about having all the knowledge that I could have.

“I was learning about music theory… but I knew in the industry that there’s the other side of it, which is recording and working with other people; being in a studio recording.

“And all these things I had no idea about.”

A song about finding meaning in old love

“Keep My Fire Lit” was co-produced with Nyssa Ray Recordings at Easy Tape Studio.

It is a reflective song about putting love above all else.

“I wrote it about a ‘situationship’ and choosing love anyway,” Billy says.

“Even when people are doing everything they can to push people away. Some people can’t see what they’re doing to push love away.

“It’s just a great life song. Like, you know those moments, where it’s the perfect sunset, or the surf is perfect right as the moon comes up?

“Or even when you need comfort after you lose someone.”

“Keep My Fire Lit” is out on March 29 on all major streaming platforms. Pre-save it here: https://gyro.to/KeepMyFireLit.

Follow Billy Howler on Social Media

Instagram: www.instagram.com/billyhowler/.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bhowler (Billy Howler) and www.facebook.com/billyhowlermusic (Billy Howler Music).

This is a sponsored story.