The return of The Summer Rabbit just before Halloween is not coincidental. “Howl into the Night” is the Halifax-based trio’s first new track in two years, and in the fine tradition of getting the hairs on the back of our necks trussed up for the season, the song was inspired by eerie dreams and “the ever-approaching fear of the unknown.”
“The song came from my love for horror and thriller media. I was terrified of spooky things as a child, and would regularly experience night terrors,” explains Dan Taylor, The Summer Rabbit’s bassist, songwriter and, for the first time in the band’s history, lead-vocalist.
“Over time I started to become fascinated with the eerie side of things and quickly slipped into watching horror films and reading Stephen King novels as much as I could.”
Taylor describes the song as building a scene around an inescapable boogeyman (in whatever form you might personally manifest that as) and the feeling of helplessness that comes with that looming threat. “Howl into the Night” was inspired by Taylor’s experience just the night before the band was heading into the studio.
“I experienced my first night terror in a few years,” explains Taylor. “Probably the most fitting thing for this type of song; suddenly awaking nearly screaming in fear during the dark night, feeling something is creeping its way towards me.”
While Taylor lists Timber Timbre as one of the song’s stronger musical influences, along with some non-specific rock bands from the 60s or 70s, the theme of “the inescapable” comes across loud and clear. “How into the Night” is reminiscent of The Eagle’s1976 hit about the similarly inescapable “Hotel California”, both in concept and chord structure. Similarly, Matthew Fraser, lead guitarist, does an admirable job filling in the song’s frilly bits.
Taylor doesn’t go into detail on exactly what got him waking up in a sweat, beyond some allusion to spectres and ghouls. The best nightmares are always personalized in any case. Regardless of what it was that was haunting his nightmares, Taylor suspects that “maybe it still is.”