- Digital
Him & Earl
Better Days
Wah Wah 45s
- Cat No: WAHDIG225
- Release: 2026-05-29
- updated:
29thMay sees Him & Earl releasing another deeply uplifting slice of soulful, psychedelic folk-pop. “Better Days” is the third and final single to be unveiled ahead of the duo’s upcoming debut album ‘Falling Backwards’ (out 26th June via Wah Wah 45s).
With its sonorous yet strangely uplifting and mellifluous feel, the forthcoming album is a mystic brew of desert blues, English folk, Americana and stirring southern soul, with tentacles stretching out into psychedelia and prog.
The hooky heat-haze of “Better Days” sits on the brighter end of that sonic spectrum, its lively Kora and Afrobeat-inspired guitar licks, atmospheric trumpet and a harmony-clad mantra of hope on the horizon instilling an upbeat sense of calm.
Him & Earl singer/songwriter Olly Him says: “I wrote this about coming out of a difficult time and seeing light at the end of it and better days ahead. An early version was performed with my previous band Creatures of the Deep as a guitar and vocal harmony track, and when it came to recording it for this album we added horns, drums and percussion.”
Living and evolving, it’s one of those timeless songs that can relate to whatever someone might have on their mind. “Like looking forward to seeing someone you miss, or getting through a long winter and looking forward to happier times coming round, and being together again with friends or family”, Olly elaborates; “And it also resonates with the general current feeling of living through fairly depressing and uncertain times and hoping that better days are ahead.”
Olly Him and DJ, producer and composer Wyndham Earl both have deeply-dug roots in the south coast of England, with the former making his name as a solo artist before exploring his soulful folk sound with a number of live acts, and the latter collaborating on albums and sharing stages with Bonobo, Khruangbin, Alice Russell and TM Juke, having remixes released by Tru Thoughts and Mr Bongo Records and releasing his solo projects on his Time Spun imprint.
The pair first met in 2015 when Wyndham produced some songs for now defunct hypnotic Afro-folk outfit Creatures Of The Deep, of which Olly was a founder member. They instantly clicked, but after the group broke up it wasn’t until some years later that serendipity brought them back together. A chance encounter at a gig led the duo to reignite their fire for working together, and they began to hatch plans to make a full album under the name of Him & Earl with Olly writing the songs and Wyndham arranging and producing the project.
After so long floating in the creative ether, the connective power of these songs has been strikingly immediate. The debut Him & Earl live show in early 2026, before any tracks had even come out, blew Olly and Wyndham’s expectations out of the water as their five-piece band found themselves toe-to-toe with a sellout crowd – a sweaty room full of happy music fans, on an otherwise bleak January night, throwing shapes to live percussion showdowns, losing themselves in psychedelic guitar and bass wig-outs, and singing along to choruses they’d never heard a note of before.
Since then, early singles “Bottled Up” and “Away” have had high profile airplay from the likes of BBC 6 Music’s Huw Stephens and Cerys Matthews, and Radio X’s John Kennedy, adding to widespread tastemaker and specialist support around the world, as excitement builds for the album.
The Falling Backwards album will be released 26th June 2026 on vinyl LP & digital platforms.
“Better Days” Credits:
Olly Him : Vocals / Guitars
Wyndham Earl : Bass Guitar / Snare drum / Percussion
Marcus Hamblett : Trumpet
Jack Baker : Drums
Toma Sapir : Percussion
Tom Camidge : Kora
HIM & EARL - LIVE SHOWS:
May 9th - Coal Drops Yard, London (Independent Label Market) (2PM)
May 14th - The Bootlegger, Brighton (The Alternative Escape) (9.30PM)
June 5th - The Fox & Firkin, London
July 10th - Alphabet, Brighton
With its sonorous yet strangely uplifting and mellifluous feel, the forthcoming album is a mystic brew of desert blues, English folk, Americana and stirring southern soul, with tentacles stretching out into psychedelia and prog.
The hooky heat-haze of “Better Days” sits on the brighter end of that sonic spectrum, its lively Kora and Afrobeat-inspired guitar licks, atmospheric trumpet and a harmony-clad mantra of hope on the horizon instilling an upbeat sense of calm.
Him & Earl singer/songwriter Olly Him says: “I wrote this about coming out of a difficult time and seeing light at the end of it and better days ahead. An early version was performed with my previous band Creatures of the Deep as a guitar and vocal harmony track, and when it came to recording it for this album we added horns, drums and percussion.”
Living and evolving, it’s one of those timeless songs that can relate to whatever someone might have on their mind. “Like looking forward to seeing someone you miss, or getting through a long winter and looking forward to happier times coming round, and being together again with friends or family”, Olly elaborates; “And it also resonates with the general current feeling of living through fairly depressing and uncertain times and hoping that better days are ahead.”
Olly Him and DJ, producer and composer Wyndham Earl both have deeply-dug roots in the south coast of England, with the former making his name as a solo artist before exploring his soulful folk sound with a number of live acts, and the latter collaborating on albums and sharing stages with Bonobo, Khruangbin, Alice Russell and TM Juke, having remixes released by Tru Thoughts and Mr Bongo Records and releasing his solo projects on his Time Spun imprint.
The pair first met in 2015 when Wyndham produced some songs for now defunct hypnotic Afro-folk outfit Creatures Of The Deep, of which Olly was a founder member. They instantly clicked, but after the group broke up it wasn’t until some years later that serendipity brought them back together. A chance encounter at a gig led the duo to reignite their fire for working together, and they began to hatch plans to make a full album under the name of Him & Earl with Olly writing the songs and Wyndham arranging and producing the project.
After so long floating in the creative ether, the connective power of these songs has been strikingly immediate. The debut Him & Earl live show in early 2026, before any tracks had even come out, blew Olly and Wyndham’s expectations out of the water as their five-piece band found themselves toe-to-toe with a sellout crowd – a sweaty room full of happy music fans, on an otherwise bleak January night, throwing shapes to live percussion showdowns, losing themselves in psychedelic guitar and bass wig-outs, and singing along to choruses they’d never heard a note of before.
Since then, early singles “Bottled Up” and “Away” have had high profile airplay from the likes of BBC 6 Music’s Huw Stephens and Cerys Matthews, and Radio X’s John Kennedy, adding to widespread tastemaker and specialist support around the world, as excitement builds for the album.
The Falling Backwards album will be released 26th June 2026 on vinyl LP & digital platforms.
“Better Days” Credits:
Olly Him : Vocals / Guitars
Wyndham Earl : Bass Guitar / Snare drum / Percussion
Marcus Hamblett : Trumpet
Jack Baker : Drums
Toma Sapir : Percussion
Tom Camidge : Kora
HIM & EARL - LIVE SHOWS:
May 9th - Coal Drops Yard, London (Independent Label Market) (2PM)
May 14th - The Bootlegger, Brighton (The Alternative Escape) (9.30PM)
June 5th - The Fox & Firkin, London
July 10th - Alphabet, Brighton
