Howie Day
Day performing in 2015
Background information
Born	Howard Kern Day (1981-01-15)January 15, 1981 (age 45) Bangor, Maine, U.S.
Origin	Brewer, Maine, U.S.
Genres	Pop rock indie rock
Occupation	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals guitar piano keyboards
Years active	1993–present
Labels	Sony BMG/Epic
Website	www.howieday.com

Howard Kern Day (born January 15, 1981)^[1] is an American singer-songwriter. Beginning his career as a solo artist in the late 1990s, Day became known for his extensive touring and in-concert use ofsamplers andeffects pedals to accompany himself.^[2] He self-financed and self-released his first album,Australia, in 2000.

Day eventually signed a recording contract with major labelEpic Records in 2002 and has since re-released his debut as well as producing a follow-up,Stop All The World Now. Despite initially sluggish sales,Stop All The World Now was certified gold in early 2005,^[3] and has produced a number of singles, including the hits "She Says" and "Collide", Day's most successful to date.^[4] "Collide" later became Day's first platinum single, eventually selling 1.5 million downloads.

After a five-year tour before the release ofStop All The World Now followed by a three-year tour, Day took some time off and focused on writing music. Day released hisBe There EP in May 2009 followed bySound The Alarm, released on September 8, 2009. In December 2014, Day created aPledgeMusic campaign to fund a new album,Lanterns, which was released to pledgers on April 16, 2015. The album was released oniTunes April 28, 2015. Several songs on the album featureAimee Mann on backing vocals.

Born inBangor, Maine and raised inBrewer, Howie Day began to play music at age five when his mother bought a piano at an auction.^[5] When Day's mother noticed that her son was able to play by ear tunes of television advertising jingles, she enrolled him in piano lessons, which he would continue for six years.^{[citation needed]}He attended Brewer High School.

At around age 13, Day's interest drifted toward rock music and the electric guitar. His father bought him aFender Stratocaster and enrolled him in basic vocal training. His parents owned and ran a popular local restaurant, which gave Day a public arena in which to start performing, playing every Friday night for patrons. Day made his first stage appearance in August 1996 at Bangor restaurant Captain Nick's.^{[6][unreliable source?]} Day played in a local band called Route 66 throughout 1997 and made sporadic solo appearances in local venues until booking agent Shawn Radley discovered him the following year while Day was supportingZiggy Marley at theUniversity of Maine.^[7] Radley became Day's manager in June 1998, and Day began touring more extensively, leading him to miss 45 days of school and to almost fail his senior year.^[8]

In 1998, Day recorded his first demo EP, which containedcovers of songs byDave Matthews Band,Barenaked Ladies, andGoo Goo Dolls in a Ryan Miller (Guster) style alongside the originals "Buzzing" and "Lick My Lips". This EP was followed later in 1998 by another demo consisting wholly of Day's originals.

On the strength of these performances and demos, Radley secured Day a showcase at the annualNational Association for Campus Activities Convention, where he played for 1,500college talent buyers.^[2] Having received around four months of bookings at colleges around the United States, Day decided to defer attending college in favor of his burgeoning music career.

Day recorded a cover ofThe Beatles' "Help!" for thesoundtrack to the 2001 filmI Am Sam.

Day's first full-length album,Australia, was self-financed and independently released. It was named "Best Debut Album" at the 2001 Boston Music Awards. Fans consider it to be one of his best and most authentic works, with follow-up albumsStop All The World Now andSound the Alarm as having a more commercial, polished sound and feel.

After the EP's release, Day relocated toLondon, England to recordAustralia's follow up, which was provisionally titledFrom a Northern Sky.^{[9][unreliable source?]} The album, which would eventually becomeStop All The World Now, was recorded in London's famousOlympic Studios withMartin "Youth" Glover, the bassist for British bandKilling Joke, whose previous production credits includedThe Verve'sUrban Hymns, one of Day's favorite albums.

While certain tracks onAustralia had featured session musicians,Stop All The World Now saw Day joined for the first time by a permanent backing band, consisting of multi-instrumentalistLes Hall, drummer Laurie Jenkins, DrummerMark Heaney, and ex-Verve bassistSimon Jones. In addition, the majority of the album's songs were co-written with eitherBetter than Ezra frontmanKevin Griffin orJump Little Children'sJay Clifford.

In the autumn of 2002, Day was the opening act forTori Amos.^[10]

A full-band tour to promoteStop All the World Now began on September 27, 2003. Due to other commitments, Simon Jones was unable to tour with the group and was replaced by Jeremy Curtis. The album was released one week and three days later on October 7 to tepid critical reactions.Rolling Stone's Pat Blashill referred toStop as "not bad" but "indistinct",^[11] butPopmatters'Devon Powers noted that thoughAustralia had been an album one falls for passionately, "Stop All the World Now is an album you have a crush on, not one you fall deeply, complexly, and foolishly in love with. And crushes have a way of disappearing suddenly, without a trace."^[12]

Sales ofStop were initially sluggish, but slowly began to rise beginning in late 2004 with the single release of ballad "Collide", which became a popular radio hit and was featured on TV shows such asCold Case,Scrubs,Grey's Anatomy,Bones, andTwo and a Half Men as well as soundtracking a promotional trailer for the2005 film adaptation ofJane Austen'sPride and Prejudice.Stop was finally certifiedgold in early 2005. Fan favorite "She Says", which was first released on 1998'sWhite EP, was released as a follow-up to "Collide".

Boosted by the slow success ofStop All the World Now, Epic released theLive From... EP on December 6, 2005. The 7-track EP contains live renditions of songs fromAustralia andStop All the World Now as well as a cover ofCrowded House's "Don't Dream It's Over". The EP has not been widely reviewed, thoughAllmusic referred to the release as "holiday market product", "tepid", and "directionless".^[1]

Day released an EP, introducing his new album, featuring three new songs: "Be There", "40 Hours", and "Counting On Me". These tracks were available on iTunes. "Be There", produced byKevin Griffin,Mike Flynn, andWarren Huart, was serviced to radio as the first single from the album.

Day released his third full-length album,Sound the Alarm under theEpic music label on September 8, 2009.^[13] After an extensive tour schedule following the release ofStop, Day decided to take some time off, during which he sorted through his emotions by writing songs, many of which have made their way ontoSound the Alarm. "I toured for five years straight beforeStop All The World Now came out, then for three years non-stop after it was released," Day says.^[14]

To get his desired range of sounds and moods, Day recorded in a variety of locations, including Los Angeles, New York (Joel Hamilton), London, Minneapolis, and Bloomington, Indiana, between the spring of 2006 and fall of 2008. He also collaborated with several musicians and producers, including Martin Terefe (Jason Mraz,KT Tunstall), Mike Denneen (Aimee Mann,Fountains of Wayne), Mike Flynn (The Fray,Augustana), Warren Huart (The Fray, Augustana,Better Than Ezra) and Kevin Griffin."Be There" and "Longest Night" have been used in the CW showThe Vampire Diaries.

Consisting of tracks that were left offSound the Alarm, theCeasefire EP was released on June 29, 2011.

Day created aPledgeMusic campaign in December 2014 to fund a new album,Lanterns, which was released to pledgers on April 16, 2015.^[15] The album was released on iTunes April 28, 2015. When asked about taking the PledgeMusic avenue, Day said "It not only helped pay some of the studio bill, it was also really encouraging to have the fans behind me during the process. I am incredibly grateful."^[16] Day's loyal fan base have given mostly favorable reviews. Several songs on the album feature Aimee Mann on backing vocals.

In 2015, members of theCERN wrote a parody of "Collide", describing the experiments of theLarge Hadron Collider from the point of view of aproton. After hearing the parody, Day visited CERN and recorded a cover of the parody of his own song, complete with a clip filmed on site in the tunnels of LHC and in front of theATLAS detector.^[17]

Day received significant negative attention after two high-profile arrests. In 2004, Day was arrested and charged over an incident in which he was accused of locking a female fan in the bathroom of his tour bus and destroying thecellular phone of another, for which he was fined.^[18] In December 2005, Day was arrested inBoston after reportedly verbally abusing the flight crew while under the influence ofalcohol andsleeping pills. He was sentenced to one year's probation on April 26, 2006.^[19]

In 2013, Day reflected on his younger experiences by saying, "I was a kid from Maine who went from zero to 380 in about two seconds, so it was kind of overwhelming. But that's no excuse. I drank a bit too much. A lot of kids run wild, but it’s a big difference when people know who you are."^[20]

In April 2018, Day was charged with fourth-degree assault for shoving his girlfriend, Carrie Pencek.^[21] Day was arrested for assaulting Pencek a second time in August 2019. While staying in a New York City hotel, Day allegedly choked her and threw her to the floor, causing injury to her face, hands, and neck.^[22] Day was charged with third-degree assault, harassment, obstructing another person's breathing, and criminal possession ofXanax, a controlled substance.^[23]

• Songs & Stories Tour (2025)^[33]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toHowie Day.

• The Official Howie Day website
• Howie Day's Myspace

• 1981 births
• Living people
• 21st-century American guitarists
• 21st-century American male singers
• 21st-century American singer-songwriters
• American male guitarists
• American male pop singers
• American male singer-songwriters
• American pop rock singers
• American rock guitarists
• American rock singers
• American rock songwriters
• Guitarists from Maine
• Musicians from Bangor, Maine
• People from Brewer, Maine
• Singer-songwriters from Maine

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from June 2020
• Articles with hCards
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from September 2009
• All articles lacking reliable references
• Articles lacking reliable references from September 2009
• Commons category link from Wikidata