On the 30th of December 2009, Australia lost one of its most uncompromising song writers ever, Rowland S Howard. He rose to cult notoriety through his hard work with the Boys Next Door (to become the Birthday Party), as the frontman of These Immortal Souls, Swell Maps’ Nikki Sudden and New York’s No Wave chanteuse Lydia Lunch, as well as two history-making solo efforts featuring some of the most challenging song-writing around. Though, we haven’t just lost a song-writer or musician but a genuine artist.

 It all began in St Kilda, pairing up with Ollie Olsen to create the Young Charlatans, spending nights scouring the dirty streets surrounding the Crystal Ballroom for inspiration. Unfortunately this is where it all (unintentionally) ended, his stomping ground of Fitzroy St’s Prince Bandroom playing host to Rowland’s very last live performance on the 29th of October, presenting those lucky enough to attend with a blistering set and a dry but jovial attitude. Everyone felt as though he was just going to be here, traversing the grey pavement of St Kilda forever.

His two solo albums, Teenage Snuff Film and Pop Crimes, though ten years apart, both exhumed a dark, haunting energy, an intelligence leaving many of today’s songwriters pailing in comparison. That is more than most achieve in their life time, though he just soldiered on quietly, playing music and letting his songwriting skill express all he ever wanted to say.  

A good friend of mine questioned that, with Rowland now gone who is going to carry the torch? Who will be that prolific songwriter of my generation? When I am 40, whose songs am I still going to care about? I flippantly commented that someone was bound to come out of the woodwork. But with this new decade we all find ourselves stepping into, without the likes of Rowland S Howard, will it prove to be fruitful with the ingenious songwriters we’ve been blessed with in the past? We may just be destined to be nostalgic for Teenage Snuff Film forever, though I’m not sure Rowland would want it that way, seeing as he shows a great detest for the sentimental whenever ‘Shivers’ is bought up, a lamenting love song he penned at only 15 years of age.  

 What I am trying to get out in a rather scattered way is the passing of Rowland has left a bigger hole in Australian music then anyone could have ever imagined. He’s left us with an ongoing spiral of questions never to be answered and only our imagination to fill in the giant landscape of songwriting he still had ahead of him. The body of work he has left behind is probably only a snapshot of what he could have done, yes, but we’re still so blessed to have what we’ve got. No one will ever release anything in the same calibre of Teenage Snuff Film for fifty years, if ever! We can only hope someone comes close, because if not Rowland has left us in a lot of trouble!