HIMALAYAS have jammed with AC/DC and supported Foo Fighters at their Cardiff hometown’s biggest stadium. Now they’re about to go supernova with bombastic second album BAD STAR, and remind the world of the importance of The Riff…
Fifty-million streams? That’s light work in the case of HIMALAYAS’ early single Thank God I’m Not You. Since then, the Cardiff quartet have gone on tour after tour, and churned out commanding rock belters with stadium-sized choruses that Queens Of The Stone Age or Royal Blood would be proud of.
After dropping their hell-raising debut album From Hell To Here in 2023, some even more famous faces hit them up. AC/DC’s Brian Johnson co-wrote their single V.O.V., while Foo Fighters hand-picked the band to open for them at Cardiff’s 74,500-capacity Principality Stadium.
“It felt like a dream state, we were expecting to wake up,” recalls singer/guitarist Joe Williams. “We mainly just talked [with Dave Grohl] about ABBA Voyage! They had to sign off on the slot. The fact that we were ‘approved’ to play the show was a huge moment for all of us.”
Drummer James Goulbourn offers one better. “I feel like Noel Gallagher calling you shit is just as good!”
New album BAD STAR raises the game for HIMALAYAS. It’s fatter, louder and ballsier. Still centred around gargantuan rock hooks, their foundations persist, while they find new ways to utilise these riffs.
“My bugbear with rock at the minute is that sometimes people shy away from being bold,” suggests Joe.
“The riffs are ever-present, but there’ll be a new take on it each time,” adds guitarist Mike Griffiths. “There’s still a lot of [untouched] territory with playing guitar, which is why you can justify being a rock band in the 21st century.”
Opening track Beneath The Barrel explodes into life after its brooding “red herring” of an intro. “You can never tell where your headphone volume should be,” grins James.
“Throughout the whole album, we liked the idea of keeping the listener on their toes,” adds Joe, exemplified by the mysterious structure of Nothing Higher or the “early MCR” momentum that pummels through closer A Brand New God. “That song felt like the cliffhanger – the car is driving towards it…”
In the precarious world that surrounds us, people go in search of something bigger, and that’s exactly where the open-ended lyricism to BAD STAR comes in.
“It’s difficult to make a fully-formed opinion on anything right now,” says Mike.
“We like to live in the grey area,” adds Joe. “The listener is intelligent enough to figure out their own meaning from the lyric.”
BAD STAR is on the horizon, and HIMALAYAS continue to climb the never-ending rock’n’roll mountain – armed with their undying work ethic, brotherhood and a fundamentally epic sound. With the potential in their locker, you get the feeling they’re still only at base camp.
BAD STAR is released on April 25 via Nettwerk. HIMALAYAS tour the UK from May 28. This interview originally appeared in the spring 2025 issue of Kerrang!.
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