Andy Stepanian, Mason Brent and Chase Heard are musicians and “brothers from different mothers.” (Illustration by John DiJulio, University Communications)
It was 1999, right around this time of year, Halloween. Andy Stepanian, Chase Heard and Mason Brent had bonded at the University of Virginia over a shared love of music.
“We kind of hatched a plan to try something band-wise,” Stepanian said on a recent visit to Charlottesville with Heard and Brent. At first, they played shows on Grounds at parties and backyard gatherings at Pavilion VII on the Lawn.
They named their band the Wrinkle Neck Mules, though they can’t really tell you why.
As the Wrinkle Neck Mules, Stepanian, left, Heard, center, and Brent, right, play a garden party in the early 2000s behind Pavilion VII on the Lawn. (Photo contributed by Wrinkle Neck Mules)
“Gosh, I wish I had a better story for this one,” Heard said. “We used to just make up a different story every time somebody asked us because we don’t have a really good reason for it.
“The truth is, it was a kind of a joke name when we did our first gig and it really stuck and we could never live it down,” he said. “So, for better or for worse, it’s what we’re called.”
In 2001, they produced their first album, “Minor Enough,” and laughed when asked where they recorded it. “It’s homemade,” Stepanian and Heard said almost simultaneously.
“We got this computer, and we had no idea what we were doing whatsoever, but we just went for it and made this album,” Stepanian said.
“Yeah, a lot of it was recorded over at a little house on Rugby Place,” Heard added. “A lot of it was recorded at a farm in Esmont.”
“Oh, and in Duck, on the Outer Banks,” Stepanian added.
“Oh yeah, that’s right,” Heard said quietly, nodding at the memory.
Stepanian, left, earned his degree in English in 1997. Heard and his future wife, Helen Van Clief, the Howler Brothers’ chief of staff, posed at their graduation three years later in 2000. (Contributed photos)
Music critics and fans loved how Stepanian’s raspy, sandpaper voice blended with Heard’s guitar and banjo work, and Brent’s mandolin and lead guitar. The stripped-down, raw bluegrass-influenced band flourished on the tour circuit in the early to mid-2000s, releasing six albums and burning a trail on Interstate 64 between Charlottesville and Richmond, where they played a lot.
Fishing the Gulf Coast and the Birth of Howler Brothers
As the years passed, Stepanian and Heard married their UVA college sweethearts, Liz Nau and Helen Van Clief, respectively, and became more involved in their professional lives. Stepanian, a 1997 English major at UVA, earned a law degree at the University of Richmond and began working as an attorney in the beer distribution business. Heard, who earned degrees in economics and fine arts at UVA in 2000, later earned a graduate degree in architecture and was working in the field.
A side gig designing a T-shirt got Heard thinking there had to be something more fulfilling. He wanted to make a go of starting a men’s clothing company.
[Voice Over] Howler Brothers is an apparel company that designs all kinds of clothing for surfing, adventuring, fishing, and just good old-fashioned hanging out.
Most people associate us with our hometown of Austin, Texas, but if you really trace the tree of Howler Brothers back to its roots, you’ll end up in Charlottesville, Virginia, at the University of Virginia.
That’s where our founders met and formed all kinds of lasting creative alliances that ultimately sparked the idea for Howler Brothers.
To this day, our love of UVA knows no bounds.
Our team includes many Hoos, and we get back to Grounds whenever we can to relive the glory days, watch the Wahoos in action and bask in the beauty of Charlottesville.
We love the place so much that we decided to create a special limited-edition collection to celebrate our rich connection to UVA and its role in Howler history.
So here it is, the Howler Brothers Wahoowa collection for University of Virginia.
Go Hoos, heed the call!
“I had a lot of pent-up art inside of me that needed to get out, and Howler Brothers was a great vehicle for that,” he said. He called on his old creative pal Stepanian to see if he wanted in. The answer was yes.
In addition to music, the pair connected over their love of surfing, surf culture and the outdoors. They’d both relocated to Texas and were kicking back one afternoon after a day spent fishing on the Gulf Coast, pulling in redfish “and tarpon if you’re lucky,” Heard said.
“That’s where a lot of this idea hatched,” he said. “It was like, ‘Hey, we can make cooler-looking stuff.’ Like, we like to fish in more flavorful things. We used to wear a lot of embroidered shirts when we played in the band.” That’s when he and Stepanian decided to make their funky wardrobe a lifestyle.
Stepanian, Heard and Brent return to the back porch of Pavilion VII, where they played one of their first shows as the Wrinkle Neck Mules. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)
The pair launched Howler Brothers in 2011, and its pearl-snap, embroidered Western shirt-influenced line has steadily grown in popularity since then. This year, comedian Will Ferrell sported a Howler Brothers cap in much of his new documentary, “Will & Harper.”
New Wahoowa Collegiate Line
Not too long ago, the University approached Stepanian and Heard with an idea: Would they consider designing a collegiate line of clothing for UVA?
At first, there was reluctance. The pair was not too interested in entering that marketplace. But soon, nostalgia and an abiding fondness for UVA won them over.
They have curated a wholly unique “capsule collection” of Wahoo-inspired menswear that subtly blends vintage University trademarks with muted pigments recalling the school’s signature orange and blue hues.
Heard, right, is the creative director at Howler Brothers. He designed the limited Wahoo collection for UVA, interweaving images of wahoo fish with sun-faded hues of orange and blue. (Photos by Matt Riley, University Communications)
Heard, using the skills he learned at UVA as a fine arts major, designed the collection.
“I think part of this was introducing ourselves to a new audience, which is a lot of folks who maybe don’t know who Howler Brothers is,” he said. “So, we went with a lot of our staples, which are an embellished shirt, as well as an all-over pattern shirt and some cool hats and things.”
