Songfacts®:

• This is the opening track from American alternative rock band Madina Lake's third studio album, World War III. The record is the last installment of their concept trilogy, and concludes the Leone twins' tales of a metaphorical universe with the rediscovery of Adalia and an epic battle of good and evil. Frontman Nathan Leone told Rock Sound magazine: "In a lot of ways I feel like World War III has written itself. Our life circumstances at the time were such that all we really had to or were even capable of doing was letting it out. Over thinking it or contriving sentiments wasn't an option yet neither was holding anything back. Hence it's lyrical content is blunt and couldn't be more honest."
• Nathan told the story of the song to Rock Sound magazine: "When Mateo [Camargo, guitar] played me the riff for 'Howdy...' I knew immediately what it was going to be about. He had only sent that riff so when the band got to it we started our typical Madina structure/arrangements, however Mateo canned it and convinced us to just develop the song instrumentally instead of adding chord changes, arrangement developing and changing parts. This way each of us had to use our respective parts to give the dynamic and it turned out way cooler (imho). Matthew [Leone, bassist] added these percussive bass stabs which defined the song to me. Dan [Torelli, drums] was able to play his ass without all his parts getting chopped down to straight beats/no fills and vocally we left all kinds of cracks and imperfections, leaving the song as raw and real as it's subject matter."