Purr-fect harmony: Ormond Beach acoustic duo Gilo & Royal Blue release their second album

Giles Howe and Scott Niebauer reinvent 16 tracks on their latest album, 'Music for Cat People.'

  • By Michele Meyers
  • | 3:00 p.m. September 9, 2026
  • Ormond Beach Observer
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Gilo & Royal Blue musicians Giles Howe and Scott Niebauer do not sit around talking about their thoughts and feelings. Their universal language is music.

“Because we understand music so well, it’s really easy for us to express ourselves musically rather than through conversation,” Howe said. “We don’t need to sit around and have deep conversations. We just need to be creative and let the music speak.”

On Sept. 1, the acoustic duo released their second album, “Music for Cat People,” following a live performance on the nationally syndicated radio show “Live ’n’ Kickin’” based in Sanford, Florida. They released their first album, “Something Cool”, in 2025.

“Music for Cat People” blends Howe and Niebauer’s diverse musical skills and styles while maintaining their autonomy. The duo covers 16 songs ranging from Édith Piaf’s 1951 French song “Padam, Padam” to Icelandic singer-songwriter Laufey’s “Beautiful Stranger,” released in 2022. Most tracks are reimagined in folk, pop, or indie, diverging from the songs’ original style and, at times, creating ambiguity about the intent.

Howe said “Music for Cat People” lets people enjoy the repartee he and Niebauer share in their friendship, plus the musical dialogue, in a whimsical, quirky way. 

“I just felt the name was kind of cool and quirky,” Howe said. “Who isn’t a cat person? I often take myself too seriously, but I think performing with Scott, I’ve been able to relax that ... I can just enjoy.”

In 2016, Howe worked as the director of entertainment at the former Americano Beach Resort in Daytona Beach. Niebauer was performing as a solo guitarist at the venue when, one night, he invited Howe to sing a Christmas carol with him.

I think the aim for us is to be very organic and honest and sincere … being able to concentrate on the musical storytelling and the lyrical storytelling is much more important than whether it should be technically perfect at every possible moment. - GILES HOWE, Gilo & Royal Blue singer

Niebauer said he was amazed by Howe’s voice. He asked him to join him at a local cigar bar, where Niebauer had recently gotten a gig playing guitar.

At that time, Howe had recently moved to the United States from England to begin a new chapter of his life that did not include singing. He said he wanted to see what the world had to offer next, but kept getting pulled back to music.

“I’d achieved more than I ever dreamed that I was going to with my voice,” he said. “I toured the world, performed at the Royal Albert Hall, the Budokan in Tokyo, the Great Hall of the People in China, and extraordinary spaces. I figured coming to America was just a foolish endeavor to continue to start again from scratch in a country I know nothing of the cultural landscape.”

Howe grew up surrounded by art, culture, and music in southern England. His father plays guitar, his mother is an artist, and his brother played guitar for the English singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding. On Tuesdays, an a cappella folk trio who lived far apart would rehearse at their house because it was centrally located. He said music was always part of his life.

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In his early twenties, he moved to Sweden, then returned to London, where he co-founded the theater company A Stage Kindly and produced 16 musicals. He auditioned for the 12 Tenors and the Viva Voce Singers, then traveled with each group for six years.

Niebauer did not come from a musical family but grew up in a community of musicians in western New York, close to Lake Erie. When his best friend got a drum kit and set it up in his bedroom, Niebauer said he wanted to play drums. They would listen to the record collection his brothers had amassed, including the Circle Jerks, Sonic Youth, The Cramps, and Death of Samantha.

One day, they were hanging out when his friend’s brother came in with a guitar. He told Niebauer’s friend to play the drums while he played a song by The Cramps.

“The guitar had two or three strings on it, but he still played it,” Niebauer said. “I was just seeing his fingers on the fretboard, and the guitar, and just the sound; I think it was (the song) ‘Human Fly.’ And that was it, and that’s been it ever since. I still feel that way about guitar.”

Niebauer’s dad steered him away from the drums and toward playing a trumpet stored in their attic. He played it in the school band but told his band teacher he really wanted to play guitar. When Niebauer learned his band teacher’s brother-in-law taught guitar, his parents started driving him to weekly lessons, a 45-minute drive from their house.

He started with classical guitar, then pursued a degree in Music Composition at the State University of New York in Fredonia. As part of the Buffalo Guitar Quartet, his professor had connections in Venezuela’s guitar world. He set up a student exchange program that allowed Niebauer and another student to stay with a host family in Caracas while they attended the University Institute of Musical Studies.

“I studied with Luis Zea, who had studied with Antonio Lauro,” he said. “Lauro was a very famous Venezuelan composer. His pieces are so unique-sounding, very Venezuelan-sounding. Luis was also known for his Bach interpretations. So it was an incredible experience.”

Niebauer said he was also influenced by classic rock musicians—the Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Neil Young.

Howe said that, growing up, he was obsessed with ABBA. Today he listens to a lot of Middle Eastern music, Bulgarian music, diverse Jewish music, drum and bass, opera, Broadway, big singing, world music, and folk music. 

“It’s not necessarily obvious in our recordings, but we have a very diverse range between us,” Howe said. “There are many diverse paradigms from which we draw influence individually. So we’re able to kind of take ideas from so many different corners of the world and create something that’s quite distinctive — is it Floridian?”

In 2023, Howe discovered a few of his close neighbors were opera singers. While they were kayaking the St. Johns River, they discussed forming an ensemble. On that Friday afternoon, Howe told them to leave the details to him.

“By Sunday afternoon, we had a website, a logo, repertoire, posters, the whole show,” he said. “I got us a residency at the Artisan Downtown. It was bonkers. We called ourselves the Pinnacle Singers and did a fresh two-hour cabaret show every month for six months.”

After ten years of performing together at various locations, including the Artisan Downtown—a boutique hotel in DeLand, the Blind Pig, and private parties, the duo decided they had enough material to record their first album. Both albums were recorded live, in one take.

“I think the aim for us is to be very organic and honest and sincere,” Howe said. “As a singer, I’m very much about storytelling and understanding the words, the intention, who is singing, to whom, and why … being able to concentrate on the musical storytelling and the lyrical storytelling is much more important than whether it should be technically perfect at every possible moment.”

Niebauer said it may not be studio magic, but it is closer to real magic.

“Human interaction is still a mystery to all of us,” he said. “But when it hits right, it hits a magical thing. Something just sort of clicks and happens, and you’re on a different level, and that’s beyond any studio trickery or AI capability or anything, because it’s touching the real mystery of what it means to be human.”

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Visit https://www.gileshowe.com.

 

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