Haunts
To say I’m not really a fan of ‘indie’ music, or bands who look so fashionable that you think they’re music is going to be pretty shit, I really like Haunts. They’re pretty good, and their live show got me shaking my booty like a little All Saints / Topshop / H&M worker. I caught up with guitarist Alex W. for what was to be one of the most amazing interviews I’ve ever done…
Hello there Mr, what are you up to?
Just in the car on the way home from a random photoshoot we have just done on a farm in Kent. The photographer was trying to recreate the 1977 horror movie 'Haunts' which we have never seen, but we all had fake blood and stuff, which was fun, if a bit weird. It will be good to see how they come out.
So, you've just released your 'Love Is Blind' single, can you tell us a bit about it?
Love is Blind is our new single and its out as a 5 track Digital download from 7digital.com and itunes. Its the last single off our Album and it has 3 remixes. One by L'amour La Morgue Which is Ian from Lost Prophets project he's doing, one By Black Teeth, which is myself and Banks' (Singer and Guitarist from Haunts) Electronic project, and a Remix by pixplox, as well as a Demo version of the title track.
The song is awesome and you should go have a listen to it. It's about soldiers in the Falklands war and how more soldiers killed themselves after the war as a result of their experiences than how many actually died in combat. It's about how people are asked to have a blind faith or love for their country. A Love that for the most part is unrequited. Pretty grizzly stuff. Banks our singer is really into lots of Old War poetry and stuff, so that’s where the inspiration comes from.
Ooh, I very deep we like it! Now your previous single, Black Eyed Girl, did pretty well, do you think you can replicate this with the new record?
Interesting question, I'm not sure we really want to replicate any songs from the first album as such. We're in a pretty different place as a band now, so with this new record we're looking to take influence from the previous record, but more in terms of how its been performing those songs live.
The new album will have a much more live feel to it. We've been testing out a few new songs on the last few tours we have been doing and they have been going down really well so its a positive sign. But if we were to replicate a song off the first album I don’t think it would be Black Eyed Girl... Structurally that songs a bit wayward.
We started jamming a lot of our favourite songs of other peoples as a band behind closed doors for our own amusement and we learnt quiet al ot about not over playing things. The new Album will be a more enjoyable ride as it will be more concise.
There is a lot of competition in the business today, do you think you have what it takes to give the big names a run for their money?
I don't know really. I would say the main thing in giving big bands a run for their money is the amount of money your able to spend on yourself in order to rival them. So right now i don't think we have what it takes in a literal sense. Song wise though I don't see why not, but it kind of goes without saying that i think our songs are great.
When we're writing music we write it to our tastes, to me there is a void in music that I'm yearning for, the only option for me is to try and fill it. This leaves us so to try and write our own favourite songs. It's a sorry state of affairs, but i can only imagine that that must be what drives anyone to write music, or to produce any creative output. I don't think Damien Hurst thinks ‘hmmmm what’s cool at the moment? I’ll jump on that bandwagon’ They're looking for a new space to fill with new ideas.
Or at least I think that’s how it works. It's then always a irony that everyone is waiting for the next new thing, but when it comes no one wants to accept it as being new, they want to tag it onto something old and stale, they want to write it off before its been given a chance to breath. I heard a rumour going round that I was bitter, I’m having none of it.
Haha, I don’t think you’re bitter! Anyway, if you could recommend just one song of yours for us to download so that we want to hear all of your music, what would it be?
I would probably say Underground. I think that pretty much sums up what we're about as a band. It covers everything we wanted to achieve with this album but also hints at where we might go with the second record.
Ooh, love it! And if I was contemplating coming to your show or sitting at home and watching Big Brother, how would you get me out of the house?
That’s a tough call, I mean Big Brother is pretty riveting, but I would urge people to remember there is a real life of their own that could do with being attended to. Rather than watching other people and vegetating in front of a television, they could be getting real human interaction.
They could come and be one with our music, they could feel all the emotions of our songs, relive the stories, they could feel the sound physically rattling their rib cages, closing their eyes and imagine all of us, everyone in the room, running hand in hand through the glade. Surely that’s better than watching some of the most annoying people imaginable falling asleep on the sofa scratching their balls until someone start saying something semi juicy only to be cut off by the sounds of bird song and airplanes. Does that sound bitter? I told you I wasn't bitter.
Aww, I think I love you! Now, we’ve got to admit you’re a little bit cool, so what advice would you give to someone just starting out, knowing what you know now?
Ha ha I don't know what gave your that impression, but it's very flattering, although coolness is in the eye of the beholder I’m sure there are may who would disagree. We're a bunch of nerds who sit around talking about microphones frequency responses, guitar pickup preferences and DI boxes.
Stay in school, learn physics and create the next instrument of the future. We're all getting a bit limited and bored of the tools we have on offer. Musicians need new tools! My only advice is just don't choose a band name that begins with H. we found out the hard way, when you go to Europe people have real trouble pronouncing words that start with H's we got called all sorts of things.
Other than that just play whatever it is you need to play. Make sure your motivation is honest, cause people can smell a fraud. If you just wanna be rich and get girls then become a footballer.
So, if Haunts was an acronym what would each letter stand for? ;)
Amazing, I guessing it would be something unrelated to music. I'm totally dyslexic so words aren't my strong point, I cant think of anything, I’ve drawn a blank, I'm going to have to phone a friend...
Ok I just called Banks (our singer) and he came up with 'Hats and Umbrellas not too stylish' …not bad hu?
Oh my godness, I love it, that’s my favourite! So, if you could only listen to one CD for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Me personally, I’d probably take Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense, its a live album which covers most of their best stuff. A song for any occasion. I grew up obsessed with talking heads and i had the VHS of this Album when I was 6 and I would watch it everyday!
I learnt all of David Byrne's moves and I would walk to school singing Physco Killer. I was a total fuck at primary school so singing that didn't help. My mum always talks about how she wished the ground would swallow her up. I got it all out at an early age tho, I'm quiet the pillar of society these days.
Okay, now we want to ask you some random questions;
Jesus! ok I’m ready...
Tell me about the most terrifying experience of your life…
Hmm hard one, I think it must have been as a kid walking up Snowdon. it wasn't very scary but it was a bit wet and I decided I would sit on this big over hanging rock with my dad, but it was all slippery and I was sliding off the edge towards my impending doom and I was scrambling the best I could to get of this slippery bit but it wasn't happening, then dad caught my arm and hauled me to safety.
Sounds pretty dramatic, but in reality I’m sure it wasn't. Later that same week I remember propelling myself too far forward off one of the anti gravity drop slides and missing the bit at the bottom that whisks you to safety and I just landed flat on my arse and broke my coccyx which was pretty uncomfortable.
This lead me to believe it was some sort of Final destination type thing where fate wanted me to break my coccyx, having offered me a much cooler way to break it, but as I escaped fate it caught up with me in a way that made me look like a moron. which of course I am not..
What’s the most stupid purchase you’ve ever made?
Too many to mention. Money isn't one of my strong points. As soon as i get any it burns a whole in my pocket and I’m constantly getting heckled from my friends for spending extravagantly on things that they deem unreasonable (especially when I owe them money ha) normally clothes and stuff tho, I like to avoid Topman and the like where possible, I'd rather spend more and have less. Get what you pay for don't you? I sound like an Old man.
Everything is built to be thrown away in a few weeks. built in obsolescence is my number 3 top hate. (No. 1 is Poi those fucking juggling half naked people in parks desperate for attention of how fucking alternative they are. Get back in your hole under the M1!And no. two is stretch Limousines, specially ones with website address and Blonde bimbos dangling out of the windows... no offence to you if you like that, its not your fault you’re an idiot)
If I buy something I want it to last, I hate replacing things I’ve already bought once, you don't get the shopaholics thrill of a new thing, cause you have had it once already, you just have less money.
I guess my most stupid purchase had more too do with timing rather than the thing itself… When I bought my beloved Mac laptop I spent me and my girlfriends rent money on that instead of paying rent. It didn't go down too well but I needed it for work and stuff... Obviously! Luckily for me, that same week our bathroom pretty much exploded with water and I was able to avoid rent payments for a whole extra month until it was fixed, allowing us time to get 'back in the game' in the rent department. Moral of the story is 'Buy it now, pay later. Follow your heart, it will be fine.'
Why go to the top of a tall building, only to put money in binoculars and look at things on the ground?
I think normally people with binoculars don't look directly downwards unless they're spying. I tend to look outwards across the horizon, or maybe into peoples windows, not in a pervy way though mind…
Haha, thanks, I love it, great speaking to you Alex!
FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison
To say I’m not really a fan of ‘indie’ music, or bands who look so fashionable that you think they’re music is going to be pretty shit, I really like Haunts. They’re pretty good, and their live show got me shaking my booty like a little All Saints / Topshop / H&M worker. I caught up with guitarist Alex W. for what was to be one of the most amazing interviews I’ve ever done…
Hello there Mr, what are you up to?
Just in the car on the way home from a random photoshoot we have just done on a farm in Kent. The photographer was trying to recreate the 1977 horror movie 'Haunts' which we have never seen, but we all had fake blood and stuff, which was fun, if a bit weird. It will be good to see how they come out.
So, you've just released your 'Love Is Blind' single, can you tell us a bit about it?
Love is Blind is our new single and its out as a 5 track Digital download from 7digital.com and itunes. Its the last single off our Album and it has 3 remixes. One by L'amour La Morgue Which is Ian from Lost Prophets project he's doing, one By Black Teeth, which is myself and Banks' (Singer and Guitarist from Haunts) Electronic project, and a Remix by pixplox, as well as a Demo version of the title track.
The song is awesome and you should go have a listen to it. It's about soldiers in the Falklands war and how more soldiers killed themselves after the war as a result of their experiences than how many actually died in combat. It's about how people are asked to have a blind faith or love for their country. A Love that for the most part is unrequited. Pretty grizzly stuff. Banks our singer is really into lots of Old War poetry and stuff, so that’s where the inspiration comes from.
Ooh, I very deep we like it! Now your previous single, Black Eyed Girl, did pretty well, do you think you can replicate this with the new record?
Interesting question, I'm not sure we really want to replicate any songs from the first album as such. We're in a pretty different place as a band now, so with this new record we're looking to take influence from the previous record, but more in terms of how its been performing those songs live.
The new album will have a much more live feel to it. We've been testing out a few new songs on the last few tours we have been doing and they have been going down really well so its a positive sign. But if we were to replicate a song off the first album I don’t think it would be Black Eyed Girl... Structurally that songs a bit wayward.
We started jamming a lot of our favourite songs of other peoples as a band behind closed doors for our own amusement and we learnt quiet al ot about not over playing things. The new Album will be a more enjoyable ride as it will be more concise.
There is a lot of competition in the business today, do you think you have what it takes to give the big names a run for their money?
I don't know really. I would say the main thing in giving big bands a run for their money is the amount of money your able to spend on yourself in order to rival them. So right now i don't think we have what it takes in a literal sense. Song wise though I don't see why not, but it kind of goes without saying that i think our songs are great.
When we're writing music we write it to our tastes, to me there is a void in music that I'm yearning for, the only option for me is to try and fill it. This leaves us so to try and write our own favourite songs. It's a sorry state of affairs, but i can only imagine that that must be what drives anyone to write music, or to produce any creative output. I don't think Damien Hurst thinks ‘hmmmm what’s cool at the moment? I’ll jump on that bandwagon’ They're looking for a new space to fill with new ideas.
Or at least I think that’s how it works. It's then always a irony that everyone is waiting for the next new thing, but when it comes no one wants to accept it as being new, they want to tag it onto something old and stale, they want to write it off before its been given a chance to breath. I heard a rumour going round that I was bitter, I’m having none of it.
Haha, I don’t think you’re bitter! Anyway, if you could recommend just one song of yours for us to download so that we want to hear all of your music, what would it be?
I would probably say Underground. I think that pretty much sums up what we're about as a band. It covers everything we wanted to achieve with this album but also hints at where we might go with the second record.