Haunts Interview

17 August 2009

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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.

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