Damn, these kids are rockstars, I thought to myself when Maxamillion “Max” Haunt (bass) and Anastasia Haunt (vocals) answered my Zoom call from their tour bus parked somewhere in Manchester, UK. Anastasia, the younger of The Haunt sibling duo, sat perched behind her brother like some fanged night-time creature ready to pounce when his answers called for elaboration. Max, adorned with trendy dangling earrings and what looked like leftover eyeliner, answered my questions with the care and thoughtfulness of a heart-of-gold punk rock heartthrob. The Haunt, as their latest album New Addiction released via Nettwerk Music Group proves, are the real deal.
The Haunt stomps with swagger into a new era with New Addiction. Each song is its own energy source pummeling out viscerally brutal lyrics like, “Oh, I’m a weapon / Got a silver bullet right between my teeth” from the song “Bad Omen,” and “You’re such a creep! / Do you even like her / Does she just look like me?” from “Worst In Me.” Anastasia’s lyrical artistry is bound to pull you in by the arm, by the leg, certainly by the ear, or better yet, by the lip. If you ever stray from her grip, Max’s bass lines will knock you back into line.
“We started playing music together,” Max says looking back towards his sister who nods in approval. “There was never a phrase where we played in separate bands. By the time we discovered that Anastasia could sing, I started playing guitar.”
The Haunt began 10 years ago with the band name AnastasiaMax. Anastasia recalls those early days, “I hardly talked when we started. I was 11. I did some open mic nights when I was 8 or 9, but I would make the audience face away from me. (…) That’s the power of a 9-year-old little girl.” That power has only amplified.
An introductory listen to “New Addiction,” the first song on the album, will make your heart palpitate with pleasure. If it bursts, consider yourself lucky. The instrumentals and vocals compete with an flawless ebb and flow in a battle for preeminence. When Max on bass pushes, Anastasia on vocals pulls. They never miss a beat.
“The album name came from the song title, ‘New Addition,’’ Max shares. “It was one of the first tracks on the album that came together. That song encapsulated everything we were shooting to do on the record. (…) It was heavy, there was screaming in it, electronic elements, industrial elements.”
“We carry the Swamp,” a reference to their home state of Florida, “wherever we go,” Anastasia says.
“It’s part of us,” Max agrees.
In the Florida scene where they grew up, a heavy grunge and hardcore sound set the tone for the sibling artists. Max explains their origins, “To come up in our scene we had to have those elements of punk, a little bit of noise, and try to do everything live. That was a huge influence on us, trying to compete with the bands that were in our scene. We were trying to be the loudest, most hardcore punk band.” A competitiveness certainly undergirds their sound.
New Addiction follows several singles, EPs, and an album, but on this release Max and Anastasia are puppet masters of their own sound. Unsatisfied with the final production on some of those earlier releases, Max took Pro Tools (professional music editing software) classes during the pandemic, so he could produce their own music. “We really loved Social Intercourse,” Max says, “but it wasn’t exactly the sound that we were going for. It felt like we were in a back and forth with producers. It was hard to convince other people that what we wanted to do was a good idea. We didn’t want to have to listen to producers on what the direction of the band should be. […] The previous record was us finding our voice and this record was us mastering it.”
New Addiction is out on Friday, and you can preorder it here. Follow The Haunt on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok for future updates.
Photo Credit: Ima Leupp
