Discovering The Haunt: Heartbreak and Guitar Riffs
Interview by Ken Morton - Photo by Jack Lue
The Haunt is an American rock band from South Florida consisting of siblings Anastasia Grace Haunt (lead vocals), and Maxamillion Haunt (vocals, guitar and production), alongside Nat Smallish on bass guitar, and Nick Lewert on drums. They’ve toured with the likes of The Hu and Palaye Royale, and recently released an EP entitled Social Intercourse. Current standout singles include Love You Better, Make Me King, and I’m Not Yours. The Haunt were in town to do a photo shoot with Jack Lue when Highwire Daze caught up with them to find out more on this amazing band on the rise... How did you recent tour with The Hu go and what were some of the highlights? Maxamillion Haunt: All of it. It was a ton of fun being able to – we were one of the first bands that were able to go out after the pandemic – and we were able to play these awesome rooms with The Hu, who have such an eclectic, beautiful audience. It was like a dream come true to be able to tour after those miserable two years. Anastasia Grace Haunt: We weren’t sure if their fans were going to like us because we’re so different from their music and their sound. But we really got a lot of people from those shows. Maxamillion: It was really like a process of trying to win over the audience, because obviously no one sounds like The Hu. And so, the audience is always skeptical about what happens before them, and so we were able to win them over every night and it was a ton of fun to be able to do that. You also actually did a European tour where we played with Palaye Royal. What was that experience like? Maxamillion: Amazing. We had never been to Europe. Before then, we had been to Iceland for a really short vacation. We had never been to mainland Europe. And we went – and European audiences are really, really involved. They just dance – they’re much more carefree I’d say than some of the American audiences. You have to win them over a little bit more. But the European 30
audiences were amazing. Anastasia: The first show we ever played with them was in Europe, and the fans already knew songs and already knew us. Maxamillion: They were super into it immediately. They knew our music before we even showed up there and we had never been there. It was awesome! Anastasia: And I was also their age, so they kind of related to me a lot. I was 15 when we first went out with them, and their fan base is like all teenage girls. May/June 2022
HIGHWIRE DAZE
