Packed shows and New Mexico

Photographs by Daniel Joseph

The Haunts share memories from tour and the story behind their latest single, ‘New Mexico’.

Los Angeles, USA

Who are 'The Haunts' and what is your story?

Haunts are an LA based surf-garage rock band that was born out of the idea of stripping down songs to just the bare minimum of what we could get away with (drums, guitar, and vocals). We’re made up of Alanna Swadlow on drums, Aaron Brotman on guitar, and Max Goldenstein on vocals. We met at the end of 2018 and since then have been playing frequently in LA, OC, Santa Barbara, and San Diego, along with touring in Northern California and Arizona when we can!

You recently went on tour. Where did you go? What were some favorite cities?

We did a 10 day run of with our friends in Spurts, a band from Oakland. During those 10 days we went to the OC, San Diego, Santa Barbara, SLO, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Stockton, San Jose, and I’m sure I’m forgetting a few... Some of our favorite stops were San Diego at Bow Wow Haus, getting to play a Twin Peaks Session in SF, and finally the absolute insanity that was Stockton. It’s almost that lame answer of “We loved all the stops we made on tour”, but every stop absolutely blew away our expectations for being a touring band making a stop in a new city.

What were some fun stories from the tour? What did you learn? What would you do differently next time?

Tour definitely had some highlights, San Francisco was eventful. We were all booked to play The Honey Hive, when we got a message from the booker saying they had to cancel the show because of street construction. We thought we were screwed, but we were already walking around Haight Ashbury so figured we might as well see if anything was happening that night at Milk Bar down the street. The bartender was super accommodating and was able to give Spurts and us a super last minute show that night!

Probably the highlight story of the tour though was Stockton being one of the most packed shows we’ve ever played. That house was absolutely packed out to the front yard, and we thought we almost weren’t going to make it because one of us was “the most hungover I’ve ever been in my entire life”. Great show though, Max got punched into the drum set during our set, and at one point we remember seeing a guy with a table of what had to be over 60 Jack in the Box tacos just STACKED... Stockton was definitely a highlight and a spot we recommend to touring bands now.

You just released a new single, 'New Mexico.' What is the story behind it? Why did you pick this song to release?

The guitar line was inspired by a mix of Vampire Weekend, MGMT and Arcade Fire and we wanted to ad a very bouncey, airy drum beat to move it along. The name New Mexico started as a kind of lyrical ad lib when Max was trying to create a melody. We decided to keep the name even though it didn't end up having a place in the final lyrics. We picked this song to release because we noticed the crowd took a serious liking to it.

How does 'New Mexico' show how the band has changed and evolved since 'Proverbs'.?

New Mexico was a tad bit more experimental in the studio due to the increased dancey and pop elements of the song. In terms of evolving, this song helped us to expand and grow in connection with different sounds. We are still very dedicated to our garage surf indie sound

Going off that, how has the band changed and evolved since you first started? What have you guys been learning about yourselves as individuals, as band members, as artists in general?

As band members and songwriters I think in the past year and a half we have really adapted to each others styles and are able to mesh even better when writing new songs. Same goes for live performances. We are very connected while on stage and that came with a lot of time and practice. I think a big thing we have learned is to be true to ourselves and make art that we care about and love and can have a good time with and to accept that we are forever growing!