BAND OF THE WEEK: Haunch
Indie rock that hits hard. With people from other bands you like, too!
I always feel bad when the first talking point about a band is other bands their members are in. Music should come first and be valued for what it is, yada yada yada. But hey, bear with me. Sometimes it’s inevitable, especially when those bands are rather big and well known, and besides, Haunch is admittedly a side-project, so I think at least this time it’s okay. So yeah, as you might have recognized those gentlemen in the pic, this power trio from Northern Ireland features Willy Mundell (Dutch Schultz, Throat), Michael McKeegan (Therapy?) and Rory McGeown (Throat, Dutch Schultz). Though naturally strands of the alternative rock, noise rock and metal varieties that all of those bands play are somehow audible in Haunch’s music, the muscled, sharp, hard-hitting and yet still richly melodic tunes they belt out make them quite a different proposition from any of those dudes’ day jobs.
“Distorted pop songs” or “pop with distorted riffs” are two of the ways in which they’ve described themselves, and in fact, while far from being an experimental or absolutely unique band soundwise, it’s very interesting how they sneakily manage to weave their individual characteristics in a way that doesn’t make them sound particularly close to any other artist you might think of straight off the bat. It’s a curious balance between meaty riffs, that typically titanium-strong, agile low-end monster tone Mr. McKeegan has become legendary for in T?, and a quirky, almost ironically sweet vocal approach from Willy Mundell delivering biting lyrics that totally fit with the blunt imagery. Case in point:
That’s my favourite song on their new album, which is called ‘Let’s Get The Surgery’ and was released a couple of weeks ago in the beginning of February. It’s a small wonder that it exists at all given these people’s busy schedule - if they had let all things Haunch rest with the 2018 debut album, the fantastic (and slightly rawer) ‘Lay My Bones Beside The Others’, you couldn’t really blame them. Though Willy insists in the little we had with him that this really is a side-project and that there are no plans to do a third album, maybe in time they will once again realise this stuff is way too awesome to just be left in limbo. Must really suck for average bands out there, that what these guys do for fun in their free time as a “secondary” thing blows most of them out of the water, right?
You can find Haunch on Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp, YouTube, Twitter and Spotify.
‘Let’s Get The Surgery’ is out now on Long & Short and you can get it from the band’s Bandcamp. Listen, acquire, tell them you love them many times, and maybe we can force them to do another one.
Stick around for the interview, after the jump.
“It’s all natural, baby. We just let loose!“
- Willy Mundell
It sounds crazy, but it’s been six years already since the first album. How much have you dedicated yourselves to Haunch in this meantime, knowing you’re all busy people, and when did you start to properly think about and work on this new record?
Willy: Can’t believe it’s six years, it’s actually a bit mad but we decided straight after the release of the first album to do another and it was about 90% complete at start of 2020. Then Covid stopped us, then I was busy doing Dutch Schultz stuff and Michael was busy again with Therapy?. It’s nuts, but we didnt get back to it til three years later!
How would you compare the two, in fact? Not only the final musical result, but also the way you wrote and recorded, did you do anything differently, did you approach any aspect in any other way this time?
Willy: With the first one I wanted to make an acoustic album with heavy drums and so I dug out old demos of slower songs to tackle, but Rory just kept presenting us with up tempo distorted riffs, ha ha! So the acoustic "sloth-rock" idea kinda dissolved. Also I was worrying a lot about recording/production and probably was a bit lazy on the songwriting, to be honest it was a bit of an experiment that maybe wouldn't see the light of day.
With the second we spent more time getting the songs right before recording, more direct straightforward riffing, and probably spent more time on the vocals too. Both albums were recorded pretty much the same way but I think, I hope, the second sounds a little more "polished" than the first, obviously the production won’t win any Grammys [laughs] but slight improvement is good enough for me.
How do you usually put songs together, do you have opportunities to jam all together or do you work individually on ideas that you then arrange together in the studio and stuff?
Willy: All of the above actually, we would start with three or four songs/ideas each for both albums, we jammed a few times with the first album but just for fun really. Album two was done slightly more apart, but we'd demo first so everyone had their input on all tracks. All recording was done together, so not remotely.
I love how, as straightforward and bullshit-free as the songs sound, it’s still kinda tough to come up with a neat categorization for what you guys do. There’s chunky riffs, ruthless lyrics and ferocity where it’s called for, but also a very delicate melodic sensibility and ultimately some very accessible and catchy tunes! (I love the “DISTORTED POP SONGS” tag on Facebook, haha) Is this mix of things something that you specifically aim for, do you talk about your desired output, or do things happen naturally like this when you get together to play?
Willy: It’s all natural, baby. We just let loose, haha! No, there is no specific aim, we are a riff orientated band and we just try and come up with as catchy lyrics or suitable vocals as possible.
Would you like to talk a bit about the lyrics, by the way? Is there any kind of general idea connecting the whole thing? Do any of the songs have specific stories behind them that you’d like to share?
Willy: There's no conscious thread connecting the songs, songs can be fictional, they can be personal individual circumstances, but there are actually a couple of songs on this album where it’s been hard to shut out the world, 'Political Sluts' is us suggesting that most politicians are self serving “good for nothin's”, and 'Stick Together' is the flip side, urging people to breathe and listen and... “stick together”. ;)
Do you have any favourite songs on the album?
Willy: I love 'Tips Of Our Tongues' for a few reasons, its main riffs are over 25 years old, I wrote it as a teen thinking the chorus guitar was slightly ripping off Therapy?’s 'Nowhere', and now it’s on an album with Michael on bass, haha! It’s a nonsense song but some lines have meaning, namely the screamed "someone somewhere has pulled out my hair", it’s about going bald and makes me laugh. Also it’s me attempting Helmet attempting Sabbath, i.e. I think it has a Helmet 'Symptom Of The Universe' version vibe about it.
Of course the activity of your “main” bands makes it hard, but would you conceive doing a few Haunch live shows? The vitality of these songs kinda begs for it!
Willy: If a promoter asked us and we could find the time it would definitely be considered, I'd die a slightly unhappy man if Haunch never make it to the stage.
How do you foresee the general future of Haunch? Hopefully you’ll keep finding time to at least throw as a record every few years?
Willy: It started as a side project and for now still is a side project, we've no current plan for a 3rd but you never know!