Always a pleasant surprise to bump into a vague acquaintance (or to question them) - young Andy from Haunted Stereo was in my history class at college many moons ago.
Previously published on mINtSOUTH.com in October 2009
Words - Suzy Sims
Editor - Rob Ball
(c) mINtSOUTH.com
HAUNTED STEREO - SOUTHSEA FEST 2009
mINtSOUTH: Tell me a bit about yourselves.
Lewis: “I think we have been going about a year and a half. Me and Andy got together musically but it was all slow, we met at his stag do and then didn’t talk for about two months.”
Andy: “And then we said we were going to get together but we didn’t actually do it for three months.”
Ben: “It was a really long drawn out and boring affair!”
Andy: “Lewis had been in a couple of rock bands up to that point, I had been in more arty bands up in London before I met Anja. It just took a while to find exactly what we wanted to do. We pestered Anja for ages to be part of it – after our last band she was like ‘Oh, I don’t want to do a band again’ but then she started listening in and going ‘Oh, actually you know I’ll play a couple of songs,’ and before we knew it she took over! It’s a very typical phrase, but it was ‘an organic process’ of how it came together.”
Ben: “We keep losing members.”
Andy: “We’re like The Fall with our previous members list.”
mINtSOUTH: Southsea Fest – have you played yet today?
Anja: “We have actually, yeah.”
Ben: “It was really early and really short but people turned up, I don’t know where from, but they came. They seemed to quite enjoy it. It was our violinist Joanna’s last gig today so it was quite nice that everyone came to watch.”
Anja: “I did a solo set at the Magic Bean Café. I got distracted.”
Ben: “…by The Little Philistines. They’re better than we are.”
mINtSOUTH: Any bands you’re looking forward to seeing?
Haunted Stereo: “We’ve been running around doing bits and bobs and we got a tiny bite to eat so we haven’t actually got to see a lot, but we’re going to go and see Hold Fast, the Strange Death of Liberal England, definitely going to go and see Thomas Tantrum, and Peggy Sue.”
mINtSOUTH: Which band member would you eat first on a desert island?
Haunted Stereo: “Three of us are vegetarians… Dave! Dave’s not here. He eats the most beef and chicken. He looks rugged. I’m sure he’ll be a great burger.”
mINtSOUTH: How did you choose the name of your band?
Andy: “It was a birthday a few years ago and I wanted the music I had on my stereo to be in the kitchen as well, so bought one of those things where you plug in and then you just tune in on the radio. I was listening to records and tuning it through to the right frequency and someone said ‘Wow, it’s a bit like a haunted stereo.’”
Ben: “’Your stereo’s haunted.’ Get it right.”
Andy: “All right! Someone came running in and said ‘You can call yourselves Haunted Stereo!’ and I was like [slightly worried] yeah, ok then…”
Ben: “We were a bit drunk at the time. It seemed like a great idea at the time.”
mINtSOUTH: Do you support any charities?
Anja: “We did a gig last month at the Amnesty bookshop in Brighton which went really well. They’ve started a new site called Tracks for Amnesty, http://amnestybrighton.bandcamp.com/ they upload tracks for bands and sell them and all proceeds go to Amnesty International. We released our EP ‘In Bars’ on Tracks for Amnesty just a few weeks ago. You can go there and download our track, it’s called ‘Across The Sea’.”
Ben: “There’s loads of other bands in there as well, I think there’s 10 songs to choice from. Any anyone who gets a chance to play the bookshop, should. Really good fun. There’s an off licence opposite so you can have a beer outside. And if you’re not into the bands, you can have a look at the bookshelves.”
mINtSOUTH: Gorilla versus bear – who would win in a fight?
Andy: “I think bears have probably got slightly sharper teeth and generally a little bit more raw animal power.”
Ben: “I thought that bears, if you act like a bear at them, they get a bit scared and timid.”
Andy: “Would a gorilla know that though?”
Ben: “Gorillas are probably more intelligent than the bear.”
Andy: “Yeah, but I don’t think they would have read any National Geographic!”
Ben: “My vote is gorilla.”
Lewis: “I say bear. Bears are pretty cool.”
Shoutbox –
Haunted Stereo: “In November we’re releasing our new EP - we’re doing a big launch at the Joiners. We’ve got Thomas Tantrum supporting us, and the Moulettes. It’s going to be our first release on Sotones as well. Should be a riot!”
Haunted Stereo
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