Header photo credit: 7/11 Photography
The Haks don’t have a publicist, but you can find their Google Voice number on a telephone pole. That’s just one way that the trio, split between the Triad and the Triangle, has been building a following their own way. Mainly by releasing snappy, well-produced heavy rock that flirts with post-hardcore and new wave. But also by stapling cryptic flyers to surfaces in downtown Greensboro and letting genuinely curious strangers find their way to the music.
All that may sound nonsensical, but for a band steeped in anonymity, it’s deliberate. Not to mention funnier and more interesting than an Instagram story.
What the trio is building toward, though, is real. Their upcoming debut EP aims to build on the three singles (like the efforts-laden wall of sound that is “OTIS”) they dropped at the end of last year. Beyond that lies a stretch of North Carolina shows running through spring, plus any other anti-marketing they can come up with. Just don’t let that approach fool you into thinking this a band you should miss out on.
What’s something y’all have been listening to lately?
Jut (vocals/guitar): I’ve been obsessed with Grouper. I’ve just been listening to her nonstop. A lot of weird indie music.
Christina (bass): I’ve been on a President kick. They’re anonymous, but everyone speculates it’s Charlie Simpson from Busted, that UK band. Masked and anonymous, but I’m into them.
Quinton (drums): I found this interesting artist out in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, who goes by 0xGRLF00D. They make ambient electronic music, very Boards of Canada-esque. I found them on Bandcamp a few weeks ago, going through the newest releases in North Carolina, and I was just blown away by how much I liked it. And Radiohead. It was a gloomy Monday.
Who was the first musician or band you remember discovering on your own and just obsessing over?
Christina: Mine would absolutely have to be Avril Lavigne. That was my first introduction to secular music since I grew up pretty conservative Christian. I was like, “I want to be her someday.”
Quinton: Mine was definitely Linkin Park. When I first got Hybrid Theory at 10 years old, that was the moment when I knew I wanted to play music. It was emotional and sounded heavy and catchy, and was just everything I liked. I remember that being the moment where I was like, I want to be a vocalist, a drummer, play music one day.
Jut: I’ll go left field. I was lucky enough to have an older brother who was force-feeding me all this cool, obscure music. But I think when I started getting into jazz on my own — John Coltrane, even a lot of the weirder discordant free jazz stuff — that was the first time I’d claimed something as my own. I’d try to show my brother and anyone else, and they were like, “This is unlistenable.” So that was the first music that felt truly mine.
What’s everybody’s experience playing in bands before this? Is this your first group?
Jut: Quinton and I played together when we were younger. We grew up around the same area and played in a band in college. Quinton was actually a singer; he’s got a great voice. I didn’t have anything serious going on before that, but I was always playing music, just not organized.
Christina: I was more acoustic growing up. My friend Kirby and I were a band for years, just the two of us, and we played all over Florida. But this is the first time I’ve done something like this — with this kind of sound, and playing shows in a more formal sense.
Quinton: I played cringe MySpace scene kid music in high school, and then just our friends and I played some in college. This is definitely the biggest venture, in terms of really putting it out there and playing what we all love.
How did you all come together, and how did you land on the sound you did?
Jut: It’s probably been around two years now, maybe three. It was a lot of boredom, a lot of discontentment with life in general. I reached back out to Quinton — he’d moved outside of Winston-Salem — and we just started jamming in his garage.
After a while, Quinton was like, “Hey, my friend Christina plays bass.” And she joined. It’s always been music we enjoy playing. I always try to make something I’d personally want to listen to.
Quinton: In college, I used to jam on drums with Jut before practice, and it was fun to say, okay, I want to just become a drummer for this project. And when Christina came in, it was an immediate perfect fit.
At this point, we all kind of know what the sound is, even if it’s hard to describe. We’ve had people who aren’t into heavier music really enjoy parts of it, and people who are into heavier stuff enjoy it even though it’s not true blue post-hardcore, punk, or metal. Just the act of playing and having fun together is the main thing. It’s also great to have another outlet for my frustration at seeing our country further destroyed day after day, and I’ve felt that same energy from other artists around me.
Christina: It was pretty seamless. Quinton and Jut had been playing together for a while and had some songs that were pretty fleshed out when I came on. It just kind of seemed easy, at least for me. We can kind of tell where the other person wants to go, it’s almost natural. And you don’t find that often playing with other people. There are no divas.
Image credit: 7/11 Photography
Your outreach mentioned “verging on anonymity.” How do you define that, and what does it look like in practice?
Jut: When we started really focusing on playing live, it was kind of a snowball effect, like, well, we need some kind of social media presence. We live in this age now. But I think for me personally, it was seeing a lot of bands who overextend their image, where every video is “hey, look at us.” I just want the music to speak for itself.
Christina: We don’t want our big dumb faces plastered everywhere. We all have careers and families, and none of us are trying to get famous off of this. None of us are great at social media either, so staying as low-key online as possible is just the easiest and most authentic approach for us. I don’t mind getting to know people at shows, but we’re not posting personal stories on the band page. It’s more about what we’re playing, where we’re playing, and who we’re playing with. I’m not looking for any parasocial relationships.
Quinton: I think for younger folks and bands, social media is more tied to their identity. It’s a lot of memes and constant presence, which can be great for some people. But for us, that side was almost intimidating. The booking and communication side of it, finding other bands is great. But tying it into our personal lives and identities just doesn’t feel authentic for the three of us.
How do you approach playing live as a trio compared to what you’ve been putting out on the singles?
Jut: We really try to do more with less. As a three-piece, it’s intentional. I think we do a good job of replicating those singles live. It can get very loud, but it can also get very quiet. There are parts where you’re not going to have the studio polish, and things might sound a little more raw or simplified. But I’ve come to appreciate that. When it’s played live it’s a little different, but I’d rather it sound like that because I’m watching what Quinton and Christina are doing, just being in the element of it.
Christina: I like when bands don’t sound exactly like the recording, because if I wanted that, I could just listen to it in my car. There’s something to playing something different live. And it makes us a little more human, even though we’re trying to stay off the personal side.
Quinton: I personally love for each show to be unique, and I think we sound more intense live. It goes beyond the set list and into the energy we’re all bringing. Having three people makes the give and take easier. We’ve all known each other for about two years now, and I’ve known Jut for so long that it just feels pretty easy. There’s a lot of trust there, which I think is really important. I’ve seen people have a good time and get their energy out, and I love to see even more of it. I want to see people acting crazy.
Image credit: 7/11 Photography
You mentioned finishing up an EP. What can folks expect, and what’s been the process of putting it together?
Jut: The EP includes the three singles we’ve already released. It’s been a process and it’s all DIY for the most part. A lot of communicating back and forth, sending scratch tracks. We started drum recordings last summer, around July, so it’s been slow going. But I think that’s a testament to the fact that we’re very conscious about putting out something I’d actually want to listen to. We want to put out the best product we possibly can.
Quinton: As far as comparing it to the other tracks, there are moments that are our heaviest so far, and also more stripped back and groovy sections
I’ve had people throw out so many different bands or artists that it reminds them of, and it’s such a huge range that it makes me question what we even sound like. Like, just today someone posting a flyer that Jut made asked what genre to list for us. And I genuinely didn’t know what to tell them. I think that’s a feature, not a bug.
Christina: The three songs that aren’t already released, I think they all do a good job of showcasing each of us individually and showing off our talents. We’re really proud of and excited about the rest of the EP.
Quinton: I’m just excited for people to listen from start to finish, enjoy the different sounds and the lyrical themes that tie songs together. So far it’s just been piecemeal getting singles out, so to be able to say “let’s put this EP on” will be something new.
What was the process for deciding the order of songs and how it’s presented as a full product?
Jut: We have a vague idea. With a lot of things it’s kind of like, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there, and then it’s usually just pretty democratic. We discuss and it’s pretty much like, “sound good?” “Yeah, I’m good.” Pretty easy.
Quinton: Jut summed it up as well as I possibly could.
Can you talk about your viral marketing approach and what you’ve been doing out in the world to get attention?
Jut: Everywhere we’ve been playing, we’ve been trying to get some kind of real, organic engagement, not through social media. A lot of it is these kind of weird, oddball approaches. The idea being: how do you get a random person who’s just walking through a downtown to stop and pay attention?
We’ve been posting flyers that are like insane cryptic ramblings, like all caps headers like “PLEASE READ THIS” and then just this wall of rambling, very specific, arcane text. When we played in Greensboro, there was a line in it about not drinking the water, a “recorded casting location off Highway 54.” All very specific, like something out of a shortwave radio conspiracy. And then of course the QR code just goes to our Linktree. So if somebody finds that, they’re like, “What the hell is this?” And then they find our page. If someone was genuinely concerned, like this seems actually insane, you’re almost relieved when it turns out to just be a band.
Christina: That was definitely part of the inspiration. Jut would find some of the most interesting weird art or things around downtown, and a lot of it was of that nature. Almost more eye-catching than what bands or artists would normally put out. We like the idea of organic engagement. We’ve had people reach out just from seeing the flyers, and we have a Google number on them that you can call. We’ve gotten a couple voicemails back. It’s just so interesting to hear what people say.
Quinton: We have a website linked from the flyers that ties together historical threads across different cities we are playing and have played. I’ve been doing a lot of digging into odd shortwave radio, conspiracies like Havana syndrome, and NC history. Pulling from very specific locations, like a neighborhood in Greensboro where someone reading it would be like, “Wait, that’s where I live. What is this?” I think the specificity makes it feel more legit. And there may be some truth to it as you investigate.
Who are some of your favorite local or North Carolina-specific artists you’ve played with or been inspired by?
Quinton: I like SCOBY. And one of the people in SCOBY has a project called saturn is changing, and that newer album of theirs [SOME HAVE LEFT THE PASTURE] I’ve listened to quite a bit and really like. But growing up there were so many local bands I was obsessed with and used to see all over. Shout out to Farewell and akissforjersey.
Jut: We’re playing with Psychic Scream next month in Raleigh and we’re excited about that.
Christina: SCOBY and bedrumor are pretty consistent picks for me.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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