Haneke Twins Talks of the Pandemic and Music!

Modernized band HANEKE TWINS has been around for a while now, fusing their style of music to be dark yet modern. With such style, they have a couple of releases out and about, with new music always in the works! The band talks of the pandemic and music!

1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.

Haneke Twins was founded in 2018 by two Greek-born scientists, vocalist/bassist Paschalis Vichoudis and guitarist Stefanos Leontsinis. Working on experimental physics at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Geneva, the two of us discovered we were both fans of Interpol, Mars Volta, Bauhaus, The Cure and Opeth, just to name a few. After recording our debut EP with the help of our friends Costas Verigas and Kostas Zabos (from the Greek post-rock band Afformance), we formed a 5-piece line-up for our first live shows in Switzerland and Greece back in 2019. Early 2021 we drafted in fellow CERN scientists Andrés G. Delannoy (guitars, from Puerto-Rico), Paul Aspell (bass, from England) and Emil Koulouris (drums, from Greece) to complete Haneke Twins. With five PhDs between us, some might say we are the band with the most doctorate degrees in the world!

2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?

The name of the band is a homage to the great Austrian filmmaker, and more specifically to his masterpiece "White Ribbon", a film with unbelievable suspense without a single note of music! Our dream is — one day — to compose a soundtrack for it. You may ask what about “Twins”? We’ll let you watch the film and find out!

3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?

The band is based in Geneva, Switzerland. Even though not widely known, Geneva is the post-punk Mecca of Switzerland, somehow similar to the concentration of modern post-punk artists in Bristol, UK. Raskolnikov, Future Faces and Grey Lipsare some of the local bands worth a listen, all leaning towards the cold-wave side of post-punk.

4. How would you describe your style?

Razor sharp guitars blended with hauntingly abrasive vocals, served ice-cold in dark and smokey underground clubs. Shaken, not stirred! We draw our inspiration from a large variety of post-punk/new-wave bands, along with modern post-punk revival and math-rock artists.

5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?

Funnily enough — in our career so far — we have published hundreds of articles in scientific journals, far outweighing our musical releases. Our debut 5-track eponymous EP was self-released in autumn 2018 and had a very positive reception by independent media and curators (including the mighty Eric Alper). And only a few days ago The Animal Farm (UK) released Astronaut, our 7-track mini-LP. Soundwise, you should expect exactly what our motto describes as “dark undertones with glimpses of light”. Lyrically, we typically deal with social, political and psychological subjects.

6. Do you have any new music in the works?

One of the “positives” of the pandemic — if any — is that it allowed us enough time to concentrate on new material. At this moment, we have about 20 compositions in our “drawer” and we are currently in the process of selecting which ones to include in our first full-length album. 

7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?

Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, more than 15 of our shows have been cancelled, and the situation is still not very clear. Despite that very difficult situation, we still have a few dates to announce, so stay tuned! One thing we know for sure is that we cannot wait anymore to get back on stage!

8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?

As mentioned earlier, we are working for our first full-length album, hoping to record it sometime in 2022. Our plan is to reach a broader audience and play some major venues and festivals by 2023. 

9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?

You can find our music in the most popular streaming platforms such as Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music etc. 

10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?

Making music and working full-time in domains unrelated to the music industry is not mutually exclusive!