Sibling rock duo The Haunt, Anastasia Grace and Maxamillion “Max” Haunt, are no strangers to turning pain into power. With their long-awaited debut album, New Addiction, via Nettwerk, the Florida natives are channeling their rawest truths into something ferocious and deeply personal. Featuring gripping singles like “Own Me” (with alt-rock force Mod Sun) and “Masochistic Lovers” (featuring Craig Mabbitt of Escape the Fate), the record is a heavy-hitting soundtrack to emotional survival.

Produced by Kevin Thrasher (who worked with Blink-182, Machine Gun Kelly, Gwen Stefani, and Avril Lavigne), the album blends industrial grit, melodic chaos, and searing vulnerability. Whether tackling anxiety, toxic love, or the struggle to feel whole, The Haunt doesn’t just perform darkness—they dissect it, confront it, and sing it out loud. In this exclusive interview, Anastasia and Max speak candidly about the emotional toll behind their most personal songs, collaborating with some of their biggest influences, and how New Addiction is helping them (and their fans) heal in real time.

---

You’ve been making music together since you were kids. What’s it like building a career as siblings, and how do you separate family from the creative partnership?

Being in a band together as siblings obviously has its ups and downs. Usually, when people hear “sibling band,” they think Oasis or something… We’ve always felt like the pros far outweigh the cons for us. Whenever you’re in a creative space with somebody, if you’re being genuine, there’s always gonna be conflict, but the fact that we live in the same house and grew up together means that no matter what we argue about, we’re always going to find a solution. Having that safety net of knowing that we can really get into it and argue whenever we need to, but knowing that it won’t ruin our relationship, is a massive bonus about being in a band together. 

How did your childhood shape your sound, and how has that influenced The Haunt?

We came from a musical household. It all really started with our parents who were not musicians, but had great music taste, and they made it a point to make sure we were well-versed in all types of music. They were the ones that introduced us to the legendary bands of the past, and some of the bands that were popping off in the early 2000s when we were growing up. The two of us always had our own distinct music tastes. Anastasia was always interested in blues and jazz, artists like Billie Holiday, and Amy Winehouse, where I was much more rock minded, listening to a lot of Green Day, Nine Inch Nails and Nirvana. But there were some really great overlaps that we shared, such as bands like The White Stripes and Royal Blood, who we adored for combining the two worlds we loved.

You have spoken openly about anxiety and depression. How do those experiences impact your creative process and how you perform? 

When you struggle with things like anxiety, there’s really no part of your life that it doesn’t affect. For me, music has always been my outlet. It’s always been a little harder for me to express myself or find the right words to say things, and music has always been my way of venting and letting out the thoughts that I want to say. I’ve had a lot of people tell me that they couldn’t tell that I had anxiety by the way I perform in front of crowds, but for me, that’s exactly the point. It’s always been my escape.

New Addiction feels incredibly vulnerable. What emotions or experiences were most central to writing this record?

We wrote this record when we were going through the hardest time in our lives, and it really feels like a documentary for us. It took us a few months to write the record, and so much was changing throughout that process. It felt like we really didn’t know where we were going at some points. We kind of took a different approach to songwriting on this album, and we decided to skip the metaphors and really talk about the issues that we were going through, and it seems like that style has really connected with a lot of people. Fans at our shows and online have been very vocal about the fact that this album has helped them through some hard times, and that means the world to us because this album helped us through the hardest time of our lives as well.

How do you balance such heavy subject matters with creating something that still feels empowering — or even fun — to perform?

It’s not something that we really think a lot about. We write the songs that we want to write and a lot times, they’re about some pretty heavy subject matter. It’s how we express the things that we want to express. The music portion of it is kind of its own entity. We love writing songs that are fun for the listener and fun for us to perform, so sometimes that song that you’re dancing to is about some really terrible things that have happened to us in our lives, LOL. 

The album features some killer collaborations — how do you know when a song needs another voice? What was it like collaborating with the likes of Mod Sun and Craig Mabbitt?

The song “Masochistic Lovers” with Craig Mabbit and the song “Own Me” with ModSun were both originally written without a second voice. There’s just kind of something that happens when you’re listening to a song over and over again, where you think, “maybe someone would sound good on this”. And in both cases, we think we made the right choice. Collaborating with legends like Craig and ModSun was absolutely insane. They’re both so creative and so important to the rock scene.

Kevin Thrasher produced the album. What was it like working with someone who’s shaped some of modern punk’s biggest sounds?

We’ve been working with Kevin Thrasher for a few years now. He produced a couple of tracks for us back in 2021 in 2022, and when we went into this full-length album, we knew he was who we wanted to take the reins. He’s a creative genius and just such a good person. We love working with him in the big-time studios out in LA just as much as we love working with him at his home studio with his two kids in and out of the room. He’s been behind some of the most successful music of the last few years, and we’re so grateful that we get to work with someone so talented.

Your sound blends industrial, punk, goth, and even blues. Do you consciously chase genre-blending, or is that just who you are as artists?

We don’t consciously chase specific genres. We kind of just know the things that we like to hear when we listen to music, and that helps shape the music that we create. We listen to so much music of so many different genres that it’s always kind of been what’s natural to us. We never want to make something that can be easily defined.

This is your most emotionally intense project yet. How do you protect your mental health while touring and reliving that material on stage?

Like anything else that’s emotionally demanding, there’s always gonna be parts that are harder than others. Sometimes you have to separate yourself a little bit from the music, but I think that the best performances always come when you are able to fully relive those feelings, as hard as that may be. Eventually, you sing a song about a rough topic enough time and you look up one day and you’re like “wow, I guess I’m actually over this”.

You’re hitting the road again soon, including major festival dates and a headline tour. What can fans expect from the New Addiction live experience?

We’re so excited for this tour! This is our first headline tour in North America! We’re trying to create an experience for fans that’s more than just a live show. We wanna meet every single fan that we can, play every song that the fans want to hear, and put on a performance that people will never forget.

What’s one song on the album you’re most excited (or nervous) to play live?

We absolutely love playing “Dead 2 Me” live, as it has such a great energy at the live show. “Masochistic Lovers” is another one that we absolutely love playing, whenever a fan is screaming the words and jumping- it’s just such an incredible experience. 

If someone hears The Haunt for the first time through New Addiction, what do you hope sticks with them?

We hope we become their favorite band lol! But seriously, we make music to try to speak honestly about issues we’re going through, and I think that, in turn, that creates a safe space for our fans. We want someone to hear our songs, and if they are going through a hard time, know that they are not alone. We always love hearing our fans’ stories of how our music has helped them. That’s what makes this whole thing worthwhile for us.

👉 Check out New Addiction below and stream it wherever you listen to music.

The Haunt U.S. Headline Dates

• October 15 – Philadelphia, PA – The Foundry at The Fillmore
• October 16 – Albany, NY – Empire Live
• October 17 – Cambridge, MA – The Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub
• October 18 – Hartford, CT – The Webster
• October 19 – West Jefferson, NC – Saloon Studios Live
• October 22 – New Kensington, PA – Preserving Underground
• October 24 – Washington, D.C. – Pearl Street Warehouse
• October 25 – Dundalk, MD – SKULL HOUSE ROCK FESTIVAL*
• October 29 – Atlanta, GA – Altar at the Masquerade
• October 30 – Tampa, FL – Crowbar
• October 31 – West Palm Beach, FL – Respectable Street
• November 7 – Grove City, OH – A&R Bar
• November 8 – Cudahy, WI – X-Ray Arcade
• November 9 – Chicago, IL – Beat Kitchen
• December 5 – Austin, TX – Mohawk Austin
• December 6 – Dallas, TX – Ruins
• December 7 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall
• December 10 – Phoenix, AZ – The Rebel Lounge
• December 11 – San Diego, CA – House of Blues
• December 13 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echo
• December 16 – Fresno, CA – Strummer’s 
• December 18 – San Francisco, CA – Cafe Du Nord
• December 19 – Portland, OR – Holocene
• December 21 – Seattle, WA – Hidden Hall

*festival dates

^w/Escape The Fate