HANEKE TWINS

[ Interview with Stefanos Leontsinis and Paschalis Vichoudis from Haneke Twins by Diego Centurión. ]

HANEKE TWINS: THE LARGE SOUND PARTICLE COLLIDER

Stefanos Leontsinis (guitars) and Paschalis Vichoudis (vocals and bass) they are two Greeks established in Geneva, Switzerland, who are not only friends, have shared other bands and are also scientists at CERN (The European Organization for Nuclear Research), but the fundamental thing in this story is that we approach them for their Haneke Twins band. The band was formed in 2018, that same year they recorded their self-titled debut EP and just a few weeks ago they released their second album called "Astronaut". So we contacted two space musicians to discover, among other things, how space relates to music.

Hi guys, thanks for accepting this interview. It is always tempting to enter the life of a new band and discover those first impulses that managed to create the band, which would still be very fresh in your memory.

But to start, tell us how and where did this pandemic called COVID-19 surprise you?

[Paschalis]: Hi Diego, firstly thank you very much for having us, it is a great pleasure! As you can imagine, COVID-19 caught us by surprise, as most of us we guess. Luckily we happened to be caught at home in Switzerland rather than anywhere abroad - so at least we avoided being quarantined :)

You as scientists, a topic that we will address in another question, what reflection do you have about this pandemic?

[Stefanos]: One lesson we learned working in a scientific environment is to always trust the experts and we wouldn’t diverge from that lesson, especially now during such a crisis. Therefore we would just suggest to everyone to please comply with the measures suggested by the expert virologists and remember, the pandemic is not a joke, it is real.

From what I have read you have been together for a long time, tell us, how long have you known each other? When do you join CERN?

[Paschalis]: We have known each other for more than 10 years. We met in Geneva when Stefanos joined CERN in 2007, if I remember well. Concerning me, I have already been at CERN since 2003.

What kind of work do you do at CERN?

[Paschalis]: We both work mainly on the development of physics detectors such the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) designed to study the interaction of particles accelerated by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Stefanos is working on the physics aspects of the detectors while I am more focused on their electrical engineering side.

How and when the Haneke Twins was born? And does the name

have to do with Michael Haneke?

[Stefanos]: The Haneke Twins project was born in 2018, when we both realized that we were sharing the same urge to compose our own music. We already had some ideas in the drawer that quickly converted into our 5-track debut EP. The album was recorded at Dudu Loft studio in Athens, Greece in just a weekend with a (not so) little-help-from-ourfriends drummer Kostas Zabos and producer Costas Verigas (both members of the amazing post-rock band Afformance).

Concerning the name, it is indeed a tribute to the great Austrian film director. More specifically, the name refers to his film “The white ribbon”, a one-of-a-kind suspense movie that — contrary to any other (that we know of) — it creates a second-tonone atmosphere without playing a single note of music! And for those that have already watched the film, just a little hint: do you remember the twin girls? You never know, maybe one day we will compose an imaginary soundtrack for it :)

They usually compare you to Interpol or Joy Division, how would you describe your postpunk?

[Paschalis]: No doubt, Joy Division and Interpol are two of our favourite artists and great influences, too. In general, it is quite difficult to describe post-punk as it is a very broad genre. Our approach musically is to mix dark dramatic baritone vocals, eerie but catchy guitars and minimalistic avant-garde aesthetics, while avoiding rock traditionalism and clichés. Lyrically, we deal with subjects such as psychological quests, concerns about modern life as well as other social and political

issues. Our end-goal is to timetravel you to the dark and smokey underground bars of the 80s with a fresh revisited sound.

At the time of thinking about this interview it occurred to me to think about its direct post-punk sound, and I was thinking… How much of the hardness in your music can you find in space?

[Stefanos]: hehehe, I will take that one. Unfortunately, no matter how powerful the music is, it cannot be heard in space. Sound travels through the vibration of atoms and molecules in a medium (such as air or water). In space, where there is no air, sound has no way to travel no matter how good it is :)

In your first work you use poems by Stathis Antoniou, tell us who Stathis Antoniou is and how did he influence you when writing this work?

[Paschalis]: Stathis Antoniou is a young contemporary Athenian poet with a very strong pen! A common friend introduced us in order to help “dress” our debut EP with beautiful words in a period where lyrically we were out of ideas. Check him out, and please don't hesitate about his greek origins since many of his poems (if not all) are written in English.

They have just released their second album, tell us about it and his suggestive name "Astronaut". [Stefanos]: Indeed, we have released our album Astronaut the last day of July 2020. The album continues where we left off with a post-punk attitude same as in tracks “Deep” and “Climb” from our debut

EP, but this time with a more in-yourface production. As with our debut EP, the recordings took place at Dudu Loft and Costas Verigas took care of the mixing, mastering and production. The title of the album is taken from the opening track and even though it suggests otherwise, the song deals with a story of mental illness.

Tell us about the cover made by Bewild Brother. In a way it is related to your scientific activity. [Stefanos]: The album cover — made by this extremely talented illustrator — is inspired from the lyrics of the title-track “Astronaut” rather than from our scientific activity. Besides, even though CERN has a certain relation with space applications (such as the AMS), its main scientific activities — and ours

— are more “down-to-earth”, more “underground” :)

We are in difficult times to make plans, but is there something you have already planned?

[Paschalis]: We learned that lesson the hard way, since we have to cancel all scheduled concerts from our spring 2020 mini-tour in Switzerland. We hope that our 4 autumn gigs will take place but nowadays you can never know. Let's see what happens.

To end this interview and thank you for the time you have given us, I leave you this space so that you can say something to our readers...

[Stefanos]: In a previous question I referred to Haneke Twins as a project rather than as a band because back

in 2018, Haneke Twins was only seen as a studio project. This has changed in 2019 after the very positive feedback from various independent media, and only then we started thinking of setting up a band and start playing our material live. Haneke Twins became a band only after three talented musicians (and scientists!) joined us in spring 2019. Our band-mates I. Koukovinis (guitars), A. Kyritsis (bass) & M. Schenk (drums) have also participated in the recording of the album “Astronaut”. Such a pleasure having them with us!

Last-but-not-least, a small message for your readers: thank you very much for your support, we hope to see you soon in one of our future gigs! In the meantime, please STAY SAFE!

Thanks Haneke Twins and Kool Things Promotion for the contact.

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