WL//WH Premiere: HAUNTU React to Post-Pandemic Capitalism with a Dramatic “Panic”

photo by Becky Digiglio

Hauntu is the San Diego, California-based Post Punk unit made up of Rebecca Antuña, Demetrius Antuña, Francis Winfield, Rory Truesdale and RJ Marques, from former or current bands, Tulpa Luna, Holy Tears, Island of Thieves, Sleeping Ghost, Ilya, Kata, Fluf, The Old In/Out, Goodbye Blue Monday.

Taking cues from bands like Wipers and Hot Snakes the band has crafted an extremely straightforward, intense and crunchy Post-punk approach with driving rhythms, ‘fast downstroke guitars, and infusing layers of lush and catchy melodic female vocals’.

WL//WH is pleased to Premiere the Official Video by Mitch Wilson and Lunar Maps Productions for “Panic”, a song taken from the upcoming, August 2, 2024, debut 2-track 7″ Vinyl EP, via Sell The Heart Records.

The first batch of songs was recorded with Ben Moore at Singing Serpent Studios and written as a kind of knee-jerk reaction to what’s become of the world post-pandemic. It’s kind of a fucked up place right now, we gotta make the best of it, but we can’t ignore what’s happening. So we’re expressing some of what we’re seeing, and how we’re dealing with it through these songs.

“Panic” is a somewhat satirical take on late night panic attacks that builds an urgent pain-fueled backdrop driven by steady punchy drum beats, chugging bass lines, and tight crunchy guitar riffs laced with rippling strains, to lift haunted emotional cries, through warm waves of poignant sparkling arpeggios into the vibrant soaring finale where a dramatic male-female vocal interplay takes hold.

Cinematic visuals by Mitch Wilson and Lunar Maps Productions alternate garage rehearsal clips with a symbolic werewolf story to sync with the intense emotionality of the soundtrack. A cool back-yard skate ramp sets the stage for some fun in the sun with friends, but beware because later, under the full moon’s glow, the band shapeshift into a vicious pack of wolves that terrorize unsuspecting victims in a classic Lupercalian purge. To take the edge off, Hauntu also shows us some of the behind-the-scenes tricks they use to accomplish the action effects in the video.

HAUNTU‘s forthcoming debut 2-track transparent Red Vinyl 7″ EP, “Panic/ End of Days”, is slated for release on August 2, 2024, via Sell The Heart Records.

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