Starbenders & The Haunt

Starbenders and The Haunt perform live at Empire Underground in Albany, NY.

Hailing from Atlanta, GA, Starbenders are the half way home for misunderstood misfits, fringers and glam punks. Front-woman, Kimi Shelter and her gang have concocted a perfect alchemic blend of androgynous rock and roll power with “stuck in your brain” pop melodies. Imagine David Bowie playing 7 minutes in heaven with Debbie Harry.

Shelter began working with producer, Nico Constantine (Lady Gaga , Program The Dead) in 2014 who encouraged her to start a band. Aaron Lecesne was the first call Shelter made. The duo were best of friends and had intense music crushes on each other. The genesis of Starbenders took form. Guitarist, Kriss Tokaji, entered the scene in early 2015 after the band witnessed him laying waste to a guitar at a shitty house party in the middle of nowhere. “We couldn’t believe our ears and eyes! Our prayers had been answered!”, beams Shelter. The dream lineup crystallized in 2017 with the entrance of drummer Emily Moon. “It was the final piece to the puzzle. The band was in the middle of a transition and I thought to check Craigslist of all places when I came across Emily’s ad.” shared Lecesne. After responding to the band’s cryptic email, Moon met up with them that same night. It was love at first sight.

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A swirl of Indie-Pop and Post-Punk with a devilish alchemy that summons both Blues and Beats, The Haunt wouldn’t be out of place at Vivienne Westwood’s late seventies London boutique; a new wave countdown on MTV’s “120 Minutes”; baking in the sun at Vans Warped Tour; or a dystopian dance club in space.

Anastasia Grace Haunt and Maxamillion Haunt, the sibling duo at the core of the quartet, craft shockingly resonant anthems infused with wistful elegance and raw nerve. At only 19, Anastasia is possessed with a voice and sensibility beyond her years, an old soul somehow channeling a timeless essence, with powerfully mature lyricism to back it up. Enigmatic, esoteric, and charming, Anastasia doesn’t just “relate” to teenagers in The Haunt’s audience who have been bullied or otherwise shunned. She quite literally is one of them.

Songs like “I’M NOT YOURS” are filled with passion and ambition. Anastasia glides with relative ease between the otherworldly vibrations of soul siren Amy Winehouse or punk icon Siouxsie Sioux.. The anti-bullying mini-movie music video that first introduced many to The Haunt, “All Went Black,” was originally penned by Anastasia as a deeply felt battle cry against loneliness and abandonment when she was just 12 years old. Since then, The Haunt has released two EP’s as well as multiple standalone singles, including songs like “Cigarettes and Feelings” and “Love You Better”, which both quickly rose to be fan favorites, respectfully.

The juxtaposition of Anastasia’s quiet offstage shyness with her commanding vocal preeminence is one of many artistic clarion calls beckoning an increasing number of likeminded devotees into the Haunt’s world. Her daydreaming quirkiness and vintage-meets- Victorian ambience strike familiar chords with those who yearn to live in the pages of Edward Gorey or the films of Tim Burton.

The Haunt is an invitation to the outsider, a blissful surrender to enchantment, melancholy, and disaffected beauty. It’s the soundtrack to the dark romanticism of otherworldly sentimentality. This is lush, theatrical, all-enveloping music outstretching its cold embrace to the overlooked.

“Sophisticated Rock with a cool Electronic texture to it.”

– Alternative Press