I have no musical ability. Anyone who witnessed my failed attempts to learn bass guitar in elementary school or drums as a teenager might say my talent is below zero. And if you want every dog in the neighborhood to howl, just ask me to sing.
That’s why I’m amazed by musicians like siblings Anastasia Grace and Maxamillion Haunt. Ana and Max formed a band—initially called Anastasia Max—when she was 12 and he was 16. They changed the name of the band to The Haunt in 2017. Their first EP arrived in 2018: a six-song release featuring the critically acclaimed single “All Went Black.” Ana was 14 when it was recorded and 15 when it was released.
Three more EPs followed: Social Intercourse in 2021, Dead On Arrival in 2023, and Do Not Resuscitate in 2024. Heard in chronological order, the four releases reveal steady growth in songwriting, musicianship, Ana’s vocal prowess, and production.
In 2025, The Haunt released their first full-length album, New Addiction. The steady, incremental growth of the EPs gave way to a dramatic leap forward. The album retained the band’s indie-pop and post-punk foundation while adding heavier riffs and catchier hooks. It announced, loudly and clearly, that The Haunt had arrived.
Looking forward to October 30, which will be just 15 months after the release of New Addiction, The Haunt will drop their second full-length album, Ghost. All five singles released so far are outstanding. To prepare for my interview with Ana and Max, I received an advance copy of the complete 13-song album. This isn’t a review, but I’ll say this: If New Addiction announced the band’s arrival, Ghost proves they’re here to stay.
To support the new album, The Haunt will launch a 23-date U.S. tour on Thursday, September 24. The tour stops at Denver’s Marquis Theater on Wednesday, October 14. Ahead of the tour and the Denver show, I spent about half an hour with Ana and Max via Zoom at the end of last week. I’ve got to say, this was one of the most fun interviews I’ve ever done. The banter between Ana and Max was incredibly entertaining, they both have wonderful senses of humor, and they were just good people to hang with. And man, did we go down some rabbit holes, including several minutes spent discussing being born with one too many, or one too few, internal organs. I know, right…
************************************************************************
(Max joined the Zoom call ahead of Ana, so the first part of the interview was more or less the two of us killing time. But some interesting information came out of it, so I’ve included it in the transcript that follows…)
RICK: Thanks so much for joining me, Max. Is Ana with you?
MAX: No, she’s not with me, but she’s going to be joining in a second.
RICK: Okay, then, we’ll just hang out and wait. I assume you’re busy getting things ready to head back out on the road?
MAX: Yeah. Exactly. Doing a bunch of tour prep, and we have rehearsals after this, and it’s just been nonstop.
RICK: Well, the life of a rock and roll star, man.
MAX: Yeah, I guess so.
RICK: You know, when I was growing up, that’s what I wanted to be. And as I got involved with music in this way, interviewing people and covering shows, I soon learned that it can be a pretty rough life.
MAX: You know, it has its great parts, and then it has its parts that are hard. I’m engaged, so the hard part is just leaving, you know. Leaving your significant other and that kind of stuff. For the most part, though, is really something special. I mean, you’re playing songs that you wrote for people that want to hear them.
RICK: No, I get that. So you’re engaged. Do you have a date set?
MAX: Uh, no, not yet. She’s in medical school, and I’m constantly touring. So we’re trying to figure out a time where we both have off for long enough to do it.
RICK: Well, congratulations! That’s awesome.
MAX: Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, I’m very excited. We’ve been together for a long time, almost eight years now.
RICK: Wow. Well, I guess you probably know each other. What does she think of you being on the road all the time touring?
MAX: You know, it’s always been a part of our relationship. When we first started dating, it was when we first started touring really seriously back in 2019. We did our first tours with Palaye Royale around that time. So it’s always been a part of our relationship. We just kind of accept that it is what it is, you know what I mean?
RICK: Well, that’s great, man. I wish you both the very best. While we’re waiting for Ana, I could go ahead with a question I was going to ask you, but I was going to wait till the end of the interview because it has nothing to do with the interview. I’m very curious, Max. How does a guy from Boca Raton, Florida, become a Pittsburgh Steelers fan.
MAX: It kind of happened when I was a kid. The Steelers were really good, and my dad was always a Steelers fan. He’s from New York and his parents are from New York but they never really cared about sports in his family. But his aunt and uncle were in Pittsburgh during the 70s, which was pretty much Pittsburgh’s era and so that’s what made him (his dad) a fan. My dad is like a next level fan, and that was passed down to me. It’s like you’re indoctrinated from a young age in my household.
RICK: All right. I’d picked up that little tidbit on you, and I thought it was interesting. And now I know. So it looks like Ana has connected.
ANA: Hi.
RICK: Hey, Ana. How are you doing today?
ANA: Sorry, I had some trouble getting on. I’m doing good. How are you?
RICK: I’m doing great. Let’s get started. Thanks for joining me—it’s a pleasure to chat with you. I’ve been a fan of your work and have followed you almost from the beginning, so I’m really excited for this conversation. I appreciate you taking the time.
MAX: Yeah, thank you for having us.
RICK: I’ll do my best to get you out of here in about a half an hour or so. I guess I would like to start with congratulations. Congratulations are in order, not just to you, Max. I already congratulated you on your engagement, but congratulations to both of you on the new record. I’ve had a chance to listen to the whole thing, and it’s terrific.
MAX: Well, thank you.
RICK: New Addiction was a strong record, so I was curious how you’d follow it. With Ghost, I think you’ve taken things to the next level. Congratulations on the new album and the upcoming tour.
ANA: Yeah, yes, we’re so excited.
RICK: It certainly sounds like you’re going to be busy, and we’re really happy that you’ll be rolling through here on October 14th for a show at the Marquis. This will be your second time headlining at the Marquis, and your third time playing in Denver in just over a year.
MAX: Yeah, we played there basically the same time last year. I think it was September of last year, and it was really fun. And we’re super excited to be coming back. We love spending as much time as we can out in Denver. It’s so beautiful there. And for us, coming from Florida, just to get out of your hotel room or out of the bus and seeing the mountains in the distance, we just like lose our minds every time. We love spending time out there.
RICK: I know that after the show here, you’re headed to Vegas for festival there. But are you going to get any chance while you’re here to get out and do anything?
MAX: I hope so. We haven’t looked too closely at the touring schedule. Usually we get the dates and the routing, and then we go over everything with the tour manager. But everything’s kind of been like chaos because we’ve been in rehearsals nonstop. I think next week is when we’re really going to start planning for some off days and stuff like that. Hopefully we get to spend a little time out there because last time we did it, it was awesome.
RICK: I always like to ask people if they’ve got any really memorable recollections of times that they spent in Denver. You know, anything that’s happened when you’ve been here that was particularly memorable.
MAX: To be honest with you, I think we’ve only been to Denver proper twice. We did the last headline tour stop, and then we also did a stop when we were on tour with Palaye Royale, but that was like a long time ago.
ANA: We went to Denver with The Hu as well.
MAX: No, that was Colorado Springs.
ANA: Oh, okay. Yeah.
RICK: I thought you guys were here with the Hollow Crown Tour in April.
ANA: That’s right. We were.
MAX: That feels like a fever dream right now.
RICK: I was bummed that I didn’t get to catch you the last couple of times, so I’m really excited for the show next month. Speaking of that, who’s going to be playing drums and bass for you guys on this tour?
MAX: Joey Castro will be playing drums for us, and Cameron Knopp, who’s been playing all the U.S. shows with us, will be playing bass again.
RICK: All right, shoutouts to both of them. So, listen, I’m not going to drag you through the whole backstory of how and when you formed the band. But I do want to ask you a question about the very early days when you were calling yourselves Anastasia Max. You rebranded as The Haunt before you released your first EP in 2018. Is there a backstory behind that name change?
ANA: No, I think we always knew we were going to do that. That was always going to happen. Anastasia Max was just our names together, and it was really stupid.
MAX: It was the name that we did when we were like eight years old, and we just used it for a little while.
ANA: There was another interview, I can’t remember exactly when it was, and they asked the same thing, and I didn’t know what to say. We’ve always just considered ourselves The Haunt.
RICK: Okay, well, personally, I thought it was a great move. But do you ever run into any confusion with the band called just “Haunt”?
MAX: No, we haven’t really run into much confusion, to be completely honest. We’re in kind of separate lanes, and so everything has kind of been, you know, cordial (laughing). We just kind of try to keep our distance, and it seems like they do as well. We’ve been playing under this name for like a decade now, so it’s not something that we really think about.
RICK: From the start, your songwriting drew praise for its maturity and emotional depth—especially impressive given that you were teenagers. I’m curious about your process. If you have a typical approach, how does songwriting usually work for you?
MAX: I would say that every song is kind of different. You know, there’s songs that I write the basis for, and then Ana comes in and changes around, and vice versa. It’s kind of completely dependent on the song. Some songs we’ll write in the studio. Some songs we write before we get there, or at least have most of them written before we get there. Every song kind of has a different process, but that’s what I think keeps songwriting interesting for us. That we don’t have a formulaic way of doing what we do. We kind of let the ideas take us where they take us.
ANA: Yeah, I feel like for the most part I’ll write my songs and he’ll write his and then we’ll just sprinkle ourselves onto each other’s. (Hesitation) Sorry, that was such an odd way to say that (big laughter from Max). But sometimes we’ll write something together, mostly when we’re in the studio. But I feel like that’s more rare.
RICK: Do you ever write on the road, or do you reserve that for when you’re off the road?
ANA: I’m personally always writing. I think Max is probably doing the same, but it’s more like in our own spaces. I have this foldable keyboard that I’ll put in the back of the bus, and I’ll usually do that around three in the morning or something like that.
MAX: Yeah, I’ll write some riffs in soundcheck, but for the most part, I’m just writing ideas and concepts and making notes. Then when we get home, I’ll kind of “produce them out” some more.
RICK: As I mentioned, I’ve followed your careers from the beginning. While preparing for this interview, I listened to your music chronologically, from the first EP through the new album, and your growth as a band is easy to hear. How do you think your sound and musical identities have evolved since you started? And as you continue to grow, what parts of the band’s original spirit are you consciously trying to preserve?
MAX: Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of it comes down to what we were just talking about with band’s name, right? A major part of the band’s spirit was always Ana being, you know, a creepy weirdo…
(Literally seconds after Max’s reference to Ana as a “creepy weirdo”, she dropped off of the call. She rejoined the call just as Max was finishing up the remaining paragraph below.)
…and that’s what everything was kind of based on from the beginning. From there we were just trying to express ourselves in different ways. I think the evolution occurred the more and more honest we got with our songwriting, and with what we wanted to make and what we wanted to hear, instead of what we were being directed toward what we should make. You know, when you’re a young girl – especially one as young as Ana was when we started working on our first EP – everyone was trying to pull us in these Disney directions and pop music and this and that. That was never what we wanted to do. We were inspired by the White Stripes and Royal Blood and bands like that, and we wanted to do something that no one our age at that time was doing. That’s what we wanted to make, and the more and more true to that we got, and the more and more honest we got with our lyricism, the closer we got to what we were trying to be. We’re just trying to tell our life stories through music. We’re just telling it how it is, I guess.
RICK: I was going to thank you, Max, for giving me the great soundbite when you talked about Ana being a creepy weirdo. And then all of a sudden, she dropped off, and I thought, oh no, he really pissed her off with that one!
ANA: (Chuckling) Yeah, man, I was like, I’m done.
RICK: Well, thank you for coming back, Ana. So let’s back up just a little bit. I want to make sure I have the timeline correct. When you guys formed the band in 2015, Ana was what, 12 at that time?
MAX: Yeah. When we recorded the first EP, it came out in what, 2017 or 2018?
RICK: 2018 is when the first EP was released.
MAX: Yeah, we were working on it for a long time leading up to that. I don’t remember exactly when we started recording it, Ana. Do you?
ANA: I don’t, but I know that I wrote “All Went Black” (closing track on the first EP) when I was 11 or 12.
MAX: I think it came out when you were 15.
ANA: Ah, yes, that sounds right. Because we went and recorded the “Bullet” (third track on the EP) video for my 15th birthday.
RICK: The way I’ve been able to piece it together is that when the first EP was released, Ana was 15, and Max, you were either 18 or 19.
MAX: Yeah, we’re three and a half years apart, so I would have been somewhere in there. I think I was 18 when it released.
RICK: So what are you guys today? I’m figuring that Ana’s 23?
ANA: Yes, I am.
MAX: And I’m 27.
RICK: And I know that Max, your birthday’s May 10.
MAX: Yep.
RICK: So I won’t wish you an early or belated birthday. Ana, what’s your birthday?
ANA: My birthday is January 24.
RICK: Okay, well, so I won’t wish you anything either.
ANA: No, we have some time to go.
RICK: Yeah, we’ll keep that in mind for the next time. So you guys are obviously brother and sister. But you’re also in business together, right? You’re co-founders of the band. You’re professional collaborators. Do you make any kind of conscious effort to try to separate those relationships? Or does that even matter to you guys?
MAX: I don’t know. It’s hard because music is one of those things that kind of crosses the boundary between fun and work. You know what I mean? There’s parts of it where we have to be really business minded, and we have to get the work done and this and that. But then a lot of it is also fun. For example, when we’re on tour, we have to get the logistical parts, and all the merch designs, and all that other stuff done. But once all that stuff is out of the way, it kind of feels like we’re hanging out and playing shows and it’s really fun. You know what I mean? And so the lines kind of get blurred. It kind of depends on what we’re working on. I’d say we’re pretty multifaceted, and so depending on what we’re working on, we put on different hats for levels of seriousness we need to get it done. I’ll also say that we will procrastinate and we’ll joke around and not get shit done for like hours if we’re left unwatched. So I think it depends on how urgent the deadline is and what it is we need to get done.
RICK: I saw a video where you guys were giving a tour of the inside of your tour bus…
ANA: Oh, God (laughing)…
RICK: Yeah, I remember all the Oreos. (They had a huge stash of Oreos tucked away in one of the drawers on the bus.) I almost put Oreos for my background just for fun.
MAX: That’s so funny.
RICK: But anyway, in that video, Max, you said that everyone tells Ana that everything starts 30 minutes earlier than it really does. Is that really true?
MAX: Oh, for sure. And honestly, we might have even moved that back at this point. It’s not getting better. (Big laughter from both)
ANA: I have my own like time zone, so yeah.
RICK: So, Ana, I mean, if you know that they’re doing that, do you then just adjust for it, or do you take it at face value?
ANA: Honestly, I’m just lied to all the time, so I don’t know what’s real anymore.
RICK: (Nearly spitting up laughing) Okay, then. Well, you know that makes for an interesting journey through life, I guess. And it’s really funny. You guys were talking a little bit earlier about downtime when you’re touring. When you’re touring, and you find yourself with a little bit of downtime – maybe a couple days between gigs – what do you like to do? What do you do for the sake of your physical or mental well-being?
MAX: I think it kind of depends on where we are in the tour. Because once you get in the latter half, you start chilling out more and more because you’re deep. You’re deep in the tour. Like this tour is two months, so the further in you get, the more you’re starting to take it easy to get through the end of the tour. We’re not big partiers or anything like that. We really like to do group activities or go to dinner, something like that. Nothing crazy. I would say the most fun thing we did on the last tour was that ropes course. That was a pretty good one.
ANA: Yeah, but I think just in a more everyday sort of thing, working out and just like taking time for ourselves.
MAX: Yeah, but that doesn’t really change on off days or on days. We try to build our days so that there’s kind of a consistent schedule, even though it’s pretty hard to do when every day can be a different setup. But we try to mostly do the same stuff. Usually when you’re on an off day, you’re parked at a mall somewhere, so we have to, you know, go adventure all the dead malls and try to find whatever weird stuff we can find.
RICK: So where did where did you guys do a ropes course?
MAX: I was just thinking about that. Where was that, Ana? Do you remember?
ANA: We weren’t trying to do a ropes course. We were trying to go on an inside of this mountain tour, but the last tour had already gone out. But they had this ropes course, and we could do that instead.
MAX: But where were we?
ANA: Beats me.
MAX: Yeah, it was some giant government built cave into this mountain, and then they turned it into this attraction when they closed down whatever they were doing in there, and then they built a ropes course inside the mountain, which was pretty interesting.
ANA: I feel like it was Kentucky.
MAX: You’re right. It was Louisville. I think it was Louisville. Yeah.
RICK: Wow, that’s interesting. I’ll have to check that out. Ropes courses are awesome.
ANA: That was like a first for us. We don’t usually do ropes courses.
MAX: No, but we do look for weird stuff to do. We did Meow Wolf on the last run as well. We’re always looking for something fun to do.
RICK: You know, there’s a Meow Wolf in Denver.
MAX: Really! We’ve got to hit that one.
RICK: I don’t know how many there are now. I know there’s at least three of them, and they opened the one here maybe three years ago. It’s pretty close to downtown, so maybe if you have some free time, you can make it over there.
MAX: Yeah, that’d be cool.
RICK: You guys have obviously worked very hard to get where you are today. You’ve been at this for over a decade, and you’re consistently putting out new music. But hopefully you get a chance to every once in a while take some real time off and truly unplug. So we’re gonna play a little let’s use our imagination game for a few minutes. If I told you that you were going to unplug from your professional lives for a month, what would be the perfect way that you’d want to spend that month?
MAX: That’s tough. I think if we’re talking anything in the world, I would do my dream vacation trip to Japan. And that’s the right amount of time I would want to spend there – three weeks to a month. That would be my dream scenario. In a more realistic scenario, I think I could find myself in a cabin somewhere in the woods, kind of shut down for a month or so.
ANA: That sounds nice, but I don’t know. I really want to be on tour… (boisterous laughter from Max and Rick)
ANA: (continues) I, um, was kind of forced into isolation because I just had emergency surgery recently. We had to cancel a show or two. So I’m just ready to do it. I want to go.
MAX: Yeah, that’s the thing. We really like what we do, so it’s like, when you’re talking about dream scenarios, we’re kind of doing it.
ANA: And I don’t know. I just don’t do well with having… time.
RICK: I get it… you need to have something to do, right?
ANA: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
RICK: So I’m really sorry about your surgery. I won’t put anything about that in my write up if you don’t want me to.
ANA: No, it’s okay.
RICK: Is everything okay?
ANA: Yeah, I’m alive, so I’m ready to go.
RICK: “I’m alive.” Well, that’s a good way of looking at it.
ANA: It was a close one, though. A close call.
RICK: Dang! I’m just glad you’re okay. So, I’m getting close to the end of this thing. I have maybe one or two more questions that I want to ask you. Here’s one that might be kind of cheesy, but inquiring minds want to know. What’s one thing about you that your fans would really be surprised to know? I’ll ask that of each of you.
ANA: Well, I don’t really want to go back to my surgery, but I’ll go with that I’m missing three organs right now. Max, what about you?
RICK: Wait. You’re missing three organs!
ANA: Yeah, like they just took them.
RICK: What’d they take?
ANA: They took my appendix. I had an extra appendix that something like 2% of the population has. So they took that and some of my intestines.
RICK: Holy cow! That’s a serious surgery, Ana.
ANA: Yeah, it was hardcore.
MAX: Yeah, it was hardcore for sure.
ANA: So the fans would probably be shocked to know that.
MAX: You know, you said they “took them.” Like you’re missing them right now, as if they were going to give them back.
ANA: No, they’re keeping them.
MAX: (In clear agreement) Yeah, they’re keeping them.
RICK: Yeah, I don’t think they’re going to give them back. I really don’t think you’d want them back to be honest.
MAX: No, probably not.
ANA: They can keep them.
RICK: Wow, I can’t believe you were born with two. How do you even say that. I mean, what’s the plural of appendix?
ANA: Um, it actually has a separate name that I’m not going to try to pronounce. But I was born with two of them, and it was all tied in a knot, and things got confused.
RICK: That’s nuts. You know, I’m just the opposite. I was born with just one kidney.
MAX: Oh… now that’s interesting.
RICK: Yeah, and I didn’t find out about it till I was 40 years old.
ANA: Oh wow, that’s crazy!
RICK: And it’s kind of a good thing to know, right? Because if you ever got in like a car wreck or something and you damaged your kidney, you wouldn’t want them going yanking it out if they didn’t know there wasn’t another one there.
ANA: The thing is that I lived my whole life with this. They said that usually, by the age of two, you find this, but I was really just riding it out.
RICK: Well, I’m so glad that you’re okay. All right, Max. You’re on the spot, with a tough act to follow. What would they be surprised to know about you?
MAX: I don’t know. I’m pretty honest about most of my stuff. Like too honest, I guess. I don’t know. I think that fans would probably be surprised at how nerdy I am, like the level of dweeb that I actually am.
ANA: He comes across a lot cooler than he actually is.
RICK: Boy, Ana jumped right in there, didn’t she?
MAX: Yeah, yeah, she’s got a lot to say about that.
ANA: But it’s so true though.
MAX: But I think that would probably be the most surprising.
RICK: That is awesome. And here I thought I was going to find out that your guilty pleasure is that you like boy bands, or something like that.
MAX: Well, musically, I mean, I don’t think it’s like a big secret about me, but I’m very much into girl pop. Like that’s definitely one of my favorite genres. (Ana laughing in the background) Olivia Rodrigo is one of my favorite artists.
RICK: Okay, well that’s cool. There’s nothing wrong with that.
MAX: If we’re talking guilty pleasures, I mean.
RICK: Uh huh. Well, that’s all that I had for you guys. So again, you’ll be performing at the Marquis on Wednesday, October 14. I’ve heard amazing things about your live shows, so I’m really looking forward to catching you guys then.
MAX: Thank you so much. Yeah, this one’s going to be really fun too. It feels like we’re stretching all of our ideas in all different directions for this one. It’s going to be a really fun show.
RICK: Well, again, I look forward to it. And thanks again for your time today. You guys are a lot of fun, missing organs and all. You clearly get along with each other, and that’s really cool.
MAX: Yeah, most of the time.
ANA: Yeah, sometimes.
************************************************************************
If you’re unfamiliar with the music of The Haunt, I will point you to the following videos for a sampling. All of these songs are from their new album, Ghost, which will drop on October 30.
The Haunt will be at the Marquis in Denver on Wednesday, October 14. You can get tickets at: Ticketmaster – The Haunt Denver. You really don’t want to miss this show – it promises to be exceptional. Grab your tickets, and we’ll see you there.
Interview/story by Rick Witt www.rickwittphotography.com
Photo used by permission
