Saving one of the best for last we come to the end of our Tech Fest interviews with the magnificent Haken. Having just floored the entire Tech Fest crowd with one of the highlights of the festival no doubt. Performing material from their acclaimed The Mountain, stating that they have time to squeeze in one last song, ie the just shy of twenty minute epic that is “Crystallised” the band were one of the stand out acts of the festival. After finishing up their set we were lucky enough to have a chat with the delightful gents that are Richard Henshall and Ross Jennings. Speaking about the band’s work on the new album, Prog in the modern day and the all important concept album we entered the weird and wonderful world of Haken, like bacon!

I’ve seen a mysterious hashtag of H4KEN as well, could you tell us a little about that? What’s in the works?

Ross : We’re starting to build up the excitement for the next album basically! It’s actually still early days for that. I think our initial intention was to get it out this year but it’s taken a little longer than planned. We want to get it right you know? The Mountain and Restoration is tough to follow. You can’t rush good art! We’re expecting early 2016 now for the next record.

Rich : We’re kind of approaching it slightly differently as well in terms of the music and the composition. We’re going to write the whole album as a band so we’re all going to have equal input. We’re going to share ideas and collaborate a lot more on this one. 

Ross : Yeah, whereas in the past Richard would come up with the majority of the song. Then we would fill in the gaps as a band but it’s a very different approach this time. We’ve all had a chance to kind of put our influences in the melting pot and give it a stir and it’s sounding different, still Haken but so far we’re expanding our sounds. I don’t want to give away too much, well it’s not finished so, who knows what it will end up being! 

Apologies for the slight interruptions, Haken had just played an absolutely astonishing set so it is understandable that fans would want to congratulate the guys, hence the jumps later in the listen! You can listen to so many other interviews on our Soundcloud page by clicking the link.

Haken’s brilliant EP Restoration is out now and the band will be supporting Between The Buried and Me this September.