What inspired the name of the band? What are your influences and are they the same as when you started out?

The name of the band is a homage to the great Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke. We are big fans of his work and still cannot believe how he managed to create a suspense film masterpiece such as “White Ribbon” without a single note of music! One day we hope to compose a ”post-soundtrack” for it! Concerning our influences, we draw inspiration from a large variety of post-punk/new-wave bands, along with modern post-punk revival and math rock artists. Bauhaus, Interpol, Joy Division and Editors are some of the artists that shaped our sound.

How do you approach songwriting?

Not necessarily, no… We might start from a riff or a chord progression or a melody and go from there. The fun part is when one of us starts writing a song and the other takes it to a totally different direction than originally intended. And since our influences don’t match 100%, the whole process becomes particularly interesting. We like surprises and we often attempt to take the off-road path, hoping that it is reflected in our music.

How do you approach songwriting?

Not necessarily, no… We might start from a riff or a chord progression or a melody and go from there. The fun part is when one of us starts writing a song and the other takes it to a totally different direction than originally intended. And since our influences don’t match 100%, the whole process becomes particularly interesting. We like surprises and we often attempt to take the off-road path, hoping that it is reflected in our music.

Why do you write what you do?

It’s simply the common ground between our influences. We didn’t choose it, it came naturally. This blend of influences becomes very evident when listening to our debut EP, where the 5 tracks range from post-punk to heavy metal! On the contrary, our second release came out a bit more homogeneous. This is because we worked more on the material and even played it live in quite a few gigs before recording it. We believe that our next release will be somewhere in the middle, with a bit more edge but certainly without reaching metal grounds.

How do you decide what to perform live?

Interesting question, thanks for asking! Currently, we are in a very comfortable situation that does not require us to choose which of our songs to play. This is because we have only released 12 and we have to play all of them to get a set that is long enough! Often, we even have to add a few unreleased tracks and a couple of covers (“Burn My Shadow” by UNKLE and “I Can’t Escape Myself” by The Sound). Concerning how we perform them live, it is again pretty straight forward in our case. This is because we have decided to record our tracks keeping in mind their live performance, thus avoiding recording many instrumental layers that cannot be reproduced in live settings. Our approach is more of a “What you hear is what you get”.

What plans do you have for the future?

After two short albums – our eponymous debut EP “Haneke Twins” (2018, self-released) and the mini-LP “Astronaut” (2021, The Animal Farm), it is now time to record our first full-length album, hopefully by end 2022. We are also planning some shows in Switzerland and France (and who knows, maybe in the UK too!). By 2023 we aim to reach a broader audience and play some major venues and festivals. Check https://haneketwins.com for our music, news, concerts, links to our social media and more! Thanks very much for this interview!