The two guitarists and songwriters Bad Temper Joe and Fernant Zeste present their first album together "Haunt": twelve tracks that were created at the crossroads of songwriter ballads and rough blues. The songs are about conversations at the table and at night, about longing and alienation, are carried by melody and melancholy and are driven by Fernant Zeste's sometimes dry, sometimes snotty electric guitar and Bad Temper Joe's biting lap steel.
Bad Temper Joe from Bielefeld and Fernant Zeste, who comes from Welles in Belgium and lives in Gent, met in 2016 at a joint concert in Bielefeld. Since then, the two musicians have been on concert tours together in Belgium every year and occasionally in Germany and the Netherlands. "Haunt" is the first collaboration between the two on a full-length player. Each of the two musicians contributes six original compositions that merge the qualities of the two songwriters into a very unique sound in a fresh, determined, disarming, vulnerable and unmistakable way. From the dark and rumbling "Battle Cry Blues", the aching groove of "Been a While Since We've Talked", the seething beat of "Winterblues at #5 (Or Maybe Not)", to the lively narrative of "Fannie Mae" to the economical, acoustic "Lullaby". Bad Temper Joe delivers heart-rending and tearing, then brutally distorted slide guitar solos. Fernant Zeste shapes the stomping rhythm with his electric guitar, allowing relaxed fills and riffs to flow in at the same time.
Produced by Jonathan Scheerlinck, the album was mostly recorded and mixed in collaboration with David Goetheyn at Dead Cow Studio in Zevergem, Belgium. Additional recordings took place in apartments, living rooms and hotel rooms. Henning Strandt took care of the audio mastering at the Watt Matters Studio in Bielefeld. The two musicians are not supported by a band. "Haunt" is an expression of a German-Belgian friendship between two songwriters, their voices and guitars.
01 Don’t Talk About Break-Up (While I Eat)
02 Winterblues at #5 (Or Maybe Not)
03 Battle Cry Blues
04 Fannie Mae
05 Minstrel’s Lament
06 Little Rain
07 Black
08 Lullaby
09 Shut Your Mouth
10 Nova (Nothing To Say)
11 Been a While Since We’ve Talked
12 All Is Fine Now
