Stars Align
What do Haunt The Woods and Peppa Pig have in common? The answer will surprise you, but the curious connection has undoubtedly helped the British alt-proggers find their place in the world on their second album, Ubiquity. Prog catches up with the four-piece to discuss their journey from busking outside local supermarkets to bringing their tantalising music to far bigger audiences.
Words: Dave Everley
Haunt The Woods: dishing out good music.
Images: Steve Gullick
The B-Bar can be found at the top of a short flight of stone steps just up from Plymouth harbour in this maritime city’s historical Barbican area. It’s here in this arty venue-slash-comedy club-slash eatery that Haunt The Wood began their very first residency just after they formed nearly nine years ago, building a small but growing following with each gig they played.
“When we started, we were getting maybe 30 or 40 people,” says Haunt The Woods’ guitarist Phoenix Elleschild, nodding towards the compact stage half a floor below us as we sit on the B-Bar’s even-morecompact mezzanine level. “By the end of it, there were 130 or 140 people in there.”
“Way more than should have been in that room,” adds drummer Oliver Bignell.
A decade on, that early promise has blossomed into something more powerful. The four-piece’s second album, Ubiquity is a transcendent listen, channelling folk, alternative rock, prog and something far more intangible into a set of songs that are simultaneously grand and enigmatic.
The four men arranged around tables on the B-Bar’s mezzanine floor are, with the best will in the world, anything but enigmatic. These four self-professed “Cornish hippies” are funny and friendly, knocking back Prog’s misguided attempt to paint the West Country as a magical Avalon that’s psychically and spiritually