The two guitarists and songwriters Bad Temper Joe and Fernant Zeste present their first joint album, "Haunt": twelve tracks that emerged at the crossroads between songwriter ballads and raw blues. The songs deal with conversations at the table and at night, with 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.
Bielefeld native Bad Temper Joe and Fernant Zeste, originally from Welle, Belgium, now living in Ghent, met at a concert in Bielefeld in 2016. Since then, the two musicians have toured together annually in Belgium, and occasionally in Germany and the Netherlands. "Haunt" is their first collaboration on an album. Each musician contributes six original compositions that blend the qualities of both songwriters into a sound that is fresh, determined, disarming, vulnerable, and unmistakable. From the dark and rumbling "Battle Cry Blues," the painful groove of "Been a While Since We've Talked," the bubbling beat of "Winterblues at #5 (Or Maybe Not)," and the lively narrative of "Fannie Mae" to the sparse, acoustic "Lullaby." Bad Temper Joe delivers heart-rending and heart-rending, then brutally distorted slide guitar solos. Fernant Zeste sets the pounding rhythm with his electric guitar, while also incorporating relaxed fills and riffs.
The album was produced by Jonathan Scheerlinck, and largely 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 handled the audio mastering at 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 their guitars.
01 Don't Talk About Break-Up (While I Eat)
02 Winter Blues 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
