Exclusive Artist Interview: Ross Jennings of Haken

Shutter 16 Chats With Ross About Latest Album Fauna In The Midst Of Their North American Tour

British progressive metal band Haken has recently released their seventh studio album Fauna and is back in the U.S. on their North American Fauna Expedition Tour. The new album is a loosely based concept album featuring songs that are all related in some way to the animal kingdom. Lead vocalist Ross Jennings explains, “The premise of the album when we started writing it was that every song would have an animal assigned to it. They all have something related to the animal kingdom that we could write about, but they also connect to the human world. Each track has layers, and some of them are more obvious than others.”

Fauna also marks the return of keyboardist Peter Jones to the fold and his sounds permeate the entire record bringing a sense of renewal to the band. The new record offers a little bit of something for everyone with some tracks leaning harder to the metal side and some tunes taking on the classic prog feel. My personal favorite is the just over eleven-minute “Elephants Never Forget” with its unforgettable beats and grooves.

The band is currently out on the road here in the US as part of their North American tour and will be making a stop right here in Charlotte this Saturday, May 13th at the Underground. The tour will run through June 3rd wrapping up in Chicago at the Concord Music Hall. Shutter 16 Magazine had the opportunity to chat with lead vocalist Ross Jennings to get his insight into the new album as well as some details about the tour. You can watch the interview in full below.

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Fauna Track Listing:

Taurus 04:49

Nightingale 07:24

The Alphabet of Me 05:33

Sempiternal Beings 08:23

Beneath The White Rainbow 06:45

Island In The Clouds 05:45

Lovebite 03:49

Elephants Never Forget 11:07

Eyes Of Ebony 08:32

Tour Dates:

Thu, May 11 – NYC – Le Poisson Rouge
Fri, May 12 – DC – The Black Cat
Sat, May 13 – Charlotte – Underground
Mon, May 15 – Fort Lauderdale – Culture Room
Tue, May 16 – Orlando – The Beacham
Wed, May 17 – Atlanta – Terminal West
Fri, May 19 – Dallas – Granada Theater
Sat, May 20 – Austin – Come and Take it Live
Sun, May 21 – El Paso – Lowbrow Palace
Mon, May 22 – Phoenix – The Nile
Tue, May 23 – San Diego – Brick by Brick
Wed, May 24 – LA – Regent Theater
Thu, May 25 – San Francisco – August Hall
Fri, May 26 – Portland – Hawthorne Theater
Sat, May 27 – Seattle – Neptune Theater
Sun, May 28 – Vancouver – Rickshaw Theater
Tue, May 30 – SLC – Commonwealth Room
Wed, May 31 – Denver – Gothic Theater