Mellow, Sun-Soaked Sounds and Madison Square Garden Dreams: An Interview with Nathan Kruse and Jack Letcher of Haze Lane

Kruse and Jack from Haze Lane! So excellent to catch up with these legends the other day. Stream their single, Natural Feeling, now!

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to catch up with two legends of your new favourite sun-soaked/indie band, Haze Lane, who are an Auckland based four-piece, formerly known as Mind Over Matter. We sat down to have a morning drink at a RAD little cafe (it was literally called RAD) in Mt Eden to have a catch up about where Haze Lane hope to see themselves in the future, Madison Square Garden festival dreams and of course, the classic, what flavour Haze Lane would be if they were a flavour.

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Thank you for coming out and having a chat with me, I appreciate it!

Kruse: Of course. Thank you for having us.

So, you guys are Haze Lane. Do you want to introduce yourselves?

Kruse: I’m the singer and rhythm guitar player for the band.

Jack: I play lead guitar for Haze Lane.

You were formerly Mind Over Matter, how do Haze Lane and Mind Over Matter differ?

Kruse: When we were growing up, we started as Mind Over Matter and we kind of… Ventured towards more cover gigs. We wanted to kind of pull away from that and find our sound, with our actual original music… We started to develop this kind of surfy, mellow sound and we kind of pulled away from Mind Over Matter and discovered a new sound with Haze Lane.

You’ve just released your first single [Natural Feeling] as Haze Lane back in July, what has the reception been like from that? I know that when we had you at the Welcome to the Gig showcase, everyone knew your old stuff and you were shocked at that.

Kruse: Yeah, no, it’s been great! There has been a little bit of reception, we’ve managed to extend our fanbase a little bit more, not heaps, you know. To sum it up, it hasn’t been as big as we had hoped, but it is our first single, so we’re definitely happy with how it has been received. We had a radio interview with Sun FM which was awesome, really cool. First radio interview as Haze Lane, so that was awesome. We were stoked to have that. We got onto JuiceTV for our music video, which was really cool. I’ve been sent a couple of videos from my mates of us on TV. My mate was at Denny’s the other night and was like, “hey, isn’t this you guys?"

Amazing.

How did you get onto JuiceTV? That’s pretty huge.

Jack: We’ve been working with a media company a little bit. They’ve helped us with Sun FM and just helped with [promotion of] Natural Feeling.

What are you currently working on, are you working on new music? New videos? What’s the go with Haze Lane?

Kruse: We’re working on a bunch of new originals at the moment, for some reason, the writing juices have just been flowing, which is really good for us. Yeah, so the creative juices have been flowing heaps, we are working towards our new EP-album, haven’t got a release date or anything. We’ve got some awesome songs, if I do say so myself. We’re working into that Natural Feeling theme as well; we’re going to get some high energy bits in there, too.

Jack: At the moment, we’re trying to kind of select what song that we want for the next single. If it’s going to be lower in energy as Natural Feeling or more upbeat. We’ve got two that we’re pretty set on.

The two men of the hour! Photo provided by Jack Mensah.

So, pretty big things in the works for you guys. How would you describe Haze Lane’s music?

Kruse: We’re kind of a mellow, sun-soaked sound. We try to think what the beach would sound like if it could talk. A bit indie. At the moment, we trying to put in more rock elements, something a bit more edgy.

Jack: Our band is a bit different because me and Cameron have a rock background, Taumata has a reggae kind of background and we have Kruse with his pop melodies, pop background.

A good mix. For those who don’t know who Haze Lane are, what are some things that they should know about you? Even random facts or anything.

Kruse: Well, Jack, Cameron and I all started out when we were… How old were we?

Jack: 12 or 13.

Kruse: We all worked under the same music teacher and he decided that he wanted to make some bands in our local area. Jack and I knew each other and Jack knew Cameron, so, we were like, “hey, let’s form a band!” So, when we first started out, Jack’s Dad was actually our bassist. So, we played some gigs with Jack’s Dad and that was awesome. So good.

Jack: Yeah, my Dad was the bass player for local event, Summer Sounds and yeah. We’ve had a few bass players and Taumata is a new edition from our High School kind of days, he just joined us in 2017. He’s been part of the redevelopment of Mind Over Matter to Haze Lane.

Kruse: It’s been great because he has bought in that different perspective, which has helped our sound, as well. Especially with his bass lines, he will put down this little funk. It’s awesome.

Besides music, what other things do you thrive on?

Kruse: I’m a Personal Trainer. So, I recently got my degree, last year. So, I’ve been doing that all the time. I enjoy helping people. Yeah, that’s kind of all I do, really.

Jack: I just finished an Audio Production degree, so music is pretty much all I can do. I’m starting to do a bit of producing and I work at the Rock Shop.

So, everything music then? That’s incredible! What about the other guys, what are their passions, what do they do?

Jack: Kruse, Tau and Cameron are all quite into fitness. Tau’s a landscaper and Cameron’s a builder.

Kruse: It’s Tau’s birthday today. He’s out doing a 21km run right now. He sent us a photo just before and was like, “boys, I’m doing it, I’m doing it!”

“Happy birthday! I’m on a 21km run!” I love that you’re all so motivated in different areas.

Jack: It really does help that we can come together and mould in different ways.

This one is a bit of a random one, but if you could be a character from a movie, who would you be and why?

Jack: Probably Iron Man. Just like his suit, eh.

Kruse: I think for me, Mater, from Cars. He’s so relaxed. All the time. He doesn’t care what people think. That’s really cool. Mater and Iron Man, coming soon!

I feel obligated to ask this, but back in August, you guys played the first Welcome to the Gig showcase. How did that go for you?

Kruse: It was wicked. We all talked about it afterwards and just the fact that everyone was there to support the music, you know? We had a couple of people come along and we played the first song and they started singing, it was a surreal feeling having people sing our own songs. Amazing.

Jack: Yeah, we really enjoyed playing the gig. I just really love those gigs where you meet other bands. It’s always cool to have more connections, especially in the music industry.

You guys were amazing, I was blown away. Did not expect that. Thank you for playing! I appreciate it a lot that you did come out and play.

Kruse: Let us know if you ever want us again. We’d definitely be keen.

Haze Lane performing at the first Welcome to the Gig showcase, August 2022. L-R: Jack Letcher, Cameron Cowper, Nathan Kruse, Taumata Lowe. Photo provided by Jack Mensah.

100 percent.

If you could perform anywhere in the world right now, where would you perform?

Kruse: Madison Square Garden.

Jack: Yeah, same, eh. Our dream is to play Madison Square Garden.

Kruse: On Thursday night, we had practise and we were practising one of our new songs and afterwards I said “thank you Madison Square Garden!” quite cheesy, you know?

Not at all!

Kruse: It’s always been a dream, since we were younger. It’s always been a place we want to get to sometime in our music career.

I guess, to go along with that, who would you want as your support acts at Madison Square Garden? You can pick like, ten people.

Kruse: Ten people? Wicked! We can have a festival.

Yeah, there you go, turn it into a festival. Who would you want on a line-up at your festival at Madison Square Garden?

Kruse: Personally, I’d have to say Balu Brigada. I actually really love them. Ocean Alley. Love Ocean Alley. L.A.B. To be honest, they wouldn’t open for us, they’re too big. They’re awesome. I really love Fool’s Lagoon, who we know. I’d love to be up there with them, it would be awesome. Kiwis take over Madison Square.

Imagine that! That would be the best festival in the entire world.

Kruse: Exactly. We’ve got to work on that! Get the crew together.

I’ll be there, supporting. Somehow.

Kruse: Great! We’ll need the interview.

Who influences you on and off stage?

Jack: [Collectively, as a band] Ocean Alley.

Kruse: I think Jack introduced me to Ocean Alley. I’ve never really been one for the loud instruments. When I took off into music, I went straight into the poppy stuff. The freedom of the lyrics and such is probably the bands biggest inspiration, I’d say.

What about off stage? Anyone you look up to?

Jack: Playing guitar, one of my heroes is Jimi Hendrix.

Kruse: Mine is probably The Weeknd. Each album is like a different story piece. So, when I write music, I now try to do it as well. I feel like it’s a lot more interesting if there’s a full body story as opposed to individual songs. So, you can be writing an album-EP, trying to keep in mind all of that, so I really look up to him. There’s a fitness influencer, Austin Dunham. He’s an inspiration as he says you don’t always have to be healthy or be defined by fitness.

It may not have been a performance at Madison Square Garden, but Haze Lane performing at Welcome to the Gig: Volume 1, really blew my mind. Photo provided by Jack Mensah.

I tend to ask this question a lot, but I think it’s a funny question. If Haze Lane were a flavour, what flavour would you be?

Jack: Would we be savoury or sweet?

Kruse: Sweet.

Jack: Cinnamon? No. Like a… chocolate boysenberry?

Kruse: I think like a dark forest chocolate, maybe! I reckon the dark forest cake from the cheesecake shop. It’s like a sponge, it’s very subtle.

I’m all out of questions! Is there anything else you’d want to add?

Kruse: Thank you so much and especially for having us for the first gig. It was wicked, yeah.

I’m so happy you played. Thank you guys so much!

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WTTG Volume 1 Gig Review (Ft. Haze Lane)