HAKEN: In A Fever Dream | Reaction & Analysis | The Daily Doug - Episode 1120

[00:00:00]It's the daily Doug. [music] >> Hey y'all, welcome back to the daily [clears throat] Doug. Thanks for being with me today. You will see that I am in a new location. My friends, this is a new studio and this is our very first video from the new location. It's daily Doug 3.0 and I am getting things started with music from our friends from Haken.

[00:00:25]They have brand new music out and I'm really interested to see where this band is going because a lot has happened since their last full album. So, let's get into it. Y'all, I've known about Haken for about 5 years now and I've interviewed Ross Jennings, I've interviewed Richard Henshall, and I've seen the band in concert three times.

[00:00:50]They're wonderful and they're great humans, but it's been more than 2 years since we've heard their music here on the channel, so I definitely wanted to get back to them and I saw that they've got new music out.

[00:01:04]Uh the last time that we heard them was on Fauna. It came out in 2023 and on Fauna, they were a six-piece band. Ross Jennings on vocals, we've got Richard Henshall and Charlie Griffiths on guitars, Peter Jones on keyboards, Conner Green on bass, and Raymond Hearne on the drums. Then, last summer, summer of 2025, they ended up withdrawing from their planned tour with Coheed and Cambria and we never got a specific reason as to why the band had to cancel that tour.

[00:01:43]However, later on, several months later in January of this year, the band announced the departure of both guitarist Charlie Griffiths and their bassist Conner Green.

[00:01:57]And for a while, all the Haken fans were wondering who would replace Charlie and Conner until we heard that the band was just going to move forward as a four-piece instead of a six-piece band.

[00:02:11]So, then on May 21st, they released the song "In a Fever Dream" as the title track of an EP that is due to be made fully available later this month, on July 17th. The EP is going to have five tracks on it spanning 26 minutes of music. "In a Fever Dream" was the first single. "Bleeding Sky" was the second release. "Delirium" they just released a few days ago. That's the third single.

[00:02:40]And then when the entire EP gets released, we'll also be able to hear "Eclipsed by You" and the last song on the EP called "Lotus". Uh for this time, though, I am interested most specifically in the title track, "In a Fever Dream". It's the first one that came out, and that's the one I'm going to start with, y'all. They have Brian Beller uh joining them on bass for this track. He has played with many, many folks, including Joe Satriani and The Aristocrats. I've heard his work before.

[00:03:16]I expect this to be quite, quite wonderful. And what were the what will their music sound like? Where are they going with this? Are they going to continue getting harder-edged and djenty, or are they going to go in a different progressive rock direction?

[00:03:32]Let's hear it, y'all. "In a Fever Dream" from Haken.

[00:03:38]Here we go.

[00:03:45]>> [music] >> I spin repeatedly [music and singing] disastrously >> [singing and music] [music] [singing] [music] >> Wow. Tell me it'll be okay.

[00:04:31]Yeah.

[00:04:42]I hear that on G.

[00:04:44]On G.

[00:04:46]And sometimes it's major and sometimes it's minor.

[00:05:01]You held [music] me down so senselessly and pulled me into a fever dream.

[00:05:22]>> [music] >> Yeah.

[00:05:32]Line six.

[00:05:37]To one.

[00:05:41]And it's suspended.

[00:05:42]>> [music] >> Really interesting.

[00:05:45]Falling into delta sleep.

[00:05:49]Your authority disembodied.

[00:05:53]Aren't Ross's vocals just great?

[00:06:01]>> [music] >> I see only darkness in your light.

[00:06:07]It's a relationship that is not going well.

[00:06:12]There's the B natural.

[00:06:22]Really cool. [music] So they suspend with the fourth of that key and then resolve down. [music] Sometimes to the major third [music] and sometimes to the minor third of the key.

[00:06:45]>> [music] [music] >> You bring me to my knees.

[00:07:02]>> [music] >> And we're only about halfway through the tune.

[00:07:15]I like it.

[00:07:16]Really like it.

[00:07:32]>> [music] >> Okay.

[00:07:39]>> [music] >> Double leading tone.

[00:07:45]Bow.

[00:07:46]Down. Bow.

[00:07:47]>> [music] >> Bow.

[00:07:52]That's cool.

[00:07:54]They're trying to escape that G.

[00:07:59]And it just keeps collapsing in.

[00:08:03]Is that Ross?

[00:08:20]I knew he had it in him. I've [music] seen him do it in concert.

[00:08:24]Few times.

[00:08:27]In their discography, this sounds great.

[00:08:41]>> [music] >> And it's just all around >> [music] >> this G key.

[00:08:58]>> [music] >> Lovely pacing.

[00:09:03]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Cool.

[00:09:43]>> [music] >> There's the ninth inning up.

[00:09:54]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> I love this.

[00:10:19]There's the double leading [music] tone.

[00:10:24]Bow, na, na, na.

[00:10:27]Bow, dow, [music] ba, dow.

[00:10:37]>> [music] >> I really like that. Friends.

[00:10:49]I really like that.

[00:10:52]Stuck in a fever dream.

[00:10:54]Well, welcome back. Haken, that was impressive, wasn't it?

[00:11:02]Stuck in a fever dream. What exactly is a fever dream?

[00:11:07]How is it different than a regular dream? Well, I looked I looked it up.

[00:11:11]Um, a fever dream is described as a vivid, often unsettling or surreal dream that is experienced while dealing with a high body temperature, an elevated uh, body temperature. And when that happens to us, it disrupts our normal sleep cycle, and it ends up altering our brain activity, and it can cause these really intense nightmares that will loop and get stuck, and will end up repeating and repeating and repeating the trauma in our own minds as we sleep.

[00:11:54]And so, our protagonist here is describing having put their trust in someone who has repeatedly let them down or manipulated them or worse.

[00:12:10]And they feel just absolutely stuck in the relationship and that repetitive cycle and that cycle of trauma of just bad stuff, and they're trying to work their way out of it. And they're realizing that they feel like they can never believe, and they're stuck, and they've just about had it.

[00:12:34]And when we hear [snorts] the music, it's all based around G. Y'all, it's all it's all based around G. It's It's G minor. Uh Let's see. Stuck in a fever dream.

[00:12:50]Right? It's G minor, but sometimes they have that suspended fourth, and it goes there or it goes there.

[00:13:00]Uh >> [music] >> Something like that, but they're all over G. And sometimes they use the B flat, sometimes they use the B natural, and then they had the double leading tone. Is it Is it there going there, or is it there going there?

[00:13:22]>> [music] >> They give you we're stuck. We try to go that way, it's only a half step. We try to go that way, it's only a half step and we get brought back and brought back and brought back. So, musically musically they set up a situation where we're stuck on G.

[00:13:44]And it it musically works really really quite well, doesn't it? Friends, uh it's great to get back to Haken, isn't it? Some of uh great music from some great folks.

[00:13:57]It's good to see them back. I I got to tell you, I was worried a bit. I was like, what are they going to do? This is one of my favorite bands. I've seen them three times now in 5 years and they've lost two of their six members. What is What is their music going to sound like?

[00:14:11]Sounds like they're doing pretty good.

[00:14:13]Y'all, they've got a few more of these songs that are now out, but the full EP is going to be digitally released on July 17th and then I believe that the uh the LPs or the the actual, you know, discs and everything will be available a little bit later after that. But, I'm I'm excited for these guys and I'm happy to bring y'all some new Haken on the very first video that we are uh making here in our new space. It's good to be back with you all. It's good to be in a new studio and I can't wait for what is to come, but for today, my friends, that is going to be all for me.

[00:14:58]I thank you very much for being with me.

[00:15:00]We will see you next time on another edition of The Daily Doug.