Psychedelic indie rockers Haunter held their release party for their latest album “Please Understand” at Riverwest DIY venue Nausicaa on Thursday night. This has been their follow-up to their 2017 “Halloween” EP and it had been preceded by the single (and opening track) “Girls’ Night Out.” Indie rockers Large Print and singer-songwriter So Zuppy also performed. Although the basement was incredibly humid and the turnout was packed, love and laughter filled the air. Star Trek had also been playing in the background.

Haunter consists of vocalist/guitarist Aidan Keyes, guitarist Alec Grefe, bassist Pedro Galvan, synth-er Erik Kersting, and drummer John Schoneman. Keyes is the primary songwriter, although they may branch out from that in the future.

“House shows are always a different energy than bars and clubs,” Schoneman said. “People always seem more into it.”

Schoneman describes the recording process of their new album.

“We do it all ourselves – we always have. The process was a little different this time because we got better gear to record with. We’re recording the drums with three mics now instead of one. It took a really long time; we kinda do a mix of live recording and overdubbing and I mix all of it. I think it’s a more polished product than our previous output.”

“The three mics on the drum helps a lot from “Worm” and “Halloween” cuz you can hear all the bass and tones of the drums,” Keyes added. “I think the drums are pretty key in the sound of the band.”

Keyes says aliens are part of the album’s concept.

“It’s about an alien coming to Planet Earth alone and being selected to go explore…he gets here in a crash landing and someone finds him and takes him in. “Please Understand” comes from telling the alien he can’t be here anymore.”

“We also have a song about our friend Alex, who passed away,” Schoneman added. “That’s not really on the beat with the rest of it but it was one of the first two songs we wrote for it.”

Despite the album’s concept, the band has no universal consensus about aliens.

“It’s the biggest source of contention in our group of friends,” Grefe said.

Haunter is working on a new batch of songs – they hope to do another Halloween EP. They play High Dive on the 28th.