Interview mit Matic Blagonič von Hei’an

What was the initial vision behind „Kiss Our Ghosts Goodbye“, and how did that vision evolve during the writing process?
We write new ideas all the time, either just isolated riffs, beats, chord progressions, vocal melody ideas etc., or even full-blown song demos, even when we are still in the process of finishing the „previous record“. So a lot of the early ideas for what would later become „Kiss Our Ghosts Goodbye“ were born during the „imago“ cycle, some before that record was even released. We knew very early on that we wanted to take our sound in a bit of a different direction and evolve it so that it’s much more produced, polished and refined than our first album, and we also knew we wanted it to be even more “fluid” in terms of style, in the sense that we wanted to blend even more elements from different genres together and on one hand go way poppier than ever before in some songs / segments, and way heavier than ever before in other songs / segments. Lyrically and conceptually, I knew early on I didn’t want to go for another concept album anymore. I’m a big fan of concept albums, and I’m incredibly proud of the story we told with „imago“, but with the way I was writing for this album, it just felt so creatively freeing to be able to take it song by song and focus on what I wanted to say in that given moment in the most honest and genuine way possible. I feel like the songs turned out even more emotional overall because of it. But even if I wasn’t really aiming for a concept album in any way (and I don’t consider „Kiss Our Ghosts Goodbye“ to be a concept album per se), because I always write about my own thoughts, experiences, emotions etc. at any given time, like most songwriters do, all the songs on the album seem to have a common thread. They’re all about certain traumatic experiences I’ve been dealing with lately, and especially at the time of writing those songs, and about several existential questions and crises I’ve had because of those things. But as opposed to our first album, which was 100 % introspective, I really tried to look outward with this one and direct it towards the world, so to speak. The common themes the whole album tackles are my ongoing fight with MS, my sexuality (I’m bisexual and in a long-term relationship with a man – Aljaž, our harsh vocalist), some people’s rejection and bigotry towards me because of it (even by some family members), my fight with depression, anger towards certain aspects of our civilization, and existential questions about what life is truly about, and what really matters and what doesn’t, and whether anything truly matters at all. I figured all of these things were things that were (and some still are) always haunting my thoughts, like quiet ghosts that are always present and eating away at me. And because writing music is cathartic for me, I tried to “kiss these ghosts goodbye” throughout the process of creating this album. Thus, the album title, „Kiss Our Ghosts Goodbye“. So that would be a quick rundown of how the idea for this album slowly started, and how its vision developed into what it is today.

Was there a particular moment during the creative phase when you realized this record would be something special or different from your previous work?
I mean, it was written with a bit of a different approach than our first album, and produced by a mostly different team, so we know right from the start it’d be different from our debut album „imago“, that was kind of the whole idea, really. In a way, we wanted to learn from what we thought we could do better with „imago“, and tried to actually do it better, improve and evolve on this one, so „Kiss Our Ghosts Goodbye“ sounding different was kind of our intention with it, and I believe we succeeded in that aspect. In terms of it being special … One moment I remember very vividly, and will more than likely never ever forget, is when we had a little listening session at Beartracks Studio in Kočevje, Slovenia, where we recorded like 90 % of the album. Primož and Robi, our brothers and the recording engineers on this record were there, Matic Kutin, our bro and photographer / videographer was there, and all of us of course. It was some time after we’d got and confirmed all the “finalfinalfinal” masters for this album, and we just wanted for all of us to have a listen of the finished product front-to-back in the studio where we recorded it, and have a bit of a party with the boys for a job well done. And it ended up being such an emotional night, we were all misty-eyed, smiling, hugging and kissing, because we were so proud of the progress we’ve made. You see, with our first album we were still kind of “learning as we went” and kind of had very little clue about what we were really doing, but with this one, we really worked our asses off to improve as musicians, writers and producers, and the whole band was way more involved in the writing of this record, it feels even more honest and genuine, we co-produced it ourselves, and for it to then actually sound good to our own ears after all that time working on it? It was just a magical little moment and magical little night. So yeah, that’d be the moment when I knew this album would for sure be special, at least for us, for the rest of our lives.

How did your songwriting approach for this album differ from earlier releases?
Well, for our first album, „imago“, I basically wrote the whole thing myself, and pretty much every song started with just an acoustic guitar and my voice, so I already had all the lyrics and concepts down before showing the songs to the other band members, and they had less creative input in general. Plus, I came up with the concept for „imago“ fairly early on, so as I was writing and putting everything together, I had that concept in mind at all times and tried to make sure everything aligned well etc. With „Kiss Our Ghosts Goodbye“, however, it was way different. For most if not all of the songs, I just started by playing around with different synths, synth sounds, e‑drums, samples, plugins – I was making little loops, little chord progressions, little beats, little melodies … And then when something felt right and inspired me enough, I started adding “actual instruments” into the whole thing and thinking about the full song structure and arrangement … And only later I went and laid down some vocal melodies, and then the lyrics. So it was really the “opposite” songwriting approach compared to the first album in a way – instead of starting with the lyrics and the melody and building the arrangements around those, I started with production elements and instrumental arrangements, and only then added vocals and lyrics. It was really freeing for me to do it this way because it kind of made the whole process more exploratory, interesting and fun. When I moved onto the lyrics, it also really allowed me to take it “song by song” and express the most genuine emotion the song made me feel, without being burdened by any bigger concepts or anything like that. Plus, the other band members were more involved in the creation of this record, from the earliest stages onwards, which was also a big change compared to the first one. And it kind of made the record “even more ours” in a way, because we were all collectively even more into it, so I feel like switching our songwriting approach for this one a bit was a very healthy thing to do for us as a band.

Can you walk us through the recording process — were there any unexpected challenges or breakthroughs in the studio?
I wouldn’t really say there were any major unforeseen challenges during the recording process. Most of the band members are professional musicians, playing for other projects as well, so we all have studio experience etc. Although with our first record, it was the first time we had “that kind of” studio experience, one where we really hit the studio for a loooong time together to create the album, “like a band” and not “just like a project” if you know what I mean … And because of all that collective experience, we kind of knew exactly how the recording and production of „Kiss Our Ghosts Goodbye“ was supposed to go, and it went more or less according to plan and according to our wishes and expectations, I think. The process was simple. We recorded everything in a studio, just the guitars we tracked at home, and the recording process itself was super smooth and honestly quite a bit faster than we anticipated (despite us tracking countless layers of each instrument / track for “extra thickness” and “extra flavour”). It all then went into editing, then it was sent to Randy Slaugh, our great friend and producer (who was also remotely involved before and after this stage) for a bunch of additional programming, then into mixing and finally into mastering. Everything was pretty standard, really, I don’t think we had any kind of “weird” or “super unique” workflow here, it was just really efficient and really smooth, and super fulfilling, that’s all I can really say. In terms of breakthroughs … We wanted to be really prepared before hitting the studio, by having everything at least 99 % if not 100 % ready, we had fully fleshed-out demos for all tracks so that recording almost felt like “re-recording but HQ this time” if you know what I mean … But a lot of little ideas still happened in the studio, like little sound choices, little alterations to some of the riffs or beats that made them even better, and especially with vocals, a lot of the vocal layering and vocal production ideas happened in the studio. So it was a good, healthy blend of being well prepared BUT still allowing the music to “breathe” in the studio, I’d say.

The album’s title „Kiss Our Ghosts Goodbye“ is both poetic and haunting. What does it represent to you on a personal or emotional level?
So, while I don’t consider it to be a concept album per se, all of the songs on the album are talking about different traumatic experiences for me (my fight with MS, my sexuality, fighting bigotry, my ongoing fight with depression and suicidal ideation etc.), and also existential questions about the world and the universe we live in that have been weighing in me. All of these things felt and still feel like they are always “haunting me” at least at the back of my head, at all times, so they’re like persistent ghosts in the background draining the life out of me, so to speak. But since writing is cathartic for me, I wanted to take this album as a chance to try and work through all of these things and “kiss my ghosts goodbye”. Now, the album title is „Kiss Our Ghosts Goodbye“, so “OUR”, first person plural, because the album is – interestingly enough – a lot less introspective than the first one and actually addresses the world and even specifically the listener quite a bit, so I figured once the album is out, maybe more people will find the music cathartic / inspiring in the context of their own life, so I wanted the album title to kind of be a positive, yet still somewhat haunting message and “mantra” for all of us.

There’s a strong emotional thread running through the songs — how do you balance vulnerability and intensity in your music?
Well, we all listen to a lot of different genres and styles of music, and especially I am a huge fan of pop, electronic music, K-pop etc., while also listening to a bunch of heavier stuff like BRING ME THE HORIZON, ARCHITECTS, BAD OMENS etc., and also a bunch of substantially heavier stuff, even as extreme as HUMANITY’S LAST BREATH, VILDHJARTA, and eeeeverything in between. So listening to music on “my own playlists” is always a very contrasting, fun and polarizing experience for me, I could go from the poppiest and softest song ever to 5 mins of absolute brutality and then onto some pop punk, or something. So I think it’s only natural that we blend a bunch of different elements in our music as well, and with this record specifically, we wanted to make that contrast between “poppier vulnerability” and “heavier intensity” even more obvious and evident. It’s just who we are and what we like, and I’m sure that contrast will be even more evident with our future releases.

The artwork for the album is striking. Who did you collaborate with on the visuals, and what message or mood were you aiming to convey?
Thank you! The album artwork and all the single artworks for this album were designed by the super talented Remi Bordet. I saw he did some work for HEART OF A COWARD and some other bands in the past and when I saw his work, and became familiar with a bit more of it, I quickly knew he was likely to be the right guy for this, and he was. I knew pretty early on that I wanted to have myself on a “haunting” background, sort of “escaping from it” as the album cover, because it just felt like that would visually represent the title and message of the album really well. For all the details, and for the single artworks and everything, we just discussed the meanings and ideas behind everything with Remi, and the whole collaboration was really smooth, he very quickly understood exactly what I wanted, and we got to the finished artworks pretty quickly. I definitely wanted the main album art to kind of “visually represent the album title” and for it to be haunting, striking and emotionally captivating, and I feel like Remi absolutely NAILED it here – he’s such a talented artist.

How important is the visual side of HEI’AN when it comes to complementing the music and lyrics?
It definitely is important, but we still feel like the music, at its core, is the most important thing here. However, it’s still of vital importance for us that the artworks, music videos and everything else complement the vibe and message of the music well. So I’d say it IS important for sure, but we still want the music to speak for itself to a certain degree.

Which track on the record pushed you the most creatively, either musically or lyrically?
We always like to push our own personal boundaries when we write, so I think we found little (or even bigger) ways to push ourselves as individual musicians and as a band with each and every track. But one that I’d probably want to highlight the most is „What Do You Have to Save?“. It just feels like the most polished and mature song we ever wrote, it just flows so well, it’s catchy, it’s powerful, it has some of my favourite vocal performances I’ve ever done and some of my proudest lyrics, in my opinion. It was also a song where I really let go of all “mental restrictions” in the sense of “how heavy it needs to get to fit on the album / be metal enough”, I just wrote what I wanted to write and that’s it. So I feel like that song really pushed another boundary of what HEI’AN can be, and what we might want to explore more of in the future.

Now that the album is out, what are your touring plans? Can fans expect a full tour or selected shows?
We have our „‘Kiss Our Ghosts Goodbye’ Release Festival“ in Slovenia on October 24th and 25th, and that will definitely be the most ambitious live thing we’ve ever tried to do. Two days, four different openers, we are headlining each day, we are hosting an after party after Day 2 where we’ll be DJing ourselves, we’ll have a food truck, a custom HEI’AN beer … It’ll be awesome, we’re all incredibly excited for this. Regarding the rest, we are working on some festival bookings and a few touring options for 2026, so we are hoping we’ll be able to offer both “a full tour” and several additional select shows in different contexts. A lot of stuff is in the works, and we are hoping we’ll be able to announce more very soon. We are definitely all itching to hit the road in some form or another.

How do you translate the atmospheric and layered sound of the album into a live setting?
We upgraded our live rig, crew and general way how we’ll be doing it quite a bit since our first album cycle. I won’t be playing the guitar live anymore, so I can focus on the vocal performance and so I can interact with the crowd more and hopefully put on an even more engaging and energetic show. We’ll have a touring guitarist for select shows, and hopefully for all shows at some point (soon). We are working with a FOH engineer who really brought our live sound to the next level, we had a bunch of live pre-production rehearsals with him so that he could really refine everything in a way so that it sounds as close to the studio versions as possible, by mimicking the same sounds, effects and automations we did on the studio versions, mixed with some backing tracks for all the synth and production layers we have going on. So it’ll be a much more complex live show from a technical standpoint than anything we’ve ever attempted before, but because of that, we’ll be able to translate that atmospheric and layered sound of the album into a live setting all the better, at least that’s the plan.

Looking ahead, how do you see „Kiss Our Ghosts Goodbye“ shaping the future direction of HEI’AN — musically and thematically?
It’s definitely an album that opened a lot of “creative doors” for us, in my opinion. Musically, we will most definitely be exploring the clean polished production aspect even more, and we also want to play around with that contrast even more – so even more poppy stuff on one hand, and even heavier stuff to balance it out on the other hand. We are already writing some new ideas for future releases and the stuff we’ve been writing is very much like that – even poppier in some aspects, and even heavier in other aspects. We also really loved the creative workflow we had with this album, so we are / will be tackling writing in more of that kind of way moving forward for sure. Lyrically, „Kiss Our Ghosts Goodbye“ made me expand my writing and thematic horizons as well, by being a bit less introspective, more outward-leaning, and generally more direct, straightforward and honest, and it shows so much with the lyrical ideas I’m writing right now for the future. So yeah, „Kiss Our Ghosts Goodbye“ was a very natural evolution from our „imago“ sound, yet a somewhat drastic one, and I feel like the next release – whenever the time for it actually comes – will also be just that. A very natural evolution of our „Kiss Our Ghosts Goodbye“, yet still a pretty drastic “jump”, not “random”, though, but totally natural and logical. I really love it when bands release records that sound pretty damn different from one another, yet are all undeniably “that band”, like for example LINKIN PARK, BRING ME THE HORIZON and bands like that. So it’s something we also want to do with our music – write stuff that is all undeniably HEI’AN, yet is always fresh and interesting and something “new yet familiar” for ourselves and our fans.

Publiziert am 19. Januar 2026 von Christoph Emmrich