Haters On Toxic Friends, Mental Health, And Collaborating With Cancer Bats

Queensland-based indie-punk outfit Haters dropped their new single, Last Night, today - a blistering gut punch of an anthem about toxic friendships.

The single, recorded and produced in Canada with Cancer Bats’ founding member Scott Middleton, tells of the “reckless” friendships one often finds in their 20s. Split into two halves, the track then transitions into thankfulness for the “amazing” people one can find in adulthood.

“I think a lot of people have this common story, maybe when they’re in their early 20s, late teens. They're in a friendship group. It’s probably not particularly healthy, in all ways. But then you’re kind of on your own for a bit, and then you land in with people that are really awesome,” Haters frontman Jai Sparks told The Music. 

He continued: “When you're younger, you're not really looking at other people's values and seeing if they align with yours. You're just kind of like, ‘You're there in front of me. Let's be friends.’ So it's sort of a story about the feeling of that reckless energy and just running with it, and then not being particularly healthy. You're not actually creating great memories, because you don't remember much.”

Moving on from those relationships, however, opened the door for Sparks to find the people that “make him feel whole”: “You’re then falling into great friendships where, like, you're still staying up all night, but it's because you're talking and you're having a really nice time with each other.”

According to Sparks, though the song does close out with a proclamation of hate for his original friend group, there’s no bad blood there.

“Although it sounds so hate filled, it really isn't. It's just about being with the wrong people, you know, and how that can be really damaging to your life. And it's not about the people themselves, it's about the feeling that you get from that happening. 

“It's just about change. And I think a lot of people can relate to it, with all kinds of relationships, you know? I actually have no beefs with my earlier self and those people, they just weren't very good people for me. I don't really like having grudges against anyone, but they just didn't treat me very well.”

As for his new friends, Sparks can add a big name to that list - Cancer Bats’ Scott Middleton, whose house the Haters lived in for over a month when recording their upcoming album, Non-Violent. 

After meeting Middleton at a gig eight years prior, Haters’ drummer James Priest sent some of their songs to the Canadian hardcore icon - who promptly replied, telling the band to come to Canada to collaborate on a record. 

Flying across the world as soon as COVID restrictions would allow, Middleton’s production studio in his basement became a home for the trio, who slept on the floor for the next month and a half. 

“All we did was record. There's no windows in this thing. So you don't even know what's going on outside. I think as close as I'll ever get to having a spiritual experience, you know? It was really something. It's really cool. I think you can hear it on the record,” Sparks said.

With high praise for his collaborator, he continued, “We chose Scott, not just because it's really awesome to work with him, but specifically because we wanted to work with someone that writes great songs and learn how to become better writers. And he's exceptional as a writer. So the songs we've written, since coming back from there, are just fucking awesome, because we've got all this new knowledge of how to do things and create hooks. We just learnt how to write songs better.”

Non-Violent, as a whole, is set to be “fairly optimistic”, taking a look at a range of experiences from Sparks’ life. But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows.

“I have type one bipolar disorder, and I suffer with that. I go in and out of hospital, and it's quite challenging. And there's a lot of discussion of mental health, but I find it difficult, like when it's glorified in any way. So I'm really particular to kind of try and address the harshness of everything and how it feels, and that it actually sucks, and it's not cool, and it's just hard. So we’re talking about that throughout the whole record. Basically, I really hope that people feel something when they listen to the record, and I hope that it's actually not all optimistic. I hope that they feel sadness and pain - and then they feel optimism also.”

Haters’ new single, ‘Last Night’ is out now, and their album, ‘Non-Violent’, is slated for release in March 2025.