Haze

ORIGINS: Lower Blue Mountains, NSW

GENRE: Alternative

YEARS ACTIVE: 1991-1995

 

MEMBERS:

• Jon Hunter - Vocals, Guitar
  
• Ivan Lisyak - Drums
  

SUMMARY: Haze was a two-piece outfit and the first band of both Hunter and Lisyak. They mainly played band comps with a mix of covers and originals and remained a duo rather than a full band. Both members moved on to other projects in the mid-90s but continued to revisit their musical chemistry in different bands over the subsequent years.

 

SHOWS: 

• Lizard Lounge, Panthers Leagues Club, Penrith - unknown date, 1994
  

ORAL HISTORY:

JON: When I was four my Nana gave me a radio that looked like a car. I think Daddy Cool's 'Come Back Again' was my first favourite song from listening to it on that radio. My mum played piano and taught me to play 'Puff the Magic Dragon' and 'Waltzing Matilda'. We moved from Blackheath to Warrimoo when I was 8 and my parents sold their records to pay for the removal van. I then met Ivan Lisyak at school and while at first we didn't really gel, we eventually bonded over music. Dad loved blues music and started collecting CDs once he had regular work. He loved Eric Clapton but I was more drawn to his Bo Diddly and Howling Wolf CDs, which I still have. 

Jon Hunter (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

IVAN: Jono and I went to primary school, high school, and uni together. We played at Penrith Panthers band night at the Lizard Lounge when we were 13 as a duo, but it was nothing serious. We used to record drum and bass tracks on a multi-track cassette recorder in the high school music rooms.  

Ivan Lisyak (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 204

 

JON: I wanted to play drums but Ivan was already a really amazing drummer so I learnt guitar and we started playing in his garage - mostly Nirvana, Green Day, and Rage Against the Machine songs. Eventually I started coming up with my own songs. We started doing Battle of the Bands at Panthers when we were about 12 or 13 - just drums and guitar with me sometimes singing.

Jon Hunter (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

IVAN: I roped Jono into playing with me in a weird jazz hardcore thing at the end of high school but that never went anywhere. Then we later played together in The Architects. 

Ivan Lisyak (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 204

RELATED BANDS: Kayzus, Milton, The Architects, Titanic Dance Orchestra, Special Sauce, The Hassle Brigade, Belles Will Ring, The Paper Scissors, Philadelphia Grand Jury, Machine Death, Deep Sea Arcade, Tanned Christ, IIII, Hviske, Narrow Lands