You’d be hard-pressed to fit The Hellflowers and their forthcoming album Haunted into a neat little box.

Formed in Los Angeles in 2015 by husband-wife duo Christina and Matt Eskew, The Hellflowers have always boasted a signature combination of punk attitude, melodic hooks and raw rock ‘n’ roll energy. But Haunted pushes those boundaries even further. Anthems of defiance, love notes to horror icons and inspirations ranging from Danzig to honky-tonk collide on the record — and the band couldn’t be more excited to unleash their concoction, slated for release in February 2027, on the world.

“Wild Ones,” the first single off Haunted, is setting a powerful tone for the record. With its cutting lyrics and chant-ready chorus, the track delivers an important reminder for women: Never let an outside force make you feel lesser than. It’s a celebration of those who refuse to be controlled, categorized or reshaped to fit someone else’s expectations.

On the heels of the “Wild Ones” release, PopHorror caught up with Christina and Matt, who shared the inspiration behind the fiery track, how they translate that energy to the stage and how horror — including Christina’s long-time love for a certain iconic amphibious humanoid — takes front and center for the first time on a Hellflowers album.

PopHorror: You recently released “Wild Ones,” the first single off The Hellflowers’ upcoming third record. I absolutely love it and the message behind it. Where did this song come from? And why did now feel like the right time for this kind of message?

Christina Eskew: I bought this book at this cute store in Alameda called Rocket Reuse. They have records, books, CDs, vintage clothing. It’s just a great place. But this book was talking about women in the Wild West and women of that era that were just totally not conforming, not being the women they were “supposed” to be. I started reading it and was like, “They’re trying to push us back to this book. They’re doing it to us now.” Who would have thought, in this day and age, that we’d be reverting back to some antiquated thing where they want the women to stay home and have babies, what this administration is basically putting out there. I was like, “I need to write a song right now about this and it needs to be about wild women.” Initially, the title was going to be “Wild Women,” but then I started writing it and the chorus ended up being “Wild Ones.” Because honestly, it can be anyone who feels that way. Anyone who feels like they’re being pushed down and less than. I’ve always been that kind of person. I’m too much for people sometimes. 

PopHorror: The lyrics are really powerful. “No one can change us, no one can rearrange us.” Did those come to you pretty quickly? 

Christina Eskew: Yeah, it’s weird. I’ve been writing poetry since I was very young, so when I sit down to write a song, my process is pretty fast. It’s like, “This goes with this and this melody goes with this.” I don’t know why – I felt like it was my calling in life once I discovered that I could do that. 

Matt Eskew: I was proud of her. We’d been a little bit stagnant on writing. We’ve just been concentrating on touring and finding better shows and things like that. Finally this year, we’re still playing shows, but we really wanted to focus on making the best record we could. It’s really coming together – I’m kind of shocked how fast it came together. And I’m shocked how different it is from our normal stuff. It was almost like a purging of having all these ideas and just getting them out and putting them somewhere. This felt like the right place. 

Leaning Into The Darkness

PopHorror: The single will be part of your next album Haunted, out next year. With a name like that, it feels like maybe The Hellflowers are going a little darker…am I right in assuming that?

Matt Eskew: Yeah, absolutely. The titular song “Haunted,” I wrote it about 30 or so years ago. I had it in another band way back in the day and my friend Martin, who sang, wrote the lyrics for it. It’s a very dark song, very brooding. It could be on a goth record. The band I was in was called The Blanks and it was a really Cramps-y, very punkabilly kind of band. For whatever reason, it worked really well in that band. But I’ve always taken that song with me. I think almost every project I’ve had, we’ve done some iteration of it. And I think this, to be honest, is the best one. I’m excited. It’s a very dark record, but there’s some bright spots and some spots of levity in there, some fun things.

Christina Eskew: I have a song called “Creature,” it’s about the Creature from the Black Lagoon. That’s more Groovie Ghoulies type vibes. We’ve been playing that one live. It’s in the “haunted” theme and about Gill-man. 

Matt Eskew: She’s obsessed with the Creature from the Black Lagoon to the point where she has three tattoos.

PopHorror: Nice!

Christina Eskew: Yeah, two of them are female creatures, a cowboy and an Indian. It’s a lot of things happening, but my artist is amazing. Shoutout to Ink’d Chronicles and James Holmes, he killed it. He knocked it out of the park.

PopHorror: Okay, so clearly you guys are horror fans! Talk to me about your favorites.

Christina Eskew: Well, my absolute favorite is Creature, of course. But The Ring, Cabin in the Woods, The Shining. I like classic. The Ring is a little bit newer, but I’ve always liked that one. What did we just see that was really good?

Matt Eskew: I liked Obsession.

Christina Eskew: Oh, Obsession! I enjoyed that one. It has some older elements in there, like the shop and stuff. It’s got the vintage vibes and a lot of the classic horror elements from the ‘80s, which I love.

Matt Eskew: My favorite, Return of the Living Dead was always one of them. We watch it constantly. It has the best soundtrack ever. And Re-Animator. I saw those in the theater when I was just out of junior high school. There used to be a 25 cent theater in my town where, basically, movies went to die. People are smoking speed in the parking lot and it’s a mess. But we would go there and there was a summer where it was those two movies playing. We’d watch them over and over and over. And then Rocky Horror, rest in peace Tim Curry.

Christina Eskew: I love Jennifer’s Body, that’s a rewatch. Trick ‘r Treat. We can go on forever. 

Matt Eskew: I love the Sammi Kurr version of the ‘80s rock and roll. And the newer one is awesome, too. Dig them. 

PopHorror: You mentioned that you have a song called “Creature” on the new album. Is this the first time that horror has tapped into your music? 

Christina Eskew: Not that specific. I have a song called “Nightmare.” There’s “Haunted,” one is called “Dolly” and it’s about the Black Dahlia, another called “Cage,” which is a song about depression that I wrote when I was going through a really difficult time that I think a lot of people can relate to. And then “Creature” is a straight up love song because I love him [Gill-man]. I’ve got my [Creature from the Black Lagoon] pillows here. It’s the first time we’re going more that way, but it’s always been in us. 

Matt Eskew: It’s definitely not a horror punk record, although we were fortunate to have Bobby Steele from The Undead, the original Misfits guitar player, join us and we covered an Undead song. It was a rejected Misfits song and he took it to his new band.

Christina Eskew: I love this song. I was hearing it a certain way and he’s like, “Oh, my God, the way you do that, I like it.” I mean, I love the way Bobby does it, but I was like, “It’s such a great song. It’s kind of fast. I want to slow it down a little bit so I can sing it a little more. I want people to really hear this song and maybe introduce it to a new audience.”

Matt Eskew: The Undead is one of those bands that should be way more recognized for their contributions to punk rock and to music in general, so I want to get them out there. We did a show in London, and ended up playing with them and Sloppy Seconds. It was incredible.

Christina Eskew: One of my favorite shows of all time.

Matt Eskew: It was funny because we knew that we were on the bill with Sloppy Seconds and we love them because they’re hilarious. They’re super fun. They write songs about comic books and superheroes and things like that. But our slot got pushed down – and it was The Undead that got put over us. I’m like, “Are we honestly about to go play with The Undead? Is it the Bobby Steele one? That’s crazy.” We showed up to the gig and Bobby was just sitting behind his merch booth selling his stuff.

Christina Eskew: His wife [Diana Steele] and me just immediately were best friends. We were like, “We’ve got to get each others’ numbers!” We liked all the same stuff and she’s just awesome. 

PopHorror: That’s amazing! Was this pretty recent?

Christina Eskew: It was around this time last year because we were doing Rebellion and we had some gigs. We’ve luckily been able to go to England three times and tour. We didn’t go this year and we missed it. We made friends over there and we just have the best time.

Matt Eskew: I definitely felt the withdrawals. Usually when you’re there, you’re working and you’re just like, “Oh, yeah, it’s England. Cool.” It’s kind of overcast and shitty. And then you’re not there and you’re like, “Aw, everybody’s so nice,” and I miss it. There’s so much cool shit there. 

Christina Eskew: I actually love overcast, so I don’t have a problem with that. I’m like, “Bring the overcast!” It puts me in the best mood.

PopHorror: Agreed! It’s so cozy and I put all my candles on. Now with Haunted and its darker tones, is it hard to dive into something a bit new while still staying true to your roots? Not going so far into left field where people are wondering what you’re doing?

Matt Eskew: The thing about our records, there’s our last record Vamonos, which starts with a surf song. We were really lucky to get Jason Lee from the R.I.P. Tides, who’s a well-known surf guitar player and just a great guy, to jump on the record and play with us. I never thought I was ever going to do a surf song. Then there’s just a lot of different things, different genres. It ends with a straight up honky-tonk song, pedal steel. Christina came from honky-tonk and when I met her, she was in a honky-tonk band. She brought her roots with her and we put it on the record and it sounds great. So, I don’t worry so much. I think the most punk rock thing you can do is just do whatever the fuck you want to do on your record. If they like it, cool. If they don’t like it, whatever. But I’m sure there’s something on the record that will probably hit. 

Christina Eskew: I just love “Wild Ones” and I love the message, but that’s more like what we normally would do. Then I wanted “Creature” to be the second single. I still hope it will be because I want it to be out for Halloween. Once we get into the other ones, it’s going to be interesting. We do have a couple like “Fire In Your Eyes,” which is already out there but we’re re-recording and re-releasing it, that’s got a dancing vibe to it. A few others on this album are very much reminding me of Lucifuge, the early Danzig stuff. I feel like this album has that going through it. 

Matt Eskew: Like a heavier rock. I didn’t expect it to have these stompy, anthemic rock and roll songs. But that’s just kind of how it worked out.

Christina Eskew: Our drummer is traditionally a goth drummer, so it’s not hard to take it there. And our guitarist is open to everything. He likes post-punk a lot and he came from a post-punk band. So, we’ve always been into that kind of stuff. Even when I was doing honky-tonk, I loved that dark wave, too. 

Matt Eskew: Driving to the honky-tonk show listening to Joy Division.

Christina Eskew: Yeah, that’s just basically who I am. I think it’ll be interesting. The funny thing is, metal people really like us, so I’m like, “They’re gonna like us even more.” We’re their happy music probably, but now it’s probably more on the line there. 

Matt Eskew: I’m excited to see how this record plays out. We’re wrapping up the vocals this weekend. 

Christina Eskew: I’m heading in to do five vocals on Saturday. 

A Distinct Artistic Vision

PopHorror: You guys are very DIY, very hands on with everything from promotion to recording to the music videos. What’s the importance of having that creative control? And how does that enhance what the listener is getting in the end?

Matt Eskew: I direct all of the music videos. I do all the art. I just want everything to have a certain feel, to be consistent. We change things up here and there, but I want a consistent vision. I’ve worked for record labels and saw how they wanted to change the artist’s ideas, how the art on the record doesn’t match the vibe of the record. It’s really important to me to have all that stuff, really cool merch, and have people get excited about it. I have the ability to do it. I went to film school. I have a degree in animation. I like picking up a camera and shooting stuff. 

I really want to do, for the “Haunted” music video, a very Sin City-esque, noir vibe. I have these characters that I designed that are Day of the Dead skeletons, but they’re in noir outfits. They’re all over the house, a bunch of paintings I’ve done, and I want to bring them to life in this video and have a really dark feeling. I’ve done a lot of animated things. We did a Devo cover on the last record and it has a big animated 3D video to it. It’s great, but I want to get dark and moody with it.  

Christina Eskew: We both have a very distinct vision artistically for the band, for all of it. So yes, you’re completely right – we want to be able to have 100% control. Him and I are in control of this. We’re steering this. No one’s really going to have too much say outside of us because it’s between us two. We make the choices. The guys know that and kind of go along for the ride. And we have a label that works with us and makes vinyls for us, and he’s super supportive as well. He’s never tried to direct us. It’s like, “This is what we’re doing,” and he’s happy with it. 

Music and Marriage

PopHorror: I’d love to know what the dynamic of being a married couple brings to the band. Benefits? Any challenges?

Matt Eskew: If people don’t agree with something, it’s hard to leave it in there. I hold onto shit. I am the worst and she’ll agree with that – I can’t let shit go. I bring it home with me and I’ll sit and stew if I’m in a bad mood. But there are a lot of positive things. She’s my everything, man. She’s my best friend. We travel the world together playing music. All our worldly possessions could go away. We’d still have each other and we’d still have music, and I think that’s the coolest thing.

Christina Eskew: Benefits, I already know what shows he can do. I already know his schedule completely, so I don’t have to worry about asking that member. I just have to worry about wrangling the other two members. And I don’t have to leave my husband and go on tour, which might cause some problems. We go together. I have a song idea, we can work on it in the room immediately. Him and I can rehearse together if I can’t rehearse with the full band. And then the only negative is what he said. See, I’m the opposite. I let everything go. I don’t hold onto anything. I’m a Taurus, we get over shit like that. He’s a Scorpio, they hold onto shit. I don’t hold grudges. You’re gonna have to do something pretty bad to keep me mad. 

Matt Eskew: I hold grudges like no other. If somebody does me wrong, sorry, I can’t talk to you for 10 years. 

Christina Eskew: For me, it’s about 10 minutes. 

PopHorror: So a perfect balance! Is there anything you’ve learned about each other being in a band together than maybe you wouldn’t have working regular 9 to 5s?

Christina Eskew: One thing I learned, I sure as hell didn’t know how much work animation is. Wow! All the art stuff he does, I watch and I’m like, “I didn’t know how that all worked.” But watching him do it for us, I’m learning. And I’ve also enjoyed learning how we run a business together. Though both of us suck at books, so that’s the biggest issue. Neither person is a math person. We’re both artistic and that’s hard.

Matt Eskew: We always make sure our guys get paid and taken care of, but other than that, we just throw our cash into merch and, “Oh, wouldn’t that be cool if we had this kind of thing.” It’ll all shake out in the end. But we’re having a great time. It’s fun. I love the position that we’re in doing this together. This is, like, the biggest thing ever. I never thought I would ever have something like this. I fought it in the beginning. It started before we were married, so I was like, “I don’t know if I want to be in a band with my girlfriend, we might get into a fight.” And yeah, that will happen. But she’s really good at putting me in my place.

PopHorror: And you’ve been at this together for over a decade, so clearly something is working. 

Matt Eskew: Yeah, we met 14 years ago yesterday and then we’ve had the band for about 11 years now. I don’t know what else I’d want to be doing. 

Christina Eskew: It’s like our child. We have two dogs, but we don’t have children. So, my band and my dogs are my life. We have two Formosan mountain dogs, they’re rescues from the streets of Taiwan. 

Matt Eskew: I have one over here and I’m rubbing his belly as we talk. 

Christina Eskew: You can never give him enough belly rubs. He was at the rescue for seven months and no one wanted him because he was really standoffish. We took him on and he’s a lot of work, but now he’s all settled in.

On-stage Energy

PopHorror: The Hellflowers recently came off a couple of live shows, which seemed super high energy. What is it like having crowds match that, especially as you start to perform these new songs?

Matt Eskew: I don’t think the crowds can get any better than the crowds in Maui right now. We just played Hawaii for the first time and the first room we did was just completely packed out with kids. It was incredible and probably the rawest show we’ve done. We could have done anything up there and they would have eaten it up. It just felt great.

Christina Eskew: All ages is where it’s at. I have to say, the kids are bringing it. They’re so into the music. When someone’s that into it, I’m going to give 1000%. But every time I do a show, my whole goal is to outdo my last one. I’m always trying to push myself as hard as I can. I try to be interesting and engaging with the audience. I want to make sure that you’re going to forget about all the bullshit out there for 45 minutes. I want the audience to have the best possible time they can have. And while I’m up there, I’m having the best possible time I can have. There is not a better feeling. I’m a sober person, so that is the only way I get my kicks, to be honest with you. I couldn’t live without performing at this point. I hope I can do it forever because it’s gonna be hard to stop. I’m addicted. It’s my addiction now that I don’t drink.

PopHorror: That’s amazing. And it’s also great to hear that the kids are so into it! So many concerts nowadays, they’re just standing and recording for social media. 

Christina Eskew: Oh, these kids are dancing and moving. They take pictures here and there, but they don’t have their phones up the whole time. They’re definitely feeling it and when they’re feeling it, you’re feeling it. It was so cute, this girl made patches of our band logo and gave them to us. Another girl gave me a bracelet at the last show. In Maui, they were like, “You’re inspiring us, we want to do bands and do music.” That’s what I’m here for. I want girls to know they can do this, too. This can be your future. Grab a guitar. That feels good. 

Matt Eskew: Get the little girl gang together and just start wrecking shit! We need a lot more of that. But yeah, I’ve been playing live for a lot of years, and I think I played some of the best shows in the past two years in this band. It’s been remarkable being able to travel. We played Japan, we played the UK a couple times. We did an acoustic tour. It was Christina’s birthday, so I took her to Paris and our label at the time was like, “You should take your guitars, I’ll set you up with a couple of shows.” We listened to him and had a great time. We played an art gallery, this weird shopping center that was sort of like a punk rock market and this teen center. They told us it was going to be like a punk rock squat and I’m like, “I’m going to get murdered in Paris.” Then it turned out to be a community center.

Christina Eskew: It was awesome, they had food prepared for us. It was actually nice and clean, and the kids were awesome. 

Matt Eskew: I still talk to some of those people from that show. The people you meet on the road, it’s amazing. And the places that music will take you, you’ll never expect. 

PopHorror: Is there anywhere you haven’t played yet that you hope to someday?

Christina Eskew: We want to do Germany. I want to do Italy, I want to do Spain. We haven’t played Spain, but we’ve been there together. 

Matt Eskew: I love Spain. I will spend the rest of my life there eventually. 

Christina Eskew: He wants to retire there, if we can afford to retire. 

Matt Eskew: I also want to go to Australia, and we’re talking about that for next year. But there are scenes popping up in countries. We just played with a band called 18Fevers, they’re out of South Korea. They’re like, “Yes, come over to South Korea! The scene’s just okay, but you’ll have fun.” But we still need to make some money. 

Christina Eskew: Not a lot, but it’s nice if you can break even. It took a while for England to start paying better. That’s the good thing about there – we’re more established. 

Looking Ahead

PopHorror: In addition to Haunted, is there anything else upcoming for The Hellflowers that you want your listeners to know about?

Christina Eskew: We have a show in Berkeley on Oct. 11, the Punks Parade at Gilman Brewing. Then last Friday, we played at the legendary Gilman in Berkeley, where Green Day, Rancid and all of them started, with Knights of Molino – and they are middle schoolers! It’s crazy and they’re so good. Their songs are very politically charged. You wouldn’t expect this to come out of middle schoolers, but the level of talent and their lyrics is just really awesome. The drummer sings. And they invited us to play their record release show at another legendary venue in San Francisco, Mabuhay Gardens, on Nov. 6. We’re playing Día de los Muertos at Alex’s Bar on Nov. 1 in Long Beach and Nov. 10 at Corbin Bowl in Tarzana. So, a bunch of shows in LA and then the Bay Area. 

Matt Eskew: And then we go back to Maui on April 3 and the east coast on Feb. 27 at Hub City Vinyl in Hagerstown, Maryland. We’re going to try and add some additional dates while we’re there. 

PopHorror: To wrap up, what are you most excited for in this next chapter of The Hellflowers?

Matt Eskew: I’m excited to be done with the record. I’m excited to be playing it out and seeing what other people think about it. I want to share it with other people around the world. 

Christina Eskew: I’m excited to start performing some of the other songs. I want to debut a couple of the more horror-y, darker songs at the Día de los Muertos show because I think it’s very appropriate. I can’t wait to see what that’s going to look like because when you record something, it’s different when you perform it live. I’m curious to hear how it’s going to sound and how the audience is going to react. That’s what I’m looking forward to. 

Matt Eskew: We have a song on this record that we played for friends and they were like, “This sort of reminds me of The Bangles.” I’m like, “That’s interesting.” So, it also has a weird sort of ‘80s pop vibe. But whatever, I guess that’s what needed to come out. I’m excited to see how people react to that and see if that drives them away. [laughs]

Thanks for speaking with us, Christina and Matt! Keep up with The Hellflowers on Instagram at @thehellflowersband. 

Photos by Scott Evanskey.