There are few things more revealing than heartbreak. Beyond the pain itself, it often exposes the mechanisms we have been taught about ourselves: how we should behave, which emotions we are allowed to express, and where vulnerability is supposed to fit within our understanding of adulthood. For men in particular, those questions have become increasingly complicated. At a time when culture offers endless performances of strength, dominance, and emotional detachment, admitting confusion, grief, or fragility can feel almost revolutionary. It is precisely within that space that The Haunted Youth's second album, Boys Cry Too, finds its role.
Throughout art history, there has been a persistent idea that artists create their best work when they are suffering: the so-called tortured artist. Whether that is true remains open to debate, but in the 21st century we are increasingly trying to move beyond the romanticisation of pain as the only valid source of artistic expression, while still acknowledging that some remarkable works have emerged from moments of profound personal struggle. The key, perhaps, lies in transforming it into something else. For Joachim Liebens, what inspired Boys Cry Too was, simply, “the need to write these songs”: a way of getting out of bed, making sense of his emotions, and navigating one of the most difficult periods of his life.
Since emerging with the dreamlike textures of Teen Rebel and the acclaimed debut album Dawn of the Freak, Joachim Liebens has built a world defined by nostalgia, longing, and youthful disorientation. His songs have often felt suspended between memory and fantasy, wrapped in layers of shimmering guitars and hazy synths that transform personal experiences into something universal. But if Dawn of the Freak often viewed emotion through the lens of adolescence, Boys Cry Too confronts it head-on. The result is a record that feels louder, heavier, and considerably more bruised.
Written in the aftermath of a painful breakup and during one of the lowest periods of Liebens' life, the album abandons any desire to hide behind ambiguity. Across tracks such as deathwish, hurt, and forget me, he documents the conflicting emotions that accompany loss: anger, resentment, self-destruction, denial, vulnerability, and, ultimately, acceptance. But what makes Boys Cry Too particularly compelling is that it refuses the narratives increasingly offered to young men in moments of emotional crisis, the ideas that shape what is known as the manosphere. The Haunted Youth approaches heartbreak as something that has to be experienced fully, however uncomfortable that process may be.
That shift also becomes a sound of its own, specifically crafted for this particular album. While traces of shoegaze and dream pop remain, the record frequently pushes towards something more immediate and physical. Guitars occupy the foreground, tempos accelerate, drums hit harder, and moments of noise threaten to overwhelm the songs entirely. From the explosive opening statement of in my head to the cathartic release of falling to pieces, Boys Cry Too captures the sensation of emotions becoming too large to contain.
Liebens speaks openly about anxiety, depression, heartbreak, and the difficulty many men face when trying to articulate these experiences. He presents wake up as a friend to rely on in moments of weakness and uncertainty. We spoke with Joachim Liebens about heartbreak, masculinity, vulnerability, touring, the evolution of The Haunted Youth's sound, and why Boys Cry Too may be his most personal work to date, as well as a chance for men to liberate themselves through the force of music.
The opening track in my head is such a manifesto and an introduction to the album; it's as powerful as it is daring. It sounds like a masterful symphony that branches out and ends up embracing you. There was an earlier version of this song, and I wonder what the story behind it is. For me, it sums up the difficulty of dealing with certain feelings that can be too intense.
It is exactly that. I often have those kinds of experiences: pressure building up, things just exploding, or just locking down in freeze because you get overwhelmed sometimes.
In the album's press release, you mentioned that you want to “show the vulnerable part of men and boys and celebrate it instead of making it this whole stigma that's been going on for so long.” This is an incredibly important message to convey through your music, and one that is reflected in Boys Cry Too. What, in your opinion, are the main barriers for men and boys who struggle in this regard?
Last year, I looked up information online for guidance ‘cause I was going through this horrible breakup after a super toxic, really intense, and beautiful relationship. I quickly was led to all these toxic masculine figures who were just selling these big ideas to people that felt to me like there was little substance there, in actually processing my heartbreak and the feeling of security with myself. All they were talking about was making money, hooking up with Insta models, denying depression, etc. I felt like I wanted to be vulnerable and be secure with that instead of denying I felt something. I don’t believe you can manifest your way out of a heartbreak, but you can by grieving the fact that you lost something you actually gave a fuck about.
"My life is going nowhere / I'm so fucked up and you don't care," you sing in deathwish. The song tackles rejection in a very honest way. But it's exactly the opposite of what incel culture and the manosphere encourage young men to do: hate. Here, we find a very honest opening of feelings. How did this song come about?
I ended up in a situation last year where my decisions could have really impacted my life. I made the better decision, not to be violent against someone she cheated on me with, even though I felt like I wanted to fucking kill him. I decided to deal with it by making the song about it. Now it feels good to look back at that moment and feel like I won from the weaker part of myself. I had the beat for a while, and it took the longest to finish the vocals on it. I ended up sending it over to Max Fry for a feature, since I really fucked with his songs. I was in LA making connections last year and ended up reaching out while I was there working on the album. I didn’t meet him before the song was finished, though; we both kinda did our thing intuitively and it happened to work out great.
Sonically, the album is more forceful and energetic, a step up from Dawn of the Freak. The guitars sound more powerful and the album’s style is the closest the band has ever come to punk rock. Did it come about naturally or was it intentional to enhance the lyrics?
Everything was intentional and referential to the good old bands I love, but also really natural and intuitive, coming from me feeling this vibe and then tryna play the things I think sound like that feeling. I wanted energy live, faster songs, more aggressive. And on a production level, I definitely was looking for more clarity, different textures, and more dynamic range in the soft parts versus the loud and aggressive parts. It’s like you can feel this aggression inside, balanced with the vulnerable vibe, swinging from side to side, smacking you in the face.
“I felt like I wanted to be vulnerable and be secure with that instead of denying I felt something. I don't believe you can manifest your way out of a heartbreak.”
This album is far more confrontational than anything you've done before. Usually, when someone takes a stand, whether through art or any other form of expression, not everyone around them reacts with care and understanding. Did the process of creating the album lead you to face any obstacles within the industry?
I don't give a shit what they think or have to say. I wouldn't even know who “the industry” would be. I love my album truly; that's where it ends for me. It’s up to the people now, whether they think it’s good or not. I’m curious what they feel and think.
In wake up, you address a feeling of weariness and depression (“wake up, get up, try to let the sun in, yeah”). It's one of the album's most minimalist tracks, yet one of its most important. How do you normally deal with this type of feeling?
There are just these days where you wake up like a little kid that doesn’t wanna go to school, and you have to drag yourself through the day. It’s also tied into my struggles with anxiety, which makes it hard for me to sleep, or to wake up and start the day, eat enough to not be skinny, etc. I used to take pills to go to sleep when it was really bad, and I remember just feeling numb, but I also knew the next morning it was gonna hit again. In a way, this song is kind of a friend who understands what you’re going through, and tries to get you outta bed.
Hurt, emo song (with an incredible chord progression), and the stunning instrumental falling to pieces round off the album’s sonic diversity, which leans slightly more towards The Haunted Youth’s classic sound. What were your main sources of inspiration for the album?
My own feelings and worries and shame and pain, and the need to write these songs. I was really inspired by my peers of my generation, and bands that were big in the 90s, like My Bloody Valentine or Blink-182. I felt like me and those bands always did similar things, but in a different way.
Castlevania is another standout track on the album, and you described it as "the perfect triangle between Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Loveless [by My Bloody Valentine]" in terms of musical references. It’s such a great song. You had the chance to play this and other songs live before the release: how was the audience’s reaction?
They seemed to have the same excited feeling as we did.
It’s been five years since you released Teen Rebel, a song that now has almost ten million streams on Spotify, and many more on other platforms. The line “sweet teenage rebel, you walk into the darkness” feels as relevant as ever. Looking back, what memories does the song’s release bring to mind? Have you received any interesting feedback over the years?
It feels like an old friend that you got in trouble with in high school, and did drugs with in college.
“You have to make up your own movie scene in your head, from your own feelings.”
I wonder how and when you discovered that music was both cathartic and a form of expression for you. Was music a part of your childhood?
In a way it was, but it always felt so mythical and unreachable too. But it was when I started being able to write my own songs, and just tryna prove to myself I could, that it became really, really important and started taking over my life. It took years for me to really embrace it.
Did recording the album teach you anything new or unexpected about yourself that you can share with us?
I don’t know, that’s a really open question I’m having some trouble with (laughs).
Touring has become a double-edged sword for musicians; you can do what you love most in front of an audience that wants to see you, but the conditions and the life behind the scenes can sometimes be quite tough for the artist. I wanted to ask you how this recent tour you’ve just finished went.
We tried our best to book everything in a way that we would get breaks in between, and also being on the road for a while helps us figure out how to stay grounded and healthy. We might book an Airbnb where we can cook instead of a hotel by the highway. Things like that. Also, having the right kinda people on the bus. These guys are carefully selected and irreplaceable. They are like my chosen family, and they show up for each other. But sometimes it just sucks fucking ass and you wanna sucker-punch people. That happens too.
There’s another line written about the album that caught my attention; you mentioned that Boys Cry Too was conceived almost as "the soundtrack to a film that was never going to be made." I think film soundtracks touch our hearts because of the story behind the film we’ve identified with. What sort of film would Boys Cry Too be if you could make it?
I like to think of it as being a film that’s different in everyone’s mind, because there’s no visual, just sound. You have to make up your own movie scene in your head, from your own feelings. I think that makes it feel really personal to each and every person who might listen.
