Hi Kristian, how did The Wytches come about?
We started in 2011. Our drummer Gianni and I just decided to move to Brighton because there was nothing going on for us in Peterborough. We both upped and went to university in Brighton. We started in the band in Peterborough with a guy called Mark on bass, but he didn’t want to move with us so we just went.
Was there much difference between the music scene in Brighton and the one in Peterborough?
Basically everything is different about it really. It’s got a culture in Brighton, or several cultures in Brighton, and in Peterborough you are kind of limited. There is not much to do and you are left to your own devices. I guess that can be a good thing but in Brighton you are spoilt for choice.
How did you come up with the name The Wytches?
When we first started we were just called The Witches. I just thought it was quite funny that it was so average. I liked the idea that there were probably a million bands called The Witches. We knew we weren’t significant to anyone back then, as we had just started and we weren’t trying to come into the music industry with a big bang. We were just up for making music and having a really simple name. It kind of fitted.
Is it true that the Y was added to make your name more easily found online?
We got management and they said if we wanted to get things going a bit more, it might be easier. I liked how it was written down when it was spelt with a Y too. We recorded about three EPs under the name The Witches but we didn’t do too much with them. We hadn’t amassed a following so we didn’t feel it was going to harm us to change it.
You have described your sound as surf-doom in the past, do you stick by that?
You know you get really silly genres like ‘moderate-funk’, we said surf-doom as it was a really obscure genre and I found it funny. I think people thought I was being serious. The stuff before the album was a lot more thrash. Now it is more rock music or just songs. Songs played in a disgusting way, hard, loud and unlistenable.
What music influences The Wytches as a band do you think?
This sound particularly is influenced a lot by The Birthday Party and bands like that; old fifties surf music too. This is just the sound of our entrance into the music world though. We jam all the time and it’s not always like that. This is just how we wanted it for this particular album. I have many influences and I wouldn’t want to be one thing. I mean, it will always sound like The Wytches and a lot of noise mainly.
You have an artist called Sam Hull who does all the band’s artwork, is that visual side of the band important to you?
Yes it is. Every band needs some kind of visual side to it and with Sam it is always of a good quality. I know he’ll come back with something great, which is his own interpretation of the music. It’s always his wacky interpretation. He is a really close friend of mine so it always nice to work with your close pal.
How does your creative process work within the band?
I normally record songs at home. I can play the drums too so I can demo stuff myself and then show it to the band. Then sometimes, I won’t demo them and leave them guys to add their own parts to it. It is equal parts collaborative as much as it is me bringing it to them.
Lets talk about the new album, Annabel Dream Reader. What’s the name about?
The name was just something that I just thought of when I was in school. I used to be into creative writing; where music isn’t involved. Where you are just writing for the love. It always stuck with me. I don’t know the significance of it. I just knew I liked it and it made me think of certain things. It felt cool for the album.
Is it true you recorded the whole album in just two days?
We knew the songs and they were really old when we went to record them. We built those songs properly from playing them live rather than figuring them out in the studio. Most of them came together in their complete form. It just happened to not take that long at all.
Why did you decide to record it all analogue to tape?
All my favourite bands recorded on tape. We tried recording on digital loads of times before but it just never really worked. Digital is cool when you are tracking everything so you can isolate things and put it together that way but tape for me works better when you do it all live, when everything is bleeding into one another and all the instruments are blending.
From: https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/interviews/the-wytches-this-is-just-the-sound-of-our-entrance-into-the-music-world
