INTERVIEW: The Wytches - GigslutzGigslutz

Known for their visceral psych-heavy sound and their raw live performances, it’s no surprise the buzz around The Wytches second album All Your Happy Life has been louder than the distortion on front-man Kristian’s guitar.

They’re probably sick of hearing it, but the record is a superb follow up to their debut release Annabel Dream Reader, and it’s the blend of anarchy and poetry in both the music and lyrics that’s seen them win over Jamie T’s crowds as they’ve been supporting him on his sold out tour across the UK recently.

We managed to squeeze in a chat with bassist Dan who was en route to Leeds with Gianni and Mark to pick up Kristian, before playing to another sold out crowd. Read our chat below, and make sure you catch The Wytches on their headline tour this November!

Hi Dan, you’re still in the middle of supporting Jamie T on his UK tour – but what have been the highlights so far?

It’s going better than expected, it’s such a big production though! It’s unlike anything we’ve done before, so it was also kind of a shock on the first night because he’s got 16 crew and we’ve normally got 2 (laughs). It feels like a massive operation and a new experience for us.

The crowds have been really receptive to us considering we have a completely different style to Jamie T too!

That’s good! You recently played some in-store shows to promote the release of your new album All Your Happy Life too – how did they go?

They were really good. The best one was at Resident Records in Brighton because it’s a really small record shop and it was packed out. It was all a bit rough and there wasn’t any sound engineer so it was like an old DIY gig, in a way. We met loads of people afterwards too which was really nice.

For those who may have only just discovered you on the release of your second album, can you talk a bit about how it differs from your first release Annabel Dream Reader?

I’d say it’s more accessible than the first one because we focused on the production of it a lot more. Not to try and make it sound accessible, but I think we’ve all moved on as musicians and our ears are more trained to what sounds good and that sort of thing. I’d say it’s maybe more melodic than the first too because there’s more singing than screaming .

The first album had a definite sound, whereas All Your Happy Life is a bit more experimental.

What’s your favourite song from the new album and why?

There’s two actually. I think ‘A Feeling We Get’ is one of Kristian’s best, he’s really matured with his song-writing and the arrangement of it was really smooth. We arranged it in the practice room and when we actually recorded it we were just adding different things; the acoustic guitar was added in quite late and the organ and stuff. It just flowed really nicely and I thought it came out really well.

And the other one is ‘A Dead Night Again’. I remember writing it with the guys in the practice studio and it being really collaborative. We all had quite a big input on it.

There’s a lyric on single ‘C Side’ that sticks in the memory: “There were times when you wouldn’t pay it much mind, but now you swing me from my every line”. Is this reflective of fans and critics looking in to what you’re doing too much, rather than just listening to and enjoying your music? Do you feel that kind of pressure now you’re quite well known?

I’m not too sure, I’d have to ask Kristian about that one and we haven’t picked him up yet (laughs). They’re his lyrics really so I probably can’t answer that.

I think there is that pressure though. People expect one thing from you and anything new that you put out is going to be nerve-racking. You don’t want to lose people but you also want to experiment with new things in order to gain new fans as well. I think there’s quite a fine line between what we were and something new. Hopefully we’ve kept people interested.

You closed the Invaders of the Future Stage at Bestival this year. Did you have much of an opportunity to see any other bands over the weekend?

We were only there for that day so we didn’t get to see much, but we watched Sunflower Bean play. We played a show with them in New York a couple of years ago so it was really nice to see them again.

Whilst we were waiting to go on we also watched a bit of Wiz Kalifa, we could see him from the back of our stage whilst he was playing ‘Black and Yellow’. There were so many sounds rattling around the site so we couldn’t hear it very well, but it looked good (laughs).

You’re heading out on a UK headline tour in a few weeks including a show at Electric Ballroom. What are you anticipating from these dates?

Hopefully just the usual stuff really, as long as people are enjoying it we’re happy. We’re gonna go in to pre-production this time and we’ve got a different stage set-up now. I have to stand in the middle, which I didn’t like at first but now it’s fine…

Why don’t you like being in the middle?

I dunno, because I’m the bass player I’m used to hiding at the side! (laughs). Apparently it’s something to do with how the amps are laid out, but I think Kristian just doesn’t want to be in the middle (laughs). And we’ve got Mark with us too, he’s done a few tours with us but he’s a proper member now and that’s going to add new dynamics to the live show.

If you had to pick a “best crowd” from all the gigs you’ve played recently, who would you pick?

I was going to say the most recent gig we played at Brixton supporting Jamie T, but they were all his fans (laughs). But that was pretty overwhelming. Both of those shows were a big milestone for us really.

Maybe Brighton at The Haunt last year? The year before that we played there but it was part of a festival and there wasn’t really that many people there just for us because you had to buy a ticket for the whole festival to get in to that one gig, so lots of our fans couldn’t really get in. But then we came back the next year to the same venue for a regular gig and it was packed and everyone was just going for it, so that was definitely a highlight.

Finally, what bands/albums are you listening to at the moment?

I always say Nick Cave, so I’m going to say him again (laughs). I’m listening to Skeleton Tree, but you can’t listen to it for too long even though it’s brilliant.

I was just listening to Tim by The Replacements on the train as well. I’ve dipped in and out of that but I gave it a really good listen today. This is probably a bit of a cop out (laughs) but I’ve been listening to the new Jamie T album as well!

Big thanks to Dan for answering our questions! You can catch The Wytches live across the UK this autumn, tickets are available here.

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut