Sam Huddleston
The guitar sounds are distinct. Alt-rock quartet The Wytches continue to bring new dimensions to the design of their immersive, multi-layered soundscapes.
The dark, substantial texture of their songs is skillful and links an understanding of how sound components work together, or against each other, but create something entirely unique. Kristian Bell (guitar, vocals), Gianni Honey (drums), Daniel Rumsey (bass) and Mark Breed (keys) continue to create new sounds.
“I play every day,” Kristian tells Live4ever. “It’s a good way to learn different chords. The guitar pedal I bought years ago creates an echo effect, and I tend to put that on a lot of our music. I think that just gives it the sound I want.”
“I like the guitar style of Alex Chilton of Big Star, and his solo material is great. It can sound as if he disguises it in a sloppy way but what he is playing is actually bubbly and very good. I aspire to do something like that but still working on the bubbly part,” he laughs.
Creating music of high intensity with intricate approaches is only successful if you have an ear for detail and a grasp of the technicalities. Kristian is no stranger to other genres of music – it mightn’t be what springs to mind during a listen of the Annabel Dream Reader and All Your Happy Life studio albums, but his uncle is a jazz musician and plays the sax.
Some of Kristian’s favourite music belongs to the jazz genre. Maybe it’s the technically-led approach and knowledge of making music that connects the seemingly opposing sonic spectrums; the encounter between the jazz world and the dark alt-rock universe. “I listen to a lot of Alice Coltrane,” he continues. “Her earlier albums have more repeated riffs but as it goes on it becomes this real cinematic thing, you can tell it is her, and there’s a few albums where she sings but there’s something special about it. I love all the percussion that she uses and the piano style is cool.”
“It’s the kind of music I could never really attempt to do myself and I think that’s why I really like it. Sometimes you just listen to a really nice pop song and think, ‘I can’t do anything like that’. It is just this free style jazz you don’t need to think about, you can just enjoy it. I listen to a lot of film music too.”
The Wytches’ eclectic style and influences are fascinating, but another point of significance is the love of analogue, whether it’s cassette tapes, gear or the band’s chosen approach to studio recordings. Kristian started out using a digital approach but he would soon switch. “We went to Toe Rag Studios quite early on,” he says.
“I never even thought about it, but people think our music sounds old. Toe Rag does stand for sounds of another period. You can get quality recordings from tapes and it’s cheaper to buy reel-to-reel than getting a new computer, software and interface. But later I would realise that it is not cheaper because you spend a lot of money on the tape itself, but it just keeps me interested.”
The sonic quality is consistent across the two albums with multiplicity, intelligence and creativity exhibited, their influences as wide-ranging as Daniel Johnston, Nirvana, Slipknot, Elliott Smith, Nick Cave and many more. Newer bands, including the likes of The Blinders and The Howlers, are paying their respect to The Wytches – as a recent conversation between Kristian and The Blinders’ frontman Thomas Haywood would confirm.
“I met the singer of The Blinders, he was really nice and complimentary about us, and said he is a fan of our music,” he reveals. “It is a nice feeling because I sometimes get worried if we have something that we feel sounds like someone else’s music, and although you are always inspired by something else, you don’t want anyone to think you are just ripping them off. The last thing you want is to be hated by your heroes.”
“But I guess if anyone takes anything from us then it just makes me happy, unless they were like just ripping off all the songs and I could hear where it sounds similar.”
But sounding different to what else is going on often presents its own set of challenges: “I guess it can be disheartening if something doesn’t fit in with what’s popular. I know plenty of bands who are good but it’s just too different to get a record deal and no one wants to take the risk now that there’s not much money. I guess the hard thing is to fit in, but then there’s no reason to change your style. It is hard when you are set on something and no one else kind of gets it.”
Steve Gullick
The prospect of new music coming in the shape of a third album is a thrilling one. The band worked on new material last year, and while exact studio recording time and a release plan is being firmed up there’s time to consider how far they are looking to take things this time. “It is the same kind of sound, so there is continuity, our last album was different and everything had another vibe to it,” Kristian tells us. “I am not sure where we are going to record it, we have been demoing and trying to figure out a few more songs, so we have a load to pick from.”
Kristian recalls vividly how the recording of All Your Happy Life felt rushed: “We did a sort of panic session which was like we had the album done and then thought it needed a little more on it, so we went into the studio in a panic to put together a few more tracks. It was predominantly softer material that was intended for that album. We went in and recorded a few songs I had lying around that I figured could be used. I think that session was rushed because we only had two days to put the rest of that stuff down, so it suffered a bit and is less considered than the rest of the album.”
Last year’s rehearsals and writing sessions were coordinated around live performances. Their return to Russia for live dates remains one of the highlights; having established a solid fanbase, the band found themselves at the receiving end of some wild and passionate crowds. A raw, energetic Halloween show was also delivered in Hackney Wick, in the east end of London.
Driving to Merseyside, but breaking down on the way to their Liverpool Calling appearance would enhance their memories of that day. They made it, but only just in time for their set. It was a dramatic and scary experience. “It was weird when we broke down, lost two tyres and had to get a taxi,” he remembers. “The front left wheel burst, it was a massive sound and we swerved off into the left but luckily slowed down. Our tour manager changed the tyre. It was crazy. I don’t drive, I sat at the front of the van with my foot on the break so that the wheel didn’t spin while he was tightening it.”
“I was terrified, just sat on the motorway. Then the second time it happened the spare tyre did the exact same thing. But we got there, it was good and we burnt off some steam after being a bit stressed out.” Their Liverpool Calling set was electrifying, and based on their performance you couldn’t possibly detect what might have happened. Starting on March 27th, The Wytches will be embarking on a UK tour with Drenge. And there’s the third album to complete.
“I am always writing music, it’s a case of whether it is good enough,” Kristian concludes. “We have got hundreds of songs that we ditched in the past, so it is always a bit of a process to put together things that we want to release, we just want to carry on making music that is good enough.
“There’s no direct plans or decisions other than continue to work on this album. But we will put it out.”
