When I was a kid, growing up in a house with Cat Stevens, Neil Diamond, and Simon and Garfunkel, the first time I ever heard Kiss's "Detroit Rock City," it was a moment of musical epiphany. It was just so vicious, aggressive and mean. It changed the way I listened to music. I've had a few minor epiphany's since then, when you come across a band that just brings something new and revolutionary to your ears.
What have been your musical epiphany moments?
The biggest epiphany moment happened to me when i was 12. It was late '86 and my father took me to a record store and he said I could pick one album but I ended up choosing two; Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets. When I got home I ran to the record player and carefully opened the plastic seal on Ride the Lightning, placed the album on the plate and put the needle down gracefully in front of Fight Fire With Fire. The acoustic intro begins. Magical. I was completely enthralled by it and then the song just explodes into this violent frenzy. It just blew my mind. From that moment on I knew that music was going to be a huge part of my life.
Talk to us about the song-writing process for you. What comes first, the idea? A riff? The lyrics? How does it all fall into place?
For us it differs from song to song. We write some songs around a chorus and other songs maybe we got a riff that we build from and so on. There's no specific magic formula that we follow.
Who has influenced you the most?
Oh, that's a tough one.. but I’ll have to go with Glenn Danzig. Early Misfits, Samhain and Danzig I-IV. Damn, what a songwriter!
Where do you look for continuing inspiration? New ideas, new motivation?
I think we often get inspiration from each others ideas, like in the spur of the moment kinda thing. It could be Johanna who comes up with some cool vocal melodies or Simon pumping a heavy riff on the Rickenbacker. It's small stuff like that that gets us fired up. Our motivation is just to make good songs and if the listeners can relate to our music or maybe even feel something when they are listening, then that's even better!
We're all a product of our environment. Tell us about the band's hometown and how that reflects in the music?
We are from Skellefteå, or to be more precise, we are from small towns and villages scattered around the city. It's a small to mid sized town with about 32 000 people living in the city and about 73 000 living in the municipality as a whole. Growing up you either played ice hockey or an instrument, that's at least what it felt like. The music scene is quite active despite the size of the town. Worth mentioning is Trästockfestivlen, a free of charge music festival that's been held every year since '91 (if there's no pandemic raging through the world).
Where'd the band name come from?
We had to change our name from Aska to Wytch to avoid the risk of future legal problems. We wanted a one word name and Wytch just felt right.
You have one chance, what movie are you going to write the soundtrack for?
That would have to be a real strange but good movie.. I wouldn't mind having written a song for 'Mandy'.
There's so many to choose from, but I would have to go with "Cough/Cool" because it's such a good song and it's also the first single from The Misfits. I mean, what a way to start things off!
Come on, share with us a couple of your great, Spinal Tap, rock and roll moments?
What happens on the road, stays on the road. ;)
Tell us about playing live and the live experience for you and for your fans?
Unfortunately we've only done a couple of gigs with Wytch, but we hope to remedy that as soon as the live scene starts up again. The few gigs we've done so far have been great fun!
What makes a great song?
To me it's when a song feels sincere and not written just to show off someones skills.
Tell us about the first song you ever wrote?
That was a death metal song written in '90-'91, I can only remember one riff. It was most likely about darkness, destruction and it probably mentioned blood somewhere.
What piece of your music are particularly proud of?
I'm super proud of the whole album, with everything from the production to the songwriting.
Who today, writes great songs? Who just kicks your ass? Why?
I've been fortunate enough to have been playing along side Mr V of Vintersorg since we were teenagers and we still do to this day. He is a true genius when it comes to songwriting and he's also incredibly productive. But besides from him I think just about anyone kicks my ass when it comes to songwriting, hehe. At least that's how it feels when I listen to music.
Vinyl, CD, or digital? What's your format of choice?
Vinyl. Easy choice.
Whiskey or Beer?And defend your choice
Both! Why? Because I don't like to exclude, especially when it comes to alcohol.
We, at the Ripple Effect, are constantly looking for new music. What's your home town, and when we get there, what's the best record store to lose ourselves in?
There's no record store in Skellefteå these days. I'm not even joking. I'd say you'd better get off the plane in Stockholm and visit Sound Pollution.
What's next for the band?
I think we're going to focus on doing gigs (when it's allowed again) and making new songs for the next album.
Any final comments or thoughts you'd like to share with our readers, the waveriders?
I hope you enjoy our album. Skål!