The Wytches

“Sidesplitting gothic quartet boast tantalising stoner, doom and gloom characteristics” - BUZZ Magazine [4/5]
"Crusading, crunching indie punk…a dash of melodrama to the songwriting…thoroughly addictive” - CLASH
“Insinuates itself into your psyche until you're stealthily enslaved...spellbinding stuff” - Classic Rock [8/10]
“One of the UK’s best-loved and well-regarded underground bands” - GIGWISE
“Raw and absorbing…deserves our full attention” - The Line of Best Fit
“Some of the greatest songs they’ve ever released” - Far Out Magazine
“Gnarly Disgusting Psych Rock. Super Visceral” - The Needle Drop
“Enthralling…an album of dark and potent energy” - NARC [4/5]
“More ramshackle and hypnotising than ever before” - DORK
“A wave-ride of glorious surf-sludge” - DIY [4/5]

Brighton-based rock quartet The Wytches are pleased to return for 2024 with the reveal of a video for their new single ‘Unsure’, which is out now on all good digital service providers.

The latest track to be taken from their 2023 album Our Guest Can’t Be Named, which is also out now on Alcopop! Records, ‘Unsure’ follows on from the band’s sold out limited edition X-Ray 7” single ‘Zep Step’ released late last year.

Commenting on the new single, front man Kristian Bell says: "With every Wytches album, we sacrifice a few songs to make a coherent track listing. I have a bit of a problem that makes being in a heavy rock band difficult sometimes, where I seem to write more slow ballads than heavy punk songs. When I came up with the song ‘Unsure’ I thought it wouldn’t really have a place on the album we were working on. It’s kind of a slow pop song. I liked it when I finished it but thought it would just be another one for the vault. When I played the demo to our guitarist Mark, he started humming along with some really beautiful harmonies which made me want to work it into The Wytches world somehow.”

“In the studio, I started trying to transform ‘Unsure’ from a quiet ballad into something that sat alongside the heavy stuff on the album. I had been listening to a lot of Neil Young and loved how he can bring so much noise and distortion into these folky and sweet songs. I sat in my room with that in mind and basically tried to shred over the whole song—it sounded terrible but there were some cool moments in there. I remember reading something Bob Dylan said about a song not being worth it if it needs slaving over, but I’m not Bob Dylan so I had to power through. I just layered the whole thing up with guitars and started taking a lot of it away until there was something there that made sense.”

The single comes with a gothic official music video created by guitarist Mark Breed, vocalist Kristian Bell, and Ellie Dolphin, with Breed saying of the concept and process: "Kristian and I stumbled upon the dollhouse in a dusty corner of our local antique store. Instantly, we sensed its potential for a music video. Strangely, after acquiring the house, we kept discovering dollhouse furniture in various charity shops, which gradually brought the house to life. The video narrative loosely revolves around a haunting or poltergeist within the house, as a witch torments the family that lives inside." 

Latest album Our Guest Can’t Be Named was recorded with Luke Oldfield at Tilehouse Studios, Uxbridge in the long hot summer of July 2022, after the last few years had a profound effect on vocalist Kristian Bell and his bandmates that seeped its way into the bones of the record.

“The main theme for this album is the loss of identity,” Bell explains. “The pandemic kind of sucked the innocence out of a lot of things for me. It seemed to really put the nail in the coffin of certain connections that were already kind of fading out before the whole thing started, so that fed the inspiration for the lyrics.”

The record was released via Alcopop! Records on vinyl and digitally, with a special Dinked edition (500 copies) containing a glow in the dark patch and several original Super 8 film cells from video for lead single 'Maria' on a signed collectors card. Our Guest Can’t Be Named was widely praised by the music press as a return to form and some of the band’s strongest and most mature material to date.

With the quartet wrapping up a run of UK/France headline tour dates late last year, the band are already announced for TRUCK Festival 2024 and will be revealing further live dates over the coming months.

Latest album Our Guest Can’t Be Named is out now via Alcopop! Records

The Wytches are:
Kristian Bell (vocals/guitar)
Daniel Rumsey (bass)
Mark Breed (guitar/keyboard)
Demelza Mather (drums)

More info:
The Wytches formed in Brighton in 2011 after meeting at music college. During their first year they relentlessly played any show they could find and rapidly began picking up traction. In 2013 the band signed their first record deals with Heavenly Recordings and Partisan (USA). 2014 saw the release of their debut album Annabel Dream Reader and they would tour the world throughout the year, headlining shows and sharing stages with the likes of METZ, Cloud Nothings, Blood Red Shoes, Pixies and Jamie T.

Since then, The Wytches have released two further albums and countless EPs. 2020 saw the band release their third album Three Mile Ditch on their own label Cable Code Records—an explosive collection of 10 tracks that weaves seamlessly between gut-wobbling monster riffs, swampy rock, slick surf, and finely tuned song craft.

With the return of live music in 2021, the band appeared at a handful of UK festivals including Bigfoot, Handmade and Norwich Psych Fest, and were finally able to embark on a tour in support of Three Mile Ditch in October 2022. The album tour was a great success and allowed the band to showcase the new songs for the first time since recording back in 2019.