Welcome one and all to the latest episode of
Signals from Mars. Joining me today is Laura
from the band Kingwitch. How are you, Laura?
I'm good. Nice to meet you, Victor. Yeah, I'm
Laura from Scottish doom metal band Kingwitch,
and I'm happy to be here. Awesome. Happy to have
you on the show. And it's typically been three
years between... each release for the band up
until the new album, Three. Is there a specific
reason why it took five years to release this
album? Yeah. After we'd sort of done our sort
of touring for Body of Light and our last gig,
I think, was Desert Fest London. like there was
a lot of personal shit going on with the band
and we decided that that might have been quite
a good time just to maybe take a little bit of
a break. And during that break, Jamie and I ended
up having a little boy. So that's quite a large
reason for the space of time in between. But
yeah, so that's why it took a bit longer. Okay,
makes sense. Yeah, I was just trying to sort
out if it was on the family and the things or
if it was that the band just felt that they needed
more time to work on on the material or not.
No, it's mostly just family. And Jamie actually
had a lot of the music written. He managed to
get quite a bit of that done during COVID lockdown.
But we just kind of put it to the side because
obviously we released our last album during COVID.
So as soon as like restrictions and everything
were lifted, we just went out and started touring
Body of Light and forgot about all the new stuff
that we'd written. Yeah, so the space in between
was when we were getting busy as well, sorting
out our new music. Okay. The first thing that
stands out to me from 3 is just how cohesive,
aggressive, and how sonically better it sounds
than the previous releases. Thank you. Yeah,
I'm assuming that's something that the band was
trying to do when recording the album. To be
honest, I don't think there's like there was
really any kind of conscious effort to make it
sound a particular way. It's like just kind of
writing it the exact same way as we've written
every other album, which is basically, you know,
like music that we're enjoying playing at the
time and, you know, music that we like. But I
think Jamie might like Jamie wanted to make the
album feel. more natural more like maybe a bit
raw and um and yeah like i but i don't think
there was like a conscious decision to actually
sort of strip it back okay yeah a lot of times
also jamie produced and mixed the album a lot
of times bands try to do that And it seems as
if it's almost their worst album because they're
their own worst enemies and don't know how to
be objective with their own music. Yeah, it's
dangerous. Yeah. How do you think Jamie works
with you guys to try to get the best out of you
without maybe allowing you to get by with something
that just isn't up to what he was looking for?
Well, Jamie doesn't hold back if he thinks something's
on shit. Which is good. I mean, you don't want
for it to be half -arsed. You want it to sound
good. So we're really lucky in that we've got
a studio out the back of our home. So it's somewhere,
you know, Jamie knows he's really comfortable
in it. And also because we had all that time,
it was a comfortable way of recording. It didn't
feel like we were under pressure. And, you know,
like it gave us time for Jamie to be able to
say, why don't we try something different? Or,
you know, like maybe we could try a different
melody for vocals or why don't we try something
like a different bass part? Or there was a day
where Rory was in recording his bass and he thought,
do you know what? It probably would sound really
cool with you. Or Rory was like, it would sound
really cool with my fretless bass. So they went
and did a journey all the way up to like, you
know, like way up Scotland to North just to get
this fretless bass and come back down. But, you
know, it made a big difference. That was... That
was for Little Witch. Just those little, tiny
little sounds, like, you know, just, I think,
makes all the difference. And it's worth putting
the effort in to do those kind of things. Is
it difficult being in a relationship not only
with the guitars, but also with the producer?
Does that in any way strain your relationship?
No. I mean, Jamie and I have been in bands for
20 years. So we've been in Kingwitch for 10 years
and we were in another band for 10 years before
that. So, like, it's kind of, I don't know, it's
kind of a separate thing. I feel like it's never
been a problem. I mean, we may shout at each
other a bit more when it comes to doing the recording,
but, I mean, everybody does that. Right. Okay.
It feels like your vocals, you're saying that
it wasn't premeditated, but it really feels like
your vocals are... a lot stronger than they have
been in the past. Not to say that they haven't
been strong on each of the previous two studio
albums, plus the EP, but it just seems like your
vocals are at a different level with this album
as well. Kind of at the same standard as, as
the music part of things with the album. I think
that the music has gone to another level and
I think that your vocals have also gone to another
level. Thank you. I think when it came to recording,
well, I personally felt there was a slight worry
when I was recording that because I hadn't done
it for a while, because I'd had a kid that was
like, maybe I'm not going to be able to do this
anymore. Maybe like, I don't know, my body's
like physically changed. I'm not going to be
able to sing, but that wasn't the case. And I
wanted my vocals to sound natural. but also like
I wanted to try and get what the lyrics are about,
like try and get the emotion across. And I don't
know, I don't know how it works, but maybe it's
because we had that little bit extra time and
I felt comfortable when it came to recording,
but I'm never happy with my vocals when it comes
listening them back. But for this album, like
I was really happy when I heard the demos, like
really happy and that never happens. I don't
know what magic was happening at the time, but
it worked. Cool. And you mentioned how you guys
took your time with the album. How important
was it that the label wasn't pressuring you guys
to deliver something? Well, I mean, if the label
was pressurizing us, they wouldn't have got anything
out of us because, I mean, we were, our hands
were kind of tied because we had a little boy.
We're really lucky with Listenable because they're
just, They're a fantastic label. They've been
really supportive. They've never, you know, like
put pressure on us or, yeah, they're just like
a really, really great label. Laurent as well,
who runs the label, he's like, you know, he's
just, he's just got a real love for music, which
is just a, it's just a nice thing from, you know,
like a big label. Okay. And actually I skipped
a question here. So let me just go back to the
recording of the album. One second here. You
mentioned that, for example, you guys went and
used the fretless bass on the track. Is there
anything that you also consciously tried with
all the time that you had that you maybe hadn't
done in the past that you said, well, you know,
let me try this on a vocal or let's include,
I don't know, some type of a layered guitar part
that maybe we haven't done in the past. I mean,
there's like about a million different layers
of guitars, I think, but we did use our son's
baby xylophone at the very beginning of the album.
So do you know that sort of eerie sound that
you hear as Suffering Life's coming in? That's
like a sort of warped version of a ting! Rock
and roll! There you go. I know. There's so many
stories like that. There's... Judas Priest on
British Steel, where they just took a tray full
of silverware, dropped it and recorded it. And
that's a sound that's at the end of the track
Metal Gods. Really? Oh, yeah. If you listen back
to it, it's it's the last like. The outro to
the song, there's like this clanking sound and
that's that that's them dropping a tray with
silverware. That's awesome. I didn't know that.
Yeah. There's another bit as well in the CLIs.
When you hear a sort of sound underneath the
guitars, that's actually Jamie. He's got a cold
and he's going, he's making a really like sort
of weird noise in the background, but it's got
rakes and rakes of reverb on it. Right. Wow.
It sounds weird. It sounds like some sort of
synthy sound that Devin Townsend would use, but
it's just Jamie with a really blocked nose. That's
cool. Those are the little details that you would
never know unless that comes up in an interview.
Cool. How do your surroundings being from Scotland,
being from Edinburgh, how does that kind of help
shape the band's music? I mean. We started out
in Edinburgh jamming under an old spooky church.
We were in all these dark vaults underneath this
old church. I guess that's a pretty fitting place
to write riffs if you're in a heavy metal doomy
band. Scotland's got amazing scenery and it's
quite a good place to come up with lyrics. you
know, like from like folklore and history and,
and just like scenery in general, it's just like,
it's gorgeous. So I guess there's definitely
a lot of songs in our albums that are about,
you know, like Scotland and mythology of Scotland.
Right. So that helps kind of, uh, uh, you know,
uh, spark creativity. Yeah, I think so. I like,
well, we all do like really like getting out
into, you know, like going for like out in nature,
like walking in the hills. And it's like a really
good way of being able to sort of clear your
head, I think. And there's a lot of actually
like our new album is about that. And yeah, I
think it's, it's like, it's just important to
us. Yeah. It's interesting because there are
a lot of doom metal bands that are out of, you
know, England, Scotland, the UK. Um, and a lot
of times you can kind of feel the different textures
where they're from, uh, to kind of separate each,
each one of the bands. Like you don't sound like
orange goblin and you don't sound like, um, I
was going to say the quill, but they're from
Sweden. So, I mean, they're all, you guys are
all kind of in, in, in the doom realm, but you're
all kind of putting your own flavor on things.
Yeah, it's cool. I think that, yeah, there's
a huge pool, but there's like so much variety
in it as well, which is really cool. Our previous
band was more of a straight up sort of like heavy
metal, new wave, like British heavy metal style
band. And that felt like it was a bit more restricted.
But like this, you know, the stuff that we're
playing now just feels like there's much more
sort of space to be able to be creative in different
ways. So you could like... like for instance
this album's got like heavy metal doom vibes
it's got hard rock it's got a bad folk it's got
like slight psychedelia like it's um you know
like they're even grunge like it's got a bit
of everything but it still still feels like it's
still in that realm yeah yeah yeah it's neat
there's there's like a thin line between everything
and you guys are kind of just shaping it to work
for you yeah like and i think it's we we quite
dig the fact that there's variety as well um
you know you used to get like the albums that
you maybe used to listen to as kids like do you
know i still listen to them like zeppelin or
you know like like floyd then lizzie like none
of the songs are the same none of the songs are
like every song's got a bit of a different flavor
to it which um although they still sound like
the same band um and we personally feel like
That's like an album that we would want to listen
to because it's, I don't know, because it just,
it keeps it interesting. Yeah. Yeah. And that's,
I think something that's kind of lost in modern
music where it's become very homogenized and
very samesy where, and this is all across hard
rock and metal where bands write one song and
everything kind of sounds like that one song.
Throughout the entire album, as opposed to giving
people different sides of of the band. And this
is a discussion that I've had quite a bit in
the past where people have said to me, well,
you know, an album that's that diverse isn't
going to go over well with fans. And I thought,
well, why not? It's always worked, you know.
And the thing was, well, if you're selling it
to somebody, you're marketing. something to them
you should stick to one thing so that they know
what they're getting and that doesn't make sense
to me nah it doesn't make sense to me either
by like it's kind of a weird world now in the
way that you know like people's attention spans
are so short and right um maybe people are not
like they're scared to take it they don't want
to take a risk on like spending time on an album
like this i don't know like one song's one way
the other songs are like no no i'm not into that
at all i don't know i don't know like i think
um i i think i dig variety i think it's a good
thing yeah yeah i i agree with you as well and
i think it makes it interesting as a listener
to want to continue to to kind of ride that wave
throughout the entire album totally as opposed
to just hearing one thing and saying all right
i've kind of heard the entire album already Yeah,
and it takes you on a journey. Like, that's how
it should feel. Like, it feels like you're, like,
on a roller coaster up and down. Like, yeah,
that's what I like about it. Yeah, I agree with
you. You're credited as working on the graphic
design for the album. Yeah. What was your input
on that, and what exactly, what aspects did you
work on? So, originally, I was going to do the
cover artwork. for the band, for the album and
I'd come up with an idea there was an old painting
that I'd done and we thought it was really cool
and we gave it to the label and he was like that's
cool but I think we could probably get something
a bit more fitting to the music and it was like
so but luckily we knew a very talented woman
called Roseanne Hayes aka Blasted Heathen and
we'd worked with her before on t -shirts and
i asked her if she would be interested in helping
and i gave her like my sort of concept of what
i wanted um which was like yin and yang light
and dark death life corruption innocence and
i thought you know like it would be cool if it
was wolves because i felt like that would be
a good way of representing the fierceness of
the human spirit and amongst all the shit and
um and she said cool and she went away And she
came back with about five designs that were all
like off the chart amazing. And it was really
difficult to choose which one because they were
all so good. But we decided to go more for the
original concept, which was the yin and yang
concept of the wolves. And that's how it came
about. So she did the front cover and the back
cover of the album artwork, which is like our
faces in stone. And I'm a graphic designer anyway,
like by D. So I had the time to be able to take
her artwork and sort of just like, like do with
it what I needed to do. And I had all the photographs
and stuff as well from like one of our friends
had done photo shoots with us as well. So yeah,
I was, you know, like in a comfortable place
to be able to put it all together. Okay. And
that's presented to you in what, Illustrator
or something like that? I did, some of it would
have been in Photoshop and some of it would have
been in InDesign. Okay. Okay. So, yeah, if that's
what you normally do, I mean, that's easy for
you to mess around with and to kind of bend it
in whatever way you want to. Yeah, totally. But
it was nice to have somebody else doing the artwork.
It was, it felt, I think because we do a lot
of stuff ourselves, like, you know, like Jamie's
done the production and everything, kind of quite
a DIY band. It can be difficult sometimes to
pass things over. But it felt nice to be able
to do it and even nicer because she'd done such
a good job. Does this kind of give you more ideas
for, say, for merch or for other aspects? Or
would you work with any of the other designs
that she presented? Yeah, I think I'm going to
ask. I was actually going to ask her. She'd be
up for letting us use one of the other designs
for another T -shirt because we've got the album
cover on a T -shirt already. But I think it would
be... it would be cool to use something. So it
felt like it all tied in. That would be, that
would be cool. Cool. You mentioned off air that
you guys are going to be playing tomorrow. Yeah.
Is that the first set of shows that you're doing
in support of this album? Yeah. So it's just
tomorrow and Saturday. So we'll play in Newcastle
tomorrow and London on Saturday. And these are
the first gigs that we'll have played in over
three years. um yeah so these are um in support
of the album and then we've got we've got a few
more shows coming up in the months coming ahead
but yeah tomorrow's our first gig in a long time
nervous a little excited though at the same time
though excited how does um you already touched
upon being a mother a few times how does being
a mother and um tying your family into doing
these shows how does that all work out now Well,
it makes things a bit tricky because it means
you can't really do sort of longer tours. So
it needs to be sort of more select gigs and sort
of smaller, shorter tours. But yeah, I think
it will be manageable, just in a bit of a different
way. I think I just felt like, how is it going
to feel to be on stage as a mum? Am I going to
feel like, I don't know, will it feel weird?
Can I still rock out? Well, you'll find out shortly.
I sure will. A few weeks back, there was a big
event that kind of triggered a lot of the music
that you guys play. Back to the beginning shows
that kind of put a bookend to Black Sabbath and
Ozzy. And there's a tremendous tribute to them.
And I don't find it shocking that they were able
to raise so much money because of how diehards
metal fans are and how if there's a cause or
if there's someone that they love, how they back
them and their projects. As a musician, how do
you look at a show like that? I mean, I thought
it was really cool. They were able to raise the
amount of money and it was really cool to see
him, you know, like he, it was nice to see them
again. It's kind of, it was sad. Like I watched,
I went to their last ever gig, last ever gig
in Birmingham. And that was, when was that? I
can't even remember how many years ago that was.
It was in 2015, 16, maybe. yeah so that that
was like the send -off but to see this it felt
sadder somehow and I don't know because I think
as it felt more final for whatever reason I don't
know I think maybe because Ozzy's in a chair
it made it seem like it was just that's what
made it more final but I did think it would have
been nicer it would be nice if they had even
a couple of local bands from Birmingham or you
know like a smaller band or I know that the reason
why they've got all these big bands is because
that's what's going to bring in the money for
the charity. Right. But it just felt like they
were in their hometown and it would have been
really cool if they had, you know, given someone
a small band from the area the chance to sort
of get up there in front of everybody. Yeah,
I guess the smallest band that they probably
had up there, quote unquote, was probably Rival
Sons. Oh, yeah, maybe. They're not even that
small anymore. Right, but that's the whole thing.
What bands would you have liked to have seen?
From smaller bands? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean,
they're not from Birmingham, but I think Greenlung
are doing really well here at the moment. I think
they would have probably gone down well. Obviously,
we would have. We're not from Birmingham. But
yeah, like, I don't know. They just would have
been really, there's like loads of cool sort
of Jimmy hard rock and bands that would have
totally killed it. Yeah, absolutely. I agree
with you. Yeah. What other bands do you think?
Cause I mean, we're, we're at a point in time
where. We're going to see more of our heroes
say goodbye, unfortunately. Yeah. But that's
part of life. What other bands do you think could
pull off something similar to that as kind of
a send -off? That kind of style of gig that they
played. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that style of gig.
I don't know. Do you mean bands of their era
or a different era? Of any era. Of any era. Still
around, yeah. I don't know. Well, Zeppelin are
going to be playing at the end of the year, are
they not? Maybe they could do it, but maybe not.
I don't know. But I don't know. It's hard to
say because older, those kind of style of bands,
they're just... obviously because they've been
around for so long they've built up such huge
followings and momentum and godlike stature and
it was different for them so bands these days
it's not easy for a band to make it so they don't
get given money from record labels which means
you don't get the same amount of time to pour
into the music as a I don't know. It's a whole
different beast now. And I honestly don't know
who would be able to pull off something like
that in the same way. Do you? I would speculate
that it would have to be a big band that could
pull in other big bands along with them. It would
have to be like an Iron Maiden or it would have
to be like an ACDC. Metallica could probably
do it as well. Yeah. Metallica, without a doubt.
Metallica would probably do it on their own.
Yeah. But I mean, what I found personally, what
I found so cool about the event was it reminded
me of a lot of shows that I saw on TV as a kid,
whether it was, you know, whether it was Live
Aid or whether it was the, you know, the Freddie
Mercury tribute show or stuff like that, where
there were different events over the years. where
you would have a lot of these big bands get together
and play these events. And it was neat. And I
think that's something that's been lost maybe
in like the last 20 to 30 years where I'm not
saying they don't exist, but it's not as frequent
or maybe just in my mind, it's not as frequent.
I think you're right. I think you're right. It
would have been really cool to have a ticket
to go. It would have been cool to be there to
sort of, to witness it. because yeah it's like
a quite a cool like from watching it we watched
the live stream quite a cool feeling seeing all
these big bands come together and like you know
like doing a couple of their own tracks but also
like doing these covers listening to their interpretation
of an Aussie song or a you know like a Black
Sabbath song was quite interesting yeah yeah
absolutely yeah I'm hoping they uh they release
it at some point in the future because I miss
the live feed altogether Oh, I'm sure they will.
I'm sure they will. Yeah. Hopefully. Where can
somebody go to pick up Three and make sure that
it puts the most amount of money in the band's
pockets? Well, if you want to buy it digitally,
you can go to Listenable Records Bandcamp. That's
our record label. You can also buy vinyl and
CD from them as well. on their band camp or you
can their website as well but you can also buy
cds and vinyls from us the king witch band camp
you just can't buy it digitally from our band
camp okay cool and um as far as keeping up with
the band what's the best place for them to go
like our socials like we're pretty active on
instagram on facebook Yeah, those two are probably
the best ones. They're both kept up to date pretty
regularly and they'll have like gig dates or
like new videos or, you know, all that shizzle.
All right, cool. Well, I appreciate your time,
Laura. It was awesome talking to you and I really
enjoy the album, if you couldn't tell. I'm glad
you like it. It makes me very happy to hear that.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It totally hits the spot,
in my opinion, if you're looking for a certain
style of aggressive doom metal, specifically
is what stood out to me. If people are craving
and missing one Ronnie James Dio, for example,
I think that this will help wet your whistle,
definitely. Nice. Yeah. Thank you very much.
And thanks for taking the time to chat to us.
Absolutely. Thanks so much. We'll see you next
time. Anytime you want to come back on, you're
more than welcome to do so. Thank you, Victor.
All right. Bye. You can watch the show live on
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.com for more information. This concludes our
show.