Conjuring imagery of an apocalypse looming over balmy shores, The Wytches have, across four LPs, carved themselves into the underground as a constant, unwavering pulse within the experimental alternative scene. 

They carry an authenticity that is well-lived, rooted in their songwriting approach and genre-agnosticity as they continue to stitch together doom, surf-punk, and garage rock on their latest, upcoming release, ‘Talking Machine.’

In conversation with vocalist Kristian Bell, he unfurls The Wytches’ emphasis on live, unpolished recording and the power of imperfection - the new album finds fresh weight with the addition of a new drummer, restoring that sense of a mutual completion. Industrial textures and unconventional soundscapes seep into the record, while themes of illusion and redundancy coil tightly through it - ever poignantly underscoring the pervasive weight of AI leeching into the creative landscape. ‘Talking Machine’ captures the tension between organic human spontaneity and machine-like accuracy - a friction hammered out through smashed fire extinguishers and set to echoes of Edison’s gramophone.

As The Wytches embark on their 25-date UK and EU tour, tight-knit intimate venues will be plunged into a haze of jagged textures intertwined with balmy surf-punk riffs. The result promises a refreshingly visceral, no-nonsense rock show. 

You’ve said you wanted 'Talking Machine' to sound big without relying on effects, keeping it authentic and human. Beyond the recording methods, did anything else change in how you approached this album?

It was kind of the approach that we had from years ago, which was doing it all live, which we couldn’t pull off for the last two albums before this, because we were basically just a drummer-less band. We'd basically have session players and, because we can all play a bit of drums, one of us would get behind the drums for a track and then we'd add everything else. I don't mind the sound of that, but there's something so immediately good about doing it live that we'd kind of forgotten the sort of magic of that, which is kind of strange because I record a lot of bands live and only live. But yeah, it was just this weird thing that I wouldn't like, that we weren't allowed to do ourselves, ‘cause we couldn’t find a solid band again. But yeah, having our new drummer basically changed the course of things for us.

You started as a drummer, right?

Yeah, I was. I think there’s a bit of… being a drummer, you're sort of maybe a bit too picky about the drums.

And very groove forward?

I make a lot of music just on my own. So it's like, when it comes to The Wytches, it's just got to be like, a band, you know? It's definitely like a proper band. I kind of get bored of just doing it on my own a lot, and then The Wytches for a while felt a bit like a studio project, you know, rather than a thing. 

When you're writing music individually, does it come to you whether it's a Wytches song or something for one of your personal projects?

I think these days I can kind of manipulate it into a Wytches song. There's plenty of stuff I've just put out under my own name that was mainly just because of  the pandemic, that could have been Wytches stuff, because we've got no real sort of formula. We're getting it set together now, and there's like doom, sludge, and then like a little country song or whatever. So it's a bit of a mess.

Many genre labels have been used to describe your sound over the years, from garage rock, psych and surf-punk- but this album in particular feels like it leans into both a punk and doom sentimentality. Was that a conscious shift?

I think I'm always consciously trying to keep things a bit raw. It’s really strange. It always has to have a kind of imperfect element to it for me. I do like music that's completely flawless but because I'm not a really tight musician it just wouldn't be right if we tried to really perfect everything. So I like to embrace this sort of edginess - and there's loads of mistakes that go on all the time. I mean, a big part of the creative thing for me as well is just kind of honing in on a little accident you made. A lot of people use that. And yeah, I definitely enjoy it when that happens, because it's something that wasn't from you necessarily, it was sort of like an outside addition. And then that's the cool thing with doing it live as well  is, there's little bum notes here and there, but  because it's all recorded at the same time, it's like you’re just listening to it as a whole thing, rather than zoning in on your parts. Also just when it was completed, it's like certain things we've recorded - your memory that you have of it, kind of blurs your view on it a bit.  Our second album was stressful to make. But with this, it was so easy, I was really easily satisfied by it all. I'm really pleased by this one and I've probably listened to it too many times.

‘Talking Machine’ feels more conceptually driven than your past albums. What was it like writing with that stronger thematic focus, and how did ideas like Edison’s gramophone and authenticity versus illusion shape it?

Well, it's weird. I was reading this book called Perfecting Sound Forever and I was reading it on my breaks while I was working as a cleaner and I was just feeling like a real redundant person - just having a job you don't want to be doing just to make ends meet and then you know just can't, and then I started feeling a bit safe in this kind of work because I was like - well it's something that AI can't take over. A lot of the album is just leaning into just feeling a bit redundant in a rock band that is just doing the same thing as they've been doing for like 60, 70 years or whatever. It's just like a bit of a, I don't know, like a throwback thing? And so the whole ‘Talking Machine’ thing is just seeing a few parallels with how Edison was fooling the public into thinking this was humans, which it was, but obviously it was like a playback - pre-recorded stuff. And I just saw a little parallel there between like now everyone's in the comments section, like, is it AI? It just felt like a neat little thing.

When you’re writing a song, do you think of it more as a storytelling vehicle with a clear narrative, or as a snapshot capturing a place, mood, or emotion?

Yeah, like a snapshot of a general feeling. That's always how I've done it. I've never thought of myself as a writer. So it's just more narrations of what it sounds like, really. That's how it's always been for me. So having a bit of a theme there does make it more fun to come up with words because I either have to be in a real sort of emotionally stable place to write music or just having images come to me.  If I'm feeling down or whatever, I can't really articulate that at all - it's just more like a sort of little narration to the music really. 

Within your music, there seem to be hints of other imagery - like horror, surrealism, and dreamlike atmospheres. Are there any particular non-musical influences that have affected how you write, whether that be art or other types of media?

You know, I've never really thought about if any of that creeps into it. It must do, but I  never really thought about non-musical inspirations that come into it. I wouldn't know. I mean, there probably are, but I'm just kind of free-flowing. My other interest is closely linked to music, which is just recording music. So I think a lot about it. At this old job I had, there were so many industrial noises going on all the time. I'd record them on my phone and try and blend them into the song. So yeah, I suppose the other place I'm coming from is, just sounds. Technology of sound and stuff like that.

I can hear an industrial edge to your sound. Not in an explicit ‘industrial album’ way, but more like how Depeche Mode would use something unconventional- like hitting a steel pole with a pipe- and make it work. Did you intentionally lean into that?

We really leaned into that -  there is one track- ‘Factory,’ that we, you know, it was smashing a fire extinguisher and that was kind of cool. I did have an industrial, you know, production style in mind for a few of the songs and with this industrial feel but without trying to make it real bleak, which I like, but yeah, we were kind of going for this non-descript, non-human thing. So there's a few songs where my voice is going through like a Leslie cabinet, which is like a rotating speaker, and it sounds really inhumane and strange. So trying to sort of go for this industrial sound without the sort of common industrial elements, we were consciously trying to achieve weird soundscapes like that. Even with loops that sound like a machine pumping and things like that. Which was fun because we've not really done that before. The closest we've done to that is just like, how surfy can we make it sound or something. But yeah, this is the first time we had even thought about adding in sound effects and things like that, but we decided not to do that.

Since the album was recorded live, do you aim to replicate it directly on stage or allow the songs to evolve a little bit? 

We were practicing just yesterday, and with four people we’re trying as hard as we can not to miss the key elements live. Obviously, there’s only so much we can do, so we’ve left out a few things - but I kind of like that. I quite like that new Mac DeMarco album, and when I saw him play, I loved how minimal it was. He had kind of passed me by before, but with this album I realised it was actually quite different. Then I saw him live and it was this whole big band thing, which I thought was cool. I like the idea that live shows can be their own thing. Out of necessity, the important parts are there, but a few bits are missing- like the fire extinguisher, which I don’t think we’ll be touring with.

You’re heading out on tour in early October, are you looking forward to getting back on the road?

We haven't actually toured in two years, so I'm excited. And it was probably like a quarter of the length of this tour, I'm  trying to prepare myself a bit really.  But yeah, I'm definitely buzzing for it. So first tour with our new drummer as well. We've played plenty of gigs with him, but first time touring with him.

Will the tour feature any kind of special merch or vinyl that tie into 'Talking Machine' themes at all?

Yeah, we'll have the record there and yeah, just trying to load up the merch really, because it does help a lot when you tour. We've got posters, we've got badges, we're a whole touring shop.  

Could we expect a full concept album at some point from The Wytches? Is that anything that you guys have explored together? 

To be honest, we haven't thought about the next one yet. But I think I'm definitely enjoying it being more of a brief than there has been on the last few, now, like having a slight theme to it. So, it would naturally probably go that way. But yeah, we haven't been...  We've just been thinking about this one at the moment.