Witchfang: ‘We might start working on one song and then by the end of it, we have started four new ones and not finished any of them!’

Danish occult horror rock band Witchfang is gearing up to release its cinematic debut album next year.

The band comprises Kristian Eriksen (vocals and rhythm guitar), Rasmus Kiel Beck (lead guitar), Steffan Jepsen (bass) and Mads Vestergaard (drums).

The idea for Witchfang was born in the middle of the night three years ago, in a dark rock bar in Kolding, Denmark, by friends Eriksen and Kiel Beck: ‘We were hanging out and drinking and talking about playing music together, and you told me you had this idea for a song, Rasmus,’ Eriksen said. ‘You looked at me and said: “The song should start with “Welcome to the dead rat city”, and then you started humming that!’ The next day, they started the songwriting, based around that sentence. That became the first released single by the band, ‘Dead Rat City’, and soon after came the inspiration for an entire album. The concept was to create a horror movie but with music instead of pictures. The project grew quickly and the interest in songwriting and music production grew as they were joined by Jepsen and Vestergaard and the band was finally formed.

Of their band name, Eriksen said: ‘We wanted something mystical and magical but we also wanted something original. It’s hard to find good band names, so we really spent a long time coming up with that (laughs). We’re all big fans of horror movies, horror books and occult stories but I think what unites us as a band is just the love for good rock music. Horror is something that we all find very cool, and especially writing about it.’

Although they describe themselves as ‘occult horror rock’, they incorporate elements of stoner/doom rock mashed up with hard rock and some 70’s style riffs. Their influences include Black Sabbath and Ghost. Ultimately, they defy expectations of what hard rock should be, incorporating the gentle touch of 1960’s soft rock and with grooves that could be made to fit a 70s-styled anthem.

‘The funny thing about it is it came to me out of nowhere, as everyone always says about good songs, right?!’

Last month (May), they released their second single ‘Running Away From You’, a seriously catchy song with heavy Foo Fighters style riffs that are softened by two pop-like notes at the end of each chorus refrain: ‘That particular song, I actually wrote almost by myself, and I think the funny thing about it is it came to me out of nowhere, as everyone always says about good songs, right?!,’ Eriksen said. ‘I was sitting alone the day before New Year’s Eve, and I actually had another song I wanted to work on. So I picked up my guitar, and I tuned it, and I strummed the chord to see if it was in tune, and then I just came up with the intro riff out of that. I think I just started recording and writing, and four hours went by, and then basically I had the song. I called Rasmus, and I was like: “Can you come and play a solo?”‘ Kiel Beck jumps in:’ I think I added some of the clean guitar and some little twinkle.’ I ask him if he also added the hooky distortion on the guitars and he grins: ‘No, Kristian already had the distorted guitar!’ 

I say that I like that the character in the song could be running away from a person, a situation, or something else entirely and they nod: ‘Exactly,’ Eriksen said. ‘That’s actually one of the things we really wanted to try because we have only released two songs so far, but we have written a lot of songs that work together as a story. Hopefully, people will be able to tell the story when they hear the song alongside the others. It was very important to us that you can listen to the song by itself and still find a meaning from it. I think it’s great that, as you say, that you can listen to it, and it can mean so many things, because I’ve shown it to different friends of mine. Someone came out of a bad relationship, and they felt it in that way, that needing to get away from another person. People coming out of a bad job have been reminded of needing to get out of there. It’s so cool to hear when people say: “It reminds me of this situation I was in”.’ The band would love to hear the song on the TV show ‘Stranger Things’: ‘It has this 80’s vibe nostalgia that we personally love and we think that the theme of the song would fit in pretty well in that show, and actually in a lot of scenes.,’ Eriksen said. ‘Actually, a lot of our songs would probably fit in with the whole apocalyptic vibe!’

As it kicks off: “You will never see me. You will never hear me. Crawling from the action. Crawling away from you – from you. I tried to be brave, I tried to stay but now I’m running away from you.”

The commanding guitar solo around two minutes in really lifts the song and powers it along to new heights: ‘I think in the writing process, we’re always jamming a lot,’ Kiel Beck said. ‘We record everything, we are jamming and then we like some stuff more than others. It’s like a puzzle sometimes because you played something else before that you could add to what you’ve just played.’ Eriksen agrees: ‘We usually do this together, me and Rasmus. He might come up with 10 ideas and then I pick out the parts that I like the best (laughs). I push him to play them together. And sometimes he’s like: “I can’t play this” and I say: “Sure you can, just practice some more!” It works out anyway!’

The artwork for ‘Running Away From You’ was created by an artist called Mirkow Gastow: ‘We found him on Instagram and loved the things he did, so we reached out and he agreed on making the artwork for us,’ Erikesen said enthusiastically. ‘His handle is @mirkowgastow if you want to check him out, he made some incredible designs for both Pentagram and Zakk Sabbath, to name a few.’ As Gastow says of his design: ‘The illustration tells a story of transformation and detachment,’ he said. ‘A woman stands at the exit of a cave, holding a skull in her hands. It is a moment of reflection, perhaps the last look at the past before leaving it behind. The skulls around her represent what has been sacrificed along the path to liberation. In the sky, planets suspended in space evoke a sense of infinity and introspection, as if the inner journey were as vast and mysterious as the universe itself. I tried to give the image a powerful and symbolic aesthetic, and I hope it fully captures the spirit of the son.’

Next up will be their single ‘Dead Moon’ on 1 July: ‘We have really tried to achieve a more old school rock sound with a more stripped back production but still powerful,’ Erikesen said. ‘It is about seduction, temptation and devotion!’ (Pre-save link: https://artists.landr.com/990591489103 )

‘My dad and I bought a guitar at a flea market when I was 14 and we learned how to play ‘Smoke on the Water’

As a kid, Eriksen got into music via his mum’s 70’s music collection and his older sister, who was into punk rock and metal: ‘I remember in school picking up a guitar when I was around 12 and learning a few chords,’ he said. ‘At one point, I just heard something that I thought was so cool, ‘Self Esteem’ by The Offspring and I really wanted to be able to play it!’ For Kiel Beck, a chance encounter set him on the musical path: ‘None of my family members played music either but my dad and I bought a guitar at a flea market when I was 14 and we learned how to play ‘Smoke on the Water’. I come from a home where we listened to a lot of music, there was always music on. I was raised on a lot of Pink Floyd, Ozzy Osbourne and Meatloaf.’ Vestergaard laughs: ‘My mom ain’t musical at all! I grew up with her but my dad passed away when I was 14 days old. He was apparently very musical. Three of my siblings are also very musical, so I think it’s in the blood. I’ve had my dad’s old guitar my whole life, I have played on that old thing since I was around 12 or 13. Then I got an electric drum kit and I practiced to videos of people playing ‘Guitar Hero Metallica’ on YouTube. That was a kind of a special way to learn it. I only play the drums in the band but I still play the guitar at home.’

Interestingly, some songs are born out of a riff that was originally intended for a different song: ‘We have a song coming out that started out with a riff we wrote for ‘Dead Rat City,’ Eriksen said. ‘We were working on that, trying to come up with a good hook for the chorus. Out came a riff and I thought: “It’s a good riff, but it just doesn’t fit the song”, so I put it aside and we ended up writing a new song around it (laughs). Sometimes, we write a riff that’s a bridge over to something else and we find such a cool riff that I want to make a new song because the riff is so good! We might start working on one song and then by the end of it, we have started four new ones (laughs) and not finished any of them!’

Vestergaard, for his part, intends to get more involved in the writing process going forward: ‘Normally, Kristian and Rasmus come to me with some programmed drums and I add my own drums to it,’ he said. ‘We’ve been getting to know each other as a band so next time, I might get more involved in the (writing) process.’

Their debut single ‘Dead Rat City’ was released in March and tells a story of a city in decay, where mutated rats are spreading disease. It is one of many songs on their upcoming debut album where each song is a chapter in a bigger story, that in the end comes together as a ‘sonic movie’. Their debut album, which will consist of 10 tracks will likely also be called ‘Dead Rat City’, or ‘Dead Rat Radio’, according to Eriksen: ‘With our song ‘Dead Rat City’, we saw how we could put it together with other songs into a bigger story, so we decided to make a concept album, which in hindsight is a crazy idea for a debut album, I think (laughs). We’re trying to go in a classic storytelling way, with some ups and downs and then a climax somewhere in the middle before slowing down a bit until the big ending.’ Kiel Beck interjects: ‘Dead Rats City’ is the beginning and we actually have the intro for that called ‘Broadcast’ which sets up the entire story. Imagine a chaotic city and everything is in ruins and you turn on the radio and the first thing you hear is this broadcaster telling you what is going on. The songs on the album all explore different elements of this bigger story. The rats are a big theme because the protagonist in the songs is fighting them. He doesn’t know exactly what’s happening and he wants to fight back but it doesn’t always work out great, so he has to rethink what is going on and how he handles it.’

‘I sing a lot like Ozzy for some reason and it’s not even on purpose!’

On our Zoom, they are sitting in their home studio, where Eriksen’s black bass guitar sits happily alongside a poster for Britney Spear’s ‘Toxic’ and I tell them I like that juxtaposition and they laugh: ‘We built this studio together,’ Eriksen said. ‘We tried to make it cozy because we write music in here as well, so we have posters on the wall of Ozzy Osbourne and Angus Young. And over here (he points), we have Lemmy. We try to have some idols on the wall, so that we can always look up and try and be inspired. Even though we write rock music, I thought Britney Spears deserves a spot over there as well because we all grew up with her as well. We always like to say that we sound a bit like a mashup of Black Sabbath and Ghost (a Swedish masked rock band), that’s what we aim to be. We like the heaviness of Sabbath. I sing a lot like Ozzy for some reason and it’s not even on purpose! For me personally, I love Ghost’s songwriting, I find it very inspiring. The band that brought us together is probably Metallica. Actually, I would like to cover ‘The Four Horsemen’. His bandmates look delighted at the prospect. ‘That song would fit in really well with a theme of one of our songs, at least lyrically.’

If they could go drinking with any musician, dead or alive, Eriksen is quick to say Lemmy: ‘He’s the rock and roll granddaddy,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘I feel like I don’t even need to ask him a question. He seems like the guy that if you bought him a drink, he could sit and tell you stories all night!’ Kiel Beck is deliberating: ‘It would be some 60’s icon like Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin because I’m really inspired by ’60s’ rock and roll,’ he said. ‘I don’t think I could keep up with them but Jimi Hendrix is an idol for me.’ Vestergaard goes for someone completely different. ‘I’d say Vinnie Paul from Pantera,’ he said. (Several rock media outlets have ranked him among the greatest metal drummers of all time.) ‘I would want to know all of his special tricks. He had so many insane ideas, his thinking about playing drums was just so out of the box. It would be cool to know where he got his inspiration from.’ I say that I think it would be really fun to shadow him for a day. ‘Oh, that’d be really fun!,’ he said enthusiastically. Kiel Beck is nodding: ‘Now that you’ve brought up Vinnie Paul, I’d like to spend time with Dimebag Darrel,’ he said. Eriksen looks deep in thought: ‘I think I’d like to shadow Tobias Forge (frontman) from Ghost because there’s just something about his songwriting,’ he said. ‘Lyrically, I wish I could write like he does!’

(Top photo from left to right: Rasmus, Kristian, Mads and Steffan.)