Manchester four-piece Witch Fever have been brewing in the city’s underground for a few years now, but now armed with a record deal and debut EP due in October, they’re breaking the mould of the hardcore bands that have come before them and forging their own compelling path.
Though initially being picked at random because they liked the sound of it, Witch Fever’s namesake grew as a reclamation of the hysteria which accompanied the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts and Europe, which the band believe were a means to belittle, suppress and diminish women. This is something the band’s frontwoman Amy Walpole has experienced first hand.
“As a frontwoman, I’ve always tried to play with the expectations of what I should be doing on stage and how I should behave. I grew up going to church. It’s called Charismatic Christianity. It was very intense, all about spiritual healing and speaking in tongues and all that. It was a very shitty place. There are a lot of men there that were not good.”
She continues, speaking further about how her upbringing informs Witch Fever’s lyrics: “I’m really inspired by horror films and literature, and the lyrics are kind of a mash-up between horror and Gothic. Using biblical imagery to me is reclaiming the sixteen years that I lost to the church, especially when I’m playing on stage. My family left the church soon after I did, so it feels good to be able to use that and channel it into something else.”
Witch Fever’s sound can’t be pinpointed to one genre. There are moments on their EP which echo 80s punk, and on ‘In The Resurrect’ swaggering Rage Against The Machine style rock is reflected, seeing Amy switching up her dynamic vocals with gusto. Lead single ‘Reincarnate’ is indicative of all that is explored on the EP, feeling gargantuan and far bigger than the band itself. Most importantly, the band are reworking hardcore into an invigorating and unheard form, rather than a tiresome reiteration of what’s come before.
And it’s not just the music that is exhilarating and kinetic; the lyrics are just as mighty too. ‘In Birth’ hears Amy charge with battle cries “You pressed me, undressed me / Telling me I was your wet dream / But get out of my cunt, I’ll fucking eat you alive.”
The band’s varied sound can be pinpointed to their individual music tastes and backgrounds and collaborative songwriting efforts.
“For this EP, we really want to push ourselves,” Amy explains. “We’re recording an album later on this year, so we’re doing that even more. We don’t want to have this typical Witch Fever sound, so that everything sounds the same. We want to keep on changing it up and experimenting more, and keeping people interested and ourselves interested.”
Witch Fever were one of the acts chosen to support IDLES on their forthcoming 2022 tour after the band made a point to book predominantly non-male artists to open their shows.
“We were super happy when they asked us to be part of that tour, especially the European tour,” Amy gleams. “It’s obviously a great thing that they’ve chosen mainly women for their supports, because time and time again, for years and years, women have been saying, we’re not getting the same opportunities as men are. We need to be given this platform. I think it’s a really positive move, to be honest. More bands should do it and make more of an effort to find people that aren’t men to support them.”
Guitarist Alisha Yarwood continues: “I would like it to be more than just one tour because sometimes it could seem like maybe this is one tour for women, and then next year when we’re doing another tour, it’s going to be back to the same old crap. So, it’s just good going forward if bigger bands take that into consideration.”
“Not saying that was what IDLES were doing at all, but it’s for every band, instead of them seeing it as a tick box thing like we’ve got to do this in order to make ourselves look good, they should genuinely want to support women or non-binary people. To break out of this idea that music, especially alternative and heavy music, is this boys club. That only boys and men can be properly part of it and taken seriously,” Amy adds.
“There are women in music doing sick things at the moment,” Amy reflects when asked about who she looks up to as a feminist in music. “Particularly noname, who puts a lot of time into educating people about social issues often through a communist lens. Lauren Mayberry from CHVRCHES has been outspoken about the misogynistic and violent comments and messages she and many other female musicians receive from men on a daily basis. Also, IAMDDB and Amy from Amyl and the Sniffers come to mind for owning their sexuality and being all-round bad bitches. Russian activist band Pussy Riot are great too for obvious reasons.”
“When we do live gigs, we’ve always wanted people to be empowered,” Alisha agrees.
“We’re not necessarily coming with an agenda. It just so happens that we’re all feminist, we all are musicians. And unfortunately, being in those venues as women and non-binary people, it is very difficult sometimes. We didn’t feel like we had a choice but to speak out about feminist issues, and the safety at gigs and in the wider music industry.
“The amount of horror stories from people in the music industry is just insane. Awful, awful things have happened to women, trans people and non-binary people for years and years. For me, especially being the one that talks to the audience with the microphone, it feels like I’m missing an opportunity to raise awareness about stuff like that because it directly affects us, and it directly affects everyone in the room too. We don’t want to claim that we’re some figurehead for feminism; we’re still learning too. Being a feminist is a proper process.”
Taken from the August issue of Upset, out now.
