KRISTIAN BELL, FRONTMAN OF THE WYTCHES: “A REAL NOSTALGIA THING”

INTERVIEW | KRISTIAN BELL – THE WYTCHES by Morgan Hermiston

I sat down with Kristian Bell, guitarist and singer-songwriter behind The Wytches‘ impactful songs. Alongside Bell to complete the band are Daniel Rumsey on bass, Mark Breed on keyboard/guitar, and drummer Bhavin Thaker. Since forming in 2011 in Peterborough, The Wytches have released 4 studio records, the most recent being 2023 album ‘Our Guest Can’t Be Named‘. In this interview, Kristian and I chatted about dream festival headliners, touring, and upcoming music.

The Wytches‘ New Album

I began by asking Kristian about The Wytches‘ fifth studio album, ‘Talking Machine‘, set for release on 10th October. Summarising the album in a few words, he said, that it’s “just got a live feel and flows better than the rest of them“. This lead on to us discussing how music tastes and preferences mature and change and I asked if their approach to music making has done likewise. “Yeah I’d say so,” he began, “I think we try and arrange the songs in a similar way, which is just drums, bass and guitar. I guess we don’t think about it too much, how we’re going to approach it“.

Kristian also told me about the final song on ‘Talking Machine‘, “the last song on the new album is a bit of a nod to this EP we did, this home recordings EP“. He continued, “it was all, sort of, supposed to sound a bit disorientated. There was a lot of random noises going on and stuff. So I think we were quite deliberate with a few of them“. Kristian also explained that this album, “has more of a theme…that could be achieved audibly, you know, like the, sort of, industrial machinery vibe“.

I asked Kristian what he meant about how ‘Talking Machine‘ “flows better” than the other records, and whether this was intentional or not. “I think it just came out that way,” he started, “I just write a load of songs, bring them to the band, and we just pick the best ones“. Kristian added, “the ones that I bring, that I think are the better ones, aren’t necessarily the best ones“. He continued, “some of the ones I didn’t think were all that end up being the better ones when it comes to the band, everyone adds their own flair to it“. In terms of “the flow and everything“, “there was a bit of a process of elimination and stuff. You’re just left with the bits that you’re happy with. I think it is just because we’ve done quite a few albums now that we, sort of, know how to navigate them a bit better“.

Since Kristian is The Wytches’ primary songwriter, I was curious to know whether there was a specific song from the album that he was particularly proud of writing. “Yeah, I like ‘Factory‘“, he began, then explained that his songwriting style is, “trying to create a bit of an image, rather than a story“. “I never was a writer at all before I was writing songs. I didn’t really have, you know, the qualifications to start writing really meaningful stories or anything. I just like to create a bit of a picture in your head with the words“. With ‘Factory‘, “I’m quite happy with the words“.

Throughout the process of recording ‘Talking Machine‘, he said he “really got into The Milkshakes,” who were “a garage band from, I think the 80s“. Explaining this further, he said, “my boss at the job I work at, he signed them, or he released some of their stuff. So, we had loads of Milkshake’s records lying around“. He added that his admiration grew for them as “it’s like 60s garage stuff, but like a revival in the 80s. I really grew up with the early 2000s garage revival, you know, White Stripes and The Hives and stuff“. “I really liked The Milkshakes,” Kristian continued, “because they kind of did a similar thing where they take the essential parts of 60s rock music, and accentuate that. They do loads of 50s covers and stuff like that, like early rock and roll. A lot of classic stuff I was listening to, a lot, during this“.

Touring and Festivals

We then chatted a bit about The Wytches’ upcoming tour across the UK and Europe over October and November. You can find remaining tickets for this here. I asked if there were any specific venues or cities he was looking forward to performing at. “Yeah, I love, I forget the name of it, the venue in Glasgow. I think it’s Nice N Sleazy [it is]. We played there really early on, on our first tour or something and went back a few times“. “I think we played there quite a lot in the early days,” he continued, “we’d support some bands there and then we’d play our own gigs. I really love that venue“.

They’re also playing a date in Sneaky Pete’s, “yeah that’s the thing, I love Edinburgh as well. I think we played there a few times as well. We didn’t go back to those placed on the last, maybe, two tours as well. So I’m excited to do that“. Kristian also mentioned, “The Cluny in Newcastle,” and how, “we’ve played a lot of them before, but there’s some here that will be a real nostalgia thing“. He continued, “we really just wanted to tour it as much as we could, this album, because it really lends itself to the live thing. A lot of these places happened to come up because we just asked to try and get as many shows as we could for it“.

Surrounding actually touring and how he approaches it, Kristian started by saying, “I’m going into it, kind of, blindly, because for the last three albums, the touring is so few and far between“. He added, “we haven’t really toured since 2023, and before that, it wasn’t since like 2021. So, I’ve kind of lost my bearings a bit with life on the road“. He also further explained that, “I’m a lot more of a routine person these days than I used to be. So I’m a little bit unsure of how it’s going to go. My entire 20s I was on tour so I’m sure I’ll remember how it goes“.

Even though festival season is now over in the UK, I asked Kristian what a lineup would look like if he got to create his own. “Maybe like BB King headlining, just like a real classic,” he said, “all the Blues greats that are dead, all of them guys“. I asked if he’d add The Wytches to the lineup, seeing as they’ve played events like Beyond The Music, “we’d be the backing band. All the Blues guys have gone electric and we’re the backing band“.