New England's Witch may be the platonic ideal of a metal band. Long hair, vaguely mystical lyrics, muted buzz-saw hum guitars, dueling solos, a graying drummer—they've pretty much got it nailed. Their self-titled debut deals in the kind of earsplitting banshee wails and wah-wahed feedback whorls that came to define the genre. And while metal was designed to freak people out, all the foreboding talk of mysterious men with crystal balls and the feelings of impending doom that the record inspires probably just mean that it's another well-crafted example of that genre, rather than a message from Satan.
It seems strange then, considering how authentic they are, that Witch is composed of a member of a legendary indie rock band, and two members of a folk band. J. Mascis from Dinosaur Jr., and Kyle Thomas and Asa Irons from Feathers form three-fourths of Witch. And, despite his status as a guitar demi-god, Mascis takes the drum chair behind Thomas and Irons' twin leads. The setup isn't as left-field as you might think. Mascis was the drummer for Deep Wound, his '80s hardcore project, before he became famous for his meandering guitar solos. And Thomas' naturalistic, quasi-mystical observations are similar to what he sings about in Feathers. Thomas, like Mascis, also played in hardcore and metal bands before Feathers. Thomas, whose high, clear voice could jive with almost any genre (hip-hop excluded), also recently recorded a pop album while on break from both bands. Breaks, in fact, are frequent, since Mascis has revived Dinosaur Jr., and Feathers doesn't tour often because of its size. That could also be why Thomas was still sleeping when I called him at his home in Vermont.
I think people are trying to decide if Witch is self-conscious, or ironic metal. It might have to do with the fact that your other band, Feathers, sounds nothing like Witch.
I don't think that at all. I just wanna play energetic music. Nobody was really like, 'What are you doing?' Because I've played in bands like that before. And Feathers, it's more of a step in a weird direction for me than Witch is. So it's not weird.
Had J. seen Feathers before he contacted you?
Dave Sweetapple, who plays bass, he was friends with J. Dave was just like, 'Start a band man! I know this kid in town, he can write some tunes!' So this just kinda happened. I don't know if he'd seen us before we started the band. I think he probably did. In interviews where he's talking about us, he says, 'Yeah, we were watching these kids, and they were like "What's wrong with you? Don't you want to rock?"'
I think I actually read that quote. There are a few times where he refers to you and Asa as 'kids.' He always says 'the kids.' In Witch, did he have sort of a fatherly role? It seems like he wanted one.
No. He just kinda hangs out. He doesn't say much. But when he does, it's pretty hilarious. A lot of people try and talk to him, and he doesn't say much and everybody thinks he hates them, but it's just kind of his nature. He doesn't realize he's doing that. It's pretty funny.
It wasn't intimidating at all playing guitar in front of someone who's so well known for his guitar work?
At first it's a little weird, because I don't really know how to play guitar. I just started trying to play lead guitar recently. But, it's a different band. There's definitely been times where we go up on stage and it's like, 'J! Are you gonna play guitar?' Go see Dinosaur Jr.
When you guys recorded, you used a mix of analog recording equipment and digital mixing and nudging with Pro Tools. Did it end up sounding like you hoped?
I would have liked to have played the songs live as a band, but we didn't have enough practice or the means to do it that way. So me and J. just did the basic tracks together and then we kinda added everything over that. But it was really quick and easy. We pretty much did all the tracks in one week and then mixed it the next week.
The imagery that you use—black magic, the full moon, Rip Van Winkle—that's something people associate with metal music. But it's not that different from what you sing about in Feathers.
I definitely used that imagery more here than in the past. But, I mean, it's pretty ridiculous to write a metal song, lyrically. You know what I mean? I just thought that would be kind of hilarious.
So there was a little bit of self-consciousness.
Yeah, I mean how could there not be? The band is ridiculous itself. It's the same as how every band is ridiculous. I think every band has a certain amount of ridiculous to them—ridiculousness. Is that a word? Whether they like it or not. Especially rock bands, it's such a stereotypical thing about them. Things that you're supposed to do on stage or whatever.
Are you trying to avoid most of those stereotypes or have you just decided to embrace them?
I don't know. Maybe those things happen and I'm not aware of it, or maybe I am. Some of them are totally great.
What are your favorite ones?
Light shows. Smoke machines. Long hair.
Another thing I noticed is that it seems like when you recorded, your vocals were mixed low. They do have sort of a ghostly quality to them too. It's not just that they're softer, but I think there are bits of echo and things that make them seem to float above the songs.
Everybody says that. It didn't seem like they were that low when we were mixing it. I just read that, I guess. I don't know, I can hear 'em. That is kind of what I wanted to happen. I didn't want them very loud. It's more about the guitars and drums, and the bass.
Is there any sort of underlying belief system to your lyrics?
I mean, I was reading a lot about the stuff that I was writing about at the time. Books on the occult and stuff like that. I don't know if I could say that I have any sort of belief system. I haven't really been reading that kind of stuff anymore. Another thing is that all my books are a mess. I have so many that I can't even look through them.
So what books were you reading then?
I guess I have this book called The Secret Teachings Of All Ages, which is a pretty extensive that basically covers everything in that realm. There's a small chapter on just about everything. It was written in the early 1900's, I think. It's by a guy named Manly P. Hall.
What do you think from what you've read showed up on the album?
There's probably bits of it in every song, but I don't know, I started thinking about the elements a lot when I was writing that. How they just are kind of affecting everything all of the time. Earth, air and water and fire. I don't know if that actually shows up in the album, but that's just what I was thinking about at the time.
I wanted to talk about the album art for a second. Is this hand-drawn?
Yeah. As opposed to computer, you mean?
Online it looks a little more pixilated.
Yeah, we did have to scan it into the computer and kind of mess around with it to get it to be able to be printed, or whatever. Which kinda really pisses me off. I just wish they would do it the old way they used to do it, but they don't do it that way anymore.
What do you mean by 'the old way'?
I think they actually used to use printing presses and, you know, you would send them the artwork and they would set it somehow. Whereas now you have to like scan it, or take a shitty digital photo of it. And it just never looks right to me. All this computer stuff, they fuck up all the time. It's really frustrating. For recording, I have all analog stuff, personally. I'm not opposed to digital because I think you can get good-sounding stuff, but I definitely wouldn't choose it over tape.
You don't seem to like technology or computers very much.
You got it all wrong. No, Asa's definitely like that.
Anti-technology, or anti-computer?
Just anti.
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