Strange Brew: Halloween with The Wytches

We chat to The Wytches drummer Gianni Honey about White Russians, champagne, caviar... and the making of their new LP All Your Happy Life

“We’re just doing a bit of writing”, says Gianni Honey. “We’re off the tour. We’re in Kristian’s studio in Peterborough. He’s got some crazy new song that’s a bit complicated and it’s really annoying. It’s a bit mind-bending. Everything he’s been writing lately is more mature, way more complicated than just smacking around a bit.”

It's not their second album – the recently-released All Your Happy Life – that the Wytches' drummer is referring to, but the third. All Your Happy Life was released in September; a collection of punk, garage, psychaedelia and surf rock that has consequently seen the Brighton-based four piece labelled as 'beach goth'. The quartet of singer-songwriter Kristian Bell, drummer Gianni Honey, bassist Daniel Rumsey and keyboadist/guitarist Mark Breed are already focused on album number three, but first, we interrupted band practice to chat about the aftermath of 2014's debut Annabel Dream Reader, the pressures of touring, and making an album with a dark side.

The Skinny: How long did it take to record the All Your Happy Life?

Gianni Honey: “Way too long. We spent a lot of time in pre-production, getting the songs together. We took quite a while to go record. I mean, we were supposed to get it all done in one place. We finished it off at Toerag, which we kind of wanted to do in the beginning, everyone said 'oh, you can’t do the second album the same place as the first one', but who cares.

“There’s no way we’re going to have two years between the second and third album. We’ve started writing it already."

So we might expect a new album sooner rather than later then?

“Me and Kristian are very optimistic people. Because we’ve got to move out of this studio that we’ve had for so long and we’ve written our first songs in, we might release a couple of songs for free. We’ve definitely got songs in mind. We’ll do the place justice before we leave it.”

Since the first album, Mark Breed has joined the group...

“He’s been around the whole time, since the beginning… we just thought we’d show him some respect. He’s working just as hard as all of us, and it’s fun to have somebody around on tour who is an absolute nutcase. We were in Brixton, we were in some yuppie fucking hipster bar and Kristian and Mark were smashed, and just going up to people’s tables and stealing their drinks and pouring them on their heads and running around. I wasn’t filming it, I was too busy pissing myself. 

“He adds a good dynamic to touring, you know, he’s a good laugh. A good laugh, a good musician, a good guy.”

How has that influenced your songwriting process?

"I like to think all three of us – and Dan when he’s about, cause Dan is quite far away – work really well together. We usually just do the demos and send them to Dan, Dan does his bass thing, and then when we’re together, we sort it all out.

"We’ve got a really fucked up writing process! We’ve got no real set process… usually it begins with me and Kristian most of the time, just to get the structures down, like drums and guitar, and then everything else goes on top.

“It usually starts off with Kristian. He’ll make something, he’ll get a melody, and then I go next, maybe we’ll get a structure down, and then we’ll just go from there. Usually, it’s like the first version is always the best – when you try and fuck around with things too much, it just becomes… a mess, just a total mess. Too many cooks spoil the broth, hey?"

It's ironic that your new album is titled All Your Happy Life, but there are song titles on there like Ghost House, Bone-Weary, Crest Of Death and A Dead Night Again...

“All Your Happy Life is a lyric from the song Throned. You can’t really hear it because Kristian is screaming it, but yeah, it’s a lyric from one of the songs. And it is exactly what you said it was – we were just kind of being silly, really. As you can probably tell, we don’t take ourselves overly seriously.

“It is a dark album, but there’s happier moments on it, like C-Side and stuff – I like to think that’s quite groovy. And then me and Kristian wrote the last song, Home, and that’s deliberately supposed to be about a time in Brighton, when things were a lot simpler, when all your friends are around, and then you go back and you realise that everything’s changed… the whole place has passed you by really, and it’s forgotten about you, in a sense.”

And that’s meant to be a happier moment?!

“It’s uplifting, in a sense. Nostalgic is the best way to describe Home really, definitely nostalgic. We’ve wanted to do that for ages, but we’ve always been busy, or taking a break… The Annabel Dream Reader run was just literally like, two and a half years of just constant touring. I say it was a shame that it took so long for us to do album two, we needed to take a break or we were just going to go fucking crazy.

“Everybody thinks bands are all about cocaine and caviar and champagne. It’s a lot of hard work. It took a lot out of us, mentally, and we’ve all sacrificed a lot. But you know, we’re still going. We’re not going anywhere.”

And you're back in Glasgow on this tour...

“We’ve done Broadcast, Nice N Sleazy… fucking love Sleazy’s. Sleazy’s is great. We played there with my friend’s band Superfood years ago, on a Vice thing; we just got absolutely caned on White Russians. £3 White Russians man, that place is fucking beautiful.”

Tell us your favourite track off the new album?

“Musically, as a band, Dumb Fil. I love Kristian’s guitar hooks on it, I think they’re fucking great. That song was knocking around for a while, it wasn’t really coming out well. We pulled it together. Either that one, or the one I helped write – Home, just because I’ve never really helped lyrically."

The Wytches Top 5 Halloween Tracks

Thriller – Michael Jackson: "Synchronised dancing. Enough said." (Gianni)

Dope Hat – Marilyn Manson and The Spooky Kids: "Makes me wanna be a goth again." (Kristian)

AFI – Fall Children: "It has many dynamic elements to it. I used to show people this song if I wanted them to hear AFI for the first time. All the lyrics are about Halloween too, so it's pretty apt." (Dan)

Misfits – Halloween: "Does what it says on the tin really. It's the ultimate Halloween anthem. The Misfits did horror punk best in my opinion, nobody has ever beaten them." (Dan)

Theme Tune from The Munsters: "It's surfy and really 60s sounding. It's a really camp take on spooky music." (Dan)