A few questions - interview with doom metal band from France - WITCHORIOUS.
Answered Antoine (guitars, vocals), thank you!
Ave, can you introduce your band to our readers? – When was it founded and what style of music do you play etc.?
Hi Jakub! We are Witchorious from Paris (France) and we were found in late 2019. The band is composed of Antoine Auclair (guitar / vocals), Lucie Gaget (bass / vocals / theremin), and her brother Paul Gaget (drums / percussions). We play doom metal, mixing traditional heavy doom riffs with more post-metal structures, and blending clean vocals and screams. We released our first two singles in 2020, and we just released our first album on Argonauta Records on February 16th 2024.
Where and under what conditions were you recording the new album? Who was in charge of sound, production and mastering?
We recorded our album in December 2022 at Studio Sainte-Marthe in Paris under the direction of Francis Caste (also producer for Hangman’s Chair, Necrowretch, My Diligence, etc.) It was a snowy winter in Paris, and we stayed locked up in the studio for around four weeks. It was a very cool experience, Francis had us try a lot of things for the sounds and arrangements. He also took care of the mixing and mastering, contributing so much to producing the occult atmosphere of the album.
How many copies were released and which medium was used for this new edition (CD, digital, vinyl, cassette)?
300 vinyl copies, 100 of them being label-edition, were released, and we also produced 200 CD copies on our own. Don’t wait to get yours!
Who is the author of the lyrics and how were they created and about what do the lyrics deal with?
Antoine writes most of the lyrics, although Lucie also wrote on song (“Eternal Night”). In general, lyrics are written when the first steps of a song are created, starting with riffs that we jam and intend to turn into a song. But it also happens that I write down so lyrics I have in my head, simple reflections, or sudden punchlines… Half of the songs on this album are very personal and deal with depression, mental health, and my questions around what are we doing here on this earth, towards what end… And the other half speak of society, the relationship between humans, how we are able to destroy everything that surrounds us for power, all this narrated with metaphors around the elements of occultism.
Who created the logo of the band, and who took care of the graphics and the website? What about you and social networks? Do you consider these things important?
Our logo was created by Vaderetro Studio. We asked them to create something dark and evil to represent our sound. We also asked them to work on a picture of a sick medieval town ruled by the forces of evil to summarise what we wanted to talk about in the album, and they came up with the amazing front artwork. The additional drawings were made by Headbang Design based
on the first works of Vaderetro, and they definitely added an important touch of occultism to our imagery. Antoine and Lucie take care of our social media, in which we try to reflect our universe and current projects. We try to be as present as possible on social media, we are on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, and we think it is very important. First of all, we love these media and use them to discover a lot of bands and keep abreast of their new music. Then it is definitely a very strong means to stay connected with your fan base, and more than that, build solid relationships with other bands and fans. When we started, we sometimes struggled finding interesting content to broadcast in these media, so we tried to publish things just when we felt like it, and now that we have more things to share, this is so funny to let people know of our news and interact with us, like asking them what song they would like to hear at our next gig… It is very rewarding when people answer you and show how enthusiastic they are!
Which label did you choose for releasing your album and why this label? Are you satisfied by how your label represents you and takes care about you?
We have chosen to partner with Argonauta Records and we do not regret it! We really hoped they would want to work with us when we sent them our album, because a lot of bands that we liked already worked with them. And look at their roster, it is gold! So many great bands, really in the stoner / doom / post-metal niche… Their boss, Gero, is really passionate about what he is doing and has an incredible know-how. From the first discussions with him and from the word-of-mouth, we knew we could rely on him for all our questions on the release. He’s done that so many times, he can really provide the mentorship we were looking for, with brilliant tips. And benefiting from Argonauta’s visibility and their many followers were a key asset when releasing the album.
Which bands do you idolise and where do you get your inspiration?
Our main inspiration for this project, and in our playing in general, is Black Sabbath. They are really our gods in terms of songwriting and riff-making. On top that, we try to listen to as many bands as we can, and we are inspired by more modern doom bands like Electric Wizard, Monolord, or Lucifer, but also nu metal stuff like Korn and Deftones, metalcore bands like Parkway Drive and Jinjer… We try to incorporate elements from different genres to make our compositions richer. We are fascinated by bands who show an impressive mix of influences and sound both vintage and modern like Mastodon or Amenra.
Did you send your record to some Labels - which are the labels? How was the response?
Yes we sent our record to around fifteen labels and we got answers from 5 of them, for 2 deal propositions. In the end I feel that we have gotten propositions from labels that were the most relevant for us, and knowing that we really hoped Argonauta would say yes, this was beyond expectations. We are incredibly grateful to Gero for trusting us.
How many gigs have you played? Which type of gigs do you prefer, whether it's (clubs or festivals) and which of your performances would you consider as the best?
So far, we have played 16 shows. We have been lucky enough to play clubs, one festival, and small pubs. I’d say that our favorite place to play is small concert houses, because it is still small enough to feel very close to the audience, but big enough to have all the professional equipment and crew, which is really luxury haha. I think that one of our best shows was at Les Cuizines in
Chelles (our hometown) back in November 2023, because we had just done a series of gigs in different towns and it was very cool to play again at home before our families and friends with our newly gained experience. In my opinion, our best gig was actually our last gig at Supersonic in Paris, because it was very challenging: I was sick and worried that I might not be able to sing, and it was important for us because it was the release party of our album, so we hoped people would come… But eventually the two other bands performing (Margarita and Brusque) killed it, the room was crowded as F, and we did a very good performance. We had so much fun, it was really like a birthday party, everybody was there, and we gave the best of ourselves, it was the best night.
What about your plans for the future? What do you want to achieve with the band?
For 2024, the target is really to play as many shows as possible. We want to meet people and present our album live. Then I would say that we are going to try to play bigger and bigger venues. We’ll start working on songs for a second album very soon. We would really love to become a permanently active band in the niche, but above all we want to do acts that we will be proud of: good albums and killer shows. So we will gain as much experience as we can, try to show ourselves everywhere, and hopefully this will lead us to cool adventures!
How and where can your fans contact you? Can you provide some contact information?
Sure, you can contact us anytime on Messenger (https://www.facebook.com/Witchorious), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/_witchorious_/), or TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@witchorious), or even send us an email directly (witchorious@gmail.com). You can also visit our Bandcamp (https://witchorious.bandcamp.com/album/witchorious-2) to contact us. And of course, if we are coming to your town, please come to our show and say hi at the merch, we are always so happy to meet people and have a chat :)
Thanx for the interview.
Thank you so much Jakub!
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