Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Thunder From The Witch's Cauldron: BURNING WITCHES Bassist Talks Magic, Metal And Aussie Tour Debut

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Thunder From The Witch's Cauldron: BURNING WITCHES Bassist Talks Magic, Metal And Aussie Tour Debut · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Jay. I'm the bassist from Burning Witches Beautiful.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much. Your bass playing is thunderous and tight.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: How did you first get into bass and what drew
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: you to it over other instruments?
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: Through Romana? Our through Romana because over twelve years ago,
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: I meet each other at the show that we drink together,
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: and then she, hey, I have ano red guitar that
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: fits to your hair and I was like, very idiots
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: play guitar. Why should I play guitar? And I'm guitar
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: teacher and.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: I was like okay, I like her. She's nice yet
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: and we start to be friends.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Saw each other a lot, and she teached me guitar
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: and then it was cool but not really my thing.
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: And then some months later give me a bass.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: She was like, right, how do you feel? And I
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: was like, oh, yeah, that's more for me.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: And I felt like it's easier. It's not easier to
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: play bass than guitar. But I was like yeah, cool
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: why and she was like yeah, I'm planning to form
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: an all female girl brand. Welcome to the band. You're
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: the first one.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: What.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: So I learned to play bass with the band and
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: with her as she and her husband dumb here. Yep,
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: they are still my teacher because you're never all to
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: learn or do better.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: So yeah, that's how I came to way to the basso.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Happy with that.
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you must have learned really quickly then.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: You have to never stop to play, even in your
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: free time. You have to figure out songs as to
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: figure out and stuff. So you you it's you have
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: to play continued.
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: And who are your biggest influencers when it comes to
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: bass players, both in metal and beyond.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: The bass players of course, Sorry, my mind is a
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: little bit flying step and Steve Harris my maiden. Yeah,
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: that's my biggest influence.
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: And as one of the founding members of Bernie, which
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: is how has the band evolved since the early days.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's coming also with playing a lot together and
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: are also tighter together, and of course the great ideas
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: from Romana because she's the main songwriter. Yeah, and have
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: every week rehearsal and we never stopped play.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, beautiful. And what's the dynamic like between you all?
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Are you all really close offstage as well?
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: Yes, it's like Romana, Lala and me we are living
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: in Switzerland, Lauren Netherlands, and Courtney is from USA, but
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: she's living at the moment in Germany. And besides, when
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: we are not on the road, of course, and it's
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: more Lada Romani, but we are always in contact with
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: the others and when.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: We were all together.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: So also on day offs we go together through the
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: city going to shopping, or when we have shows in Switzerland,
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: we do.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Barbecue at home. So it's a kind of like a
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: family thing together.
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, all lovely.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: And when the band is writing music, what's your role
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: in shaping the songs?
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: Do you contribute riffs and arrangements like first or are
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: the lyrics sort the first?
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: So the first are the riffs from the Romana go
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: with Lala with the drums and figure things out and
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: then it goes too louder for the vocals lyrics and
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: to Courtney and then I check that together with Romana.
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: So do you sort of come in last.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Yes, it's kind of like that.
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: First, first you have to the drums need to be fixed,
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: and then I go with the drums.
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: And do you sorry, this is your first ever tour
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: of Australia. What are you most looking forward to about
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: playing for fans.
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: Then I'm not.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: Oh, I'm curious how the fans are in Australia, because
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: in every country the fans are a little bit different,
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: and I'm.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Looking forward to meet them because we go, we go.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: We have VIP in Australia and so we can meet
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: the fence there or when I go sometimes we go
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: to the crowd off the show and yeah, yeah, I'm looking,
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: but I'm looking all so forward to see something from
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: the country.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I've never been there, the food there or the quilture.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, oh exciting, you love it. I hope
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: you love it. Lots of wildlife like whiles in kangaroos.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Hopefully you get to say something I hope.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: So yeah, and we arrive, we have a day off.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: Let's see that I go out and experience us.
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: Really, yeah, you have to do it.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: And do you guys have any pre show habits or
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: warm ups or rituals you do before you get on stage?
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Not really, we getting ready.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: We chilling the backstage a bit, be choking around, of course,
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: but there is not really a ritual.
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah, if I don't.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Know a hyph of her like this before the show,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: have fun, good luck.
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, cool.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: And what's the most memorable or unexpected thing that's happened
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: to you whilst performing live with Bunning Witches.
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: When I perforce happening on stage or crowds or.
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: Maybe yeah, sort of anything. Yeah, if it was on
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: stage or even on tour.
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's always really crazy when the fans sing our
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: lyrics so loud and they know airy lyrics from the
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: whole songs. They know every melody and they head bang
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: and but it's also traveling.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: It's also to see all the countries. The most memoried for.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: Me is rocking a big thing, yes, walking, but for
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: me it's every show in every country special, you know.
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: The more the most beautiful thing is when the fans
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: love our song and sing with us the songs. Yeah.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: So you can like love the big big shows like
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: at Whacken, but then also like the really intimate smaller shows.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I also or we sorry, we also love the
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: smaller shows. I mean it's great to have huge shows
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: like Rocken, but the cool thing is on the small shows,
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: the fans are really near, they are really in front
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: of stage, and you can feel the emotion.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: That's really cool.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: At the huge festival it's a it's also cool, but
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: the fans are more far away.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, I can imagine that would be intimidating too,
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: having so many people in the crowd watching you.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: When I'm on stage, I'm lacking the other world, you know.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: Then then I feel the emotions. I hear the people,
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: but I don't really see when I see videos with
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: some Paolo. We played some Polo the festival some days ago,
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: and afterwards, when I see the videos, I was like, wow,
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: so many people were there.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, on stage crazy. Sorry, No matter if it's
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: a huge or small crowd.
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: As long I feel the love and they are really
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: into it, that's something really special.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: Oh beautiful, you really feel the energy.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: What's the biggest challenge you personally faced in your journey
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: with Burning Witches?
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: The biggest challenge?
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: Who there are not a lot of challenge because when
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: you travel you have to take it easy. It's not
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: always easy to fly around and the checking and check
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: and all the stuff. So really challenge maybe to find
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: the washing machine, Yes, a little challenge to in some countries. Yes,
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: for me, it's there is for us, it's we love
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: to do that. So the best thing is when we
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: land and our luggage.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Yes, and it goes smoothly yes.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: And is there a moment in your career with the
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: band that really stood out as a moment that was
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: like we've really made it now.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Hmmm, that's a good question.
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: I think when when you when you bring a new
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: album out and you don't expect something and then you
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: land in in different in multiple different countries in the charts,
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: maybe that's a big thing. Or when you see all
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: the comments for from other from different countries they want
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: to see Burning Witch's lives, then it's yeah, that's.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Something not normal. I would say that's yeah, we appreciate.
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: And then do you also get that when say, big,
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: bigger artists start following you guys on social media and
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: things like that.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, then who ah, but I'm not so a star person.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: Sometimes it also happens to me or to Romana that
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: a huge star walk by and we did we were
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: like chill and didn't see and daughter was like, oh
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: this was this person.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: We are like, yeah, that's okay, yeah cool. Of course
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: it's a big thing.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: When you start follow your your band page and they
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: they love your music, then it's like Wow.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: They they it's good.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: The music went up to the to the bigger stars, so.
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah, awesome.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: And you've seen the bands fan based grow steadily. What's
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: the journey been like from your perspective as a founding
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: member with the fans.
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the journey with the fans I think, hum. I
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: think that the fan base got bigger. We got a
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: lot of that. They have now on Instagram and Facebook,
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: a lot of fan groups and they post stuff like that.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Or we have also from Switzerland fans.
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: We know them and they traveled to USA to see
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: a show from us. That's something really special.
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, oh that's crazy.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: And last question, what do you hope Ozzie fans feel
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: when they experience a Burning Witches show live for the
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: first time?
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: What they feel? They feel?
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: Magic five, basic, positive, way crazy chicken who.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Want to show their love for their own music.
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: Uh, heavy for their for Yeah, they can expect the.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Real heavy metal eighties sounds.
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, beautiful. We're so excited. We can't wait to
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: see you guys soon. Jay. Thank you so much for
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: your time today.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time