One of the most interesting acts to come out of the United Kingdom is Wytch Hazel. And since they performed at Wacken Open Air, we had the chance to chat with them.

Benedetta

Hello guys, how are you doing guys today?

Wytch Hazel

Very good, very warm.

Benedetta

And you’re playing Wacken in the legendary 35th anniversary edition. How do you feel?

Wytch Hazel

It feels exciting. I’m 35 years myself, so it feels quite special. I was born when Wacken was founded, so it’s very exciting. It’s meant to be. I’m actually quite honoured as well. I think we mentioned in this festival, early in the band, one day we’ll hope to play Wacken and then years later, finally we’re here. It’s crazy, isn’t it? It’s a privilege. It’s a great show as well. The crowd are lovely. Really cool.

Benedetta

So, you have obviously a lot of experience in playing live shows, but you also are experienced in the studio working on music. Do you think that the life of an artist is a lonely life?

Wytch Hazel

Depends how you live it, I’d say. We don’t tour quite a lot. We still have full-time jobs, so we just live like normal people. We have partners we come home to, and pets, and family. To us, for me personally, it doesn’t feel lonely. When we are touring, we all get on so well. It doesn’t feel like isolation. Sometimes it’s nice to be on your own. I’m quite an introvert, so sometimes it can be too many people. It’s nice to take yourself away and put your needs out here. I think we’re all pretty grounded by now. We can be around people and talk. Other times, we’ll take ourselves away and just be at peace, I guess. We all live in the north of England, don’t we? Where there’s lots of nice walks, if anyone wants to visit.

Benedetta

Do you think that we will ever reach some equality between men and women in the metal world?

Wytch Hazel

We’d like to think so. We’re all advocates for equality, really. I think we’re seeing signs of positive change. I’ve seen a lot of more female-fronted bands. People are wanting that, the catalyst for it is that the fans want that. It’s cool. We want variety. I think there’s a lot of positive steps forward. Loads of legacy bands are recruiting women now to replace members that are leaving as well, which is obviously positive. You just need more women to do it: more women see it, more women feel like they can join in. We’re getting there, I think. I’ve noticed quite a lot of positive attitude. I feel like that’s moved on. I always like to think that when I see someone playing a stage, that’s an excellent musician. I don’t say that’s an excellent female musician. That’s the sort of attitude we should all be taking. Everyone should be welcome. I’m looking forward to seeing a few bands that are actually playing. I saw Castle Rat, we played with them in France, didn’t we? They’re pretty cool. We actually stole some of their stage gear. We were all dressed in white white, and they had a white dress, a wedding dress. They were rushing around just before their set and we took the wedding dress. We didn’t steal it on purpose, because we were dressed in white, we thought it was ours. Most bands don’t have white clothes. We just picked up all the assorted white cloth and shoved it in a suitcase. They were cool about it, to be fair. But we gave it back as soo nas we realized our mistake.

Benedetta

Guys, thank you so much for taking the time to do this. Is there anything else that you want to add to our viewers and readers of fan metal?

Wytch Hazel

Just keep supporting music, underground music scenes. Probably not just in heavy metal genre, I think. We’re really grateful for that, so please continue.