Interviews: Viperwitch

On this new occasion, we had the opportunity to interview the Heavy Metal band Viperwitch from the USA. Check out the interview and follow the band on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1. Where did you get the idea for the band name? Was it planned, or did it just happen organically?

It happened organically! I had a black book of names I had been writing down for quite some time at that point. All I knew was that I wanted to represent our feral and untamed energy matched with power. Being a practitioner, you hear the word witch a lot and it can become a rather derogatory and simplified version of what many of us in our paths practice. Whether that is male, female, or non-binary. I wanted to help empower the world again. I had a lucid nightmare one night about this entity that was constantly hunting me. Unlatching jaw, necromorphic snake-skinned goddess who would find me at every corner. Woke up, opened my boo,k, and wrote the words down Witch and Viper. Switched it around and brought it to the band. They loved it and that was history.

2. Why did you choose to play this genre?

It's a genre I grew up on! I have played so many genres over the years and this specific one is just where I naturally write and gravitate towards. I wanted to finally do something that was organic to myself. I was tired of doing what was trendy, or what others deemed worthy. This felt the most ‘at home’ and ‘at peace’ with myself I had been in decades.

3. Did you know each other before forming the band?

With the older lineup I knew everyone prior. For this line up it was much of the same. Jay and I had worked at Guitar Center together, and were good friends for a long time. He was a Producer, Guitarist and Bassist. We obviously bonded over that but found ourselves bonding over our childhood, relationships, and all sorts of experiences. Eventually he offered to produce us or at least teach me how. Eventually our friendship blossomed and now we're married 6 years later! Will was already in a band called Celestial Wizard. I had known about them, but had not met Will, until he reached out to us about touring with them! We built a strong friendship and he eventually started staying in as our guitarist. The same goes for Jacob and Tim, our drummers. Friends first, knew we needed a drummer and had offered to fill in. We had all come from places of good friendships and that's probably why we have been a band for so long! We all love and respect each other dearly first and foremost.

4. What is each band member's favorite band?

Jasons is Rush!! Mine (Danica) happens to be Running Wild, Judas Priest, Dokken, Savatage, WASP, Doro and Dio! The modern bands for myself are a massive list, but you can check my Instagram to stay up to date as I tend to always share their tours! Will’s states: “I've really been into Raven recently. They are rock and roll as fuck. Led Zeppelin of course has just been a huge force in my whole life. I love Yngwie even though that's an unpopular answer. Ratt is up there as well of course but that feels like a cliche answer. Gygax, visigoth, and haunt are also way up there, I worshiped those bands for years… I love savage, chateaux, and Steeler too. I'd go to war for those bands!” Jacobs has been Bon Jovi and Journey. But he's a drummer, and they always love dad rock!

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?

My family, my friends, my own experiences and all our struggles as humans on this planet. Every experience, from people to situations, inspires me. A lot of fantasy literature I grew up on, and have read throughout my adulthood. Even comics influenced my writing themes. This includes movies of the same genre, including sci-fi and action. A lot of this gravitates towards the political climates humans have been through the last 50+ years, really. Particularly civil rights issues that we still see to this day. It's important we document these struggles with music and art.

6. Where was your last gig?

Our last gig was at a great venue here in Denver called HQ! It’s always a great time getting to play there. They really take care of us there, and have cultivated an excellent local spot. We got to release our album and it was a great experience!

7. Where would you like to perform in the future?

We would love to get ourselves out to Canada and Europe! Those two places have been on our list for a while now, and we are looking forward to getting out there! 

8. Which artist or band would you like to collaborate with?

We think it would be really cool to collaborate with a lot of people in our genre, but particularly Solicitor, Savage Master, and Lady Beast. But there’s definitely a massive list that we’re barely scratching the surface of!

9. Is there anyone you wouldn’t want to collaborate with?

Really anything that’s not true to our ideals and the vision we’re working with. Simply because we feel like we’d be wasting someone's time if we were misaligned on those two things.

10. Have any of you ever experienced stage fright? Do you have any tips for beginners on overcoming it?

This is a great question as this is something I have a lot of real estate in! I love to teach and give advice so this is a fat one. But I'll give a vague answer that can fit most situations. If anyone has other questions please reach out to me anytime and I am happy to help! I am always here to help my community grow and learn. I hate gatekeepers in this industry. Unless it's gatekeeping metal for general purity sake it's worthless.

Absolutely do I struggle with it! Not only do I have imposter syndrome, something fierce but I have very bad anxiety, PTSD and social anxiety. I beat myself up and nothing is ever good enough that I do, everyone else is perfect but standards for myself are unreachable sometimes. But I've worked on it a lot over the years so that my band can grow and so I can stop suffering at my own hands.

I used to ride the reins of having a couple whiskey and cokes to smooth out my anxiety but that never really helped as much as I thought. Sure it filled my senses and kept the panic attacks from happening but I couldn't play to my best abilities and I was doing myself a disservice by not vocally being the best I could be, as well as thoroughly enjoying the experiences of playing live and meeting all the amazing people. I had to learn to stop that all together and embrace the anxiety and work with it. I had to see a therapist and work through my traumas.

I would say if you have anxiety or even stage fright: first and foremost see a professional doctor. Let them help you. I got put on propranolol for some time that was literally made for anxiety attacks and stage fright. It doesn't affect you in the way benzos do or SSRIs. It's safe and you can take it as needed. It did wonders as I coupled that with therapy to heal my traumas and work with what I was born with to my advantage. Please, don't rely on self medication to get you through it, it will not help you grow as a musician and you'll end up around some shitty people. Like crabs in a bucket, you'll be dragged down constantly with nowhere to grow. Learn techniques to help you wield your anxieties rather than let it conquer you. There are also tons of phenomenal free resources on YouTube to help with stage fright for those that may not have the ability to see a doctor!

The other end of this is that the MORE you do it, the easier it gets. Everything can be terrifying the first couple times and that's OKAY. Shit sometimes it takes years of shows. But as you keep doing it, you become more comfortable. It will get easier I promise, but you have to keep stepping outside of your comfort zone and push yourself while giving yourself anchors.

One technique is Anchors, they are a huge part of handling anxiety in the moment. A lot of people use them during mushroom or other psychedelic trips. My anchors are literally the guys in the band. Look at your band mates around you on stage. Mine keep me grounded in moments of high anxiety. If I feel anxiety coming on, I literally look at Jay or Will and go ‘we do this for fun, we're having fun, we're in this together, I am not alone, it's just like practice’ I take a deep breath and place myself in the band room as if we're there again and not in front of a bunch of people. Taking away the seriousness and stress of the beast gives me power and in turn brings me joy in the moment that used to be filled with terror. It brings me out of my head and into reality that we’re having fun and we're doing what we love right now. Enjoy it, they sure are, look at them!’. If I start getting really overwhelmed, I will go and physically lean on one of the guys and they at that moment know I'm having anxiety and in turn know I need them right there. They will lean into me back (physical touch helps snap you out quicker) and say some stupid joke. You'll often see live video of us laughing on stage or talking, leaning, smiling and that's exactly what's happening anxiety being wielded and the power taken away from the fright. Laughter, physical touch and deep breathing are known to stop anxiety in its tracks and we just combine them for those big moments. Plus it helps you realize how great these moments are and embrace them rather than letting the anxiety steal that from you. You may not play every again, you may never get to play this stage again or see this crowd. These moments are precious, don't let the darkness of your mind consume you. It's literally a battle on stage for me everytime, but damn has it gotten easier with that technique I taught myself.

Another helpful tip is to simplify your live gear. The less cables you have to fuck with, The less gear you have to fuck with and move around the better. We keep everything DI for many reasons but this is one of them. It lessens the load so we can do other complicated things! You can still complicate things as you go and move to rack systems or bigger cabs and vocal effects processors, even bigger drum kits and running backing tracks if you wish. We're just now adding stage theatrics and bigger costumes that we've had on the back burner for years. But we just weren't ready until now. Growth is not linear, every band and musician is different But until you feel comfortable getting on and off stage don't do that to yourself when you first start out!

It's really like anything you do when you first start out, start out on a fresh slate and keep it as simple as you can get with as much as you feel you can handle. Do not push yourself too far. Once you get more comfortable on stage with different stage sizes, crowd sizes, the chaos that always happens with live sets gets easier to navigate. When you feel you have hit that THEN start bringing in the details. Playing live is always going to be chaos, embrace it and wield it and the anxiety will melt. Mostly if anything be kind to yourself and be kind and cool with others. It gets easier to wield that chaos with a positive mindset and attitude, I promise, it becomes quite fun and exhilarating. And one last step no one is judging you as hard as you are! Take a deep breath, this is supposed to be fun! It's JUST music, it's gonna be okay!

11. Which bands have influenced you the most?

I’d say it’s been a healthy blend of all of our favorite artists, truthfully! We like to wear our influences on our sleeves, and our favorite artists definitely influence us the most. When you listen to artists a lot, it tends to leave an impression on your playing whether you think of it our not.

12. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for?

I had a group of men in Albuquerque ask me to sign their man boobs. I happily obliged!

13. What do you think of your fans?

We have nothing but love for them! As much as we put into this project, it would be nothing without those who have come to a show, bought merch, taken a photo, tagged us in their posts, added us to their playlists, etc. That support is where the REAL magic comes from!

14. What do you think of our site?

We think it looks really cool! The pointer is a great touch, it put a smile on all of our faces.

15. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I believe we’ve covered everything here, we’re happy with what we’ve put out there for this!