BURNING WITCHES are back with their latest album The Dark Tower which is all about the blood countess Lady Bathory. Rock Out Stand Out’s Lotty Whittingham grabbed a chat with vocalist Laura Guldemond about the record, mental health and her vocal style. Here’s what happened.
The Dark Tower is your first album with Napalm Records, so has working with Napalm been for you so far?
It’s good. To be honest, I am not in too much contact with the label itself. It’s funny because someone told me the label wants more angry pictures and I thought yeah I can do that. That’s the amount of contact I have had with the label. It’s good because they have more physical space to store stuff to sell. We were with Nuclear Blast and the contract ended; they have just been taken over by a French company and they wanted to do more digital things which would be terrible for us as we’re on old school band and we still wanted to have vinyls, cassette tapes and special packages.
Are there many major differences between The Dark Tower and your previous releases?
I think the biggest difference is that it has a darker theme and you can hear that in the music. I think we have some older songs that also have this vibe and we brought that back for this album so it’s a bit heavier and I think you can hear it in some of the riffs and angriness of the voice.
Speaking of angriness in the voice, when writing songs and putting them together; do you already have in mind what vocal style you’re going to have in each song or is it a case of singing it out and seeing what works?
I do have it in mind when I write because it kind of goes all at the time. At least for me and not the music because Romana [Kalkuhl] writes the music and I write the vocal lines and lyrics. You hear the song and we decided we wanted to write something about the blood countess Lady Bathory who killed a lot of maiden servants. She tortured them to death and there are lots of stories about her, the most famous story is that she bathed in blood to stay young. We wanted to have this as a team and this would fit the music direction we wanted to go.
When you know what you want to sing about, that’s really important. You’ll know to sound and what sort of melody would fit. So I wait for the music to come, I have a list of things I want to write about and I pick one that fits best. Or maybe I come up with a new thing if nothing fits. There is usually a lot to pick from in the beginning of the writing process as I brainstorm a lot and then I pick something that fits. Usually, the song writes itself. As long as you know what direction you want to go in.
I made a note of some of the track names. Evil Witch was the first one, I sense some King Diamond influences in that one.
Yes a little bit right? It also has some influences from old school bands like Judas Priest. To be honest, the lyrics are based on the witch in the story because Countess Bathory had a torture squad basically that would help her. They would help get these maiden servants. Some people believed there was a witch helping her too.
That’s the best kind of album, where you learn something new at the same time. I also made a note of the song Tomorrow, it’s more uplifting and inspiring. Was this fitting in with Lady Bathory or drawing upon personal experiences?
It fits with this train of thought because I also got into a contemplative mood like, how could somebody end up like that? I think like in Unleash The Beast, it’s wondering where things went wrong in people’s mental health. For Unleash The Beast, it’s feeling like you want to break out of something because it’s frustrating and you’re doing something you don’t actually want to be doing.
For Tomorrow, it’s about a friend who felt he didn’t fit it all that much. He had a lot of struggles and I worry about him sometimes because he makes pretty radical life choices like not wanting to live in a house anymore. One time, he got beaten up and he woke up thinking he got beat up by the devil. I was scared so this is the song that is a bit hopeful but not a happy song.
I think it’s one a lot of us can relate to because we all have those periods. What was the most challenging part of recording Dark Tower?
I think I’m not sure if I am speaking for the whole band to be honest but for me it was handling the pressure of time or working with the pressure of time as you only have a certain amount of time in the studio. You can start writing whenever you want but if you’re in the studio, there is a limit. At the start, things were fine but then stuff comes up and everything goes a bit slower. For me, it’s always the pressure of time. You need it to finish it as without the time pressure, I wouldn’t be as productive. It’s a love/hate relationship I have with it.
Vocally, who are you influenced by?
There are many vocalists I draw influences from. I think the obvious ones are Rob Halford, Bruce Dickinson and Dio. I also heard someone say they recognised Kai Hensen from Helloween. There are a lot of other sings, of course King Diamond.
One of the things we like to do at Rock Out Stand Out is spread awareness around mental health, what’s awareness like in the Netherlands?
I think it’s pretty good as there are helplines in case you don’t know what to do. It’s not a taboo anymore to seek help but I think there is still a taboo when openly talking about it. I wouldn’t shout it from the rooftops at a job so I’m not sure if it will be normal anywhere to be honest. The important thing to note is it depends on the person you are talking to, some are not that open and others are. Most people I know are OK with talking about this stuff but I also heard different story. In the Netherlands, it depends who you have around you.
Is there anything you think we can do more of so people feel comfortable speaking about it?
I think not to being afraid to talk about it. If you’re a person that has problems and you know that people are afraid of talking about it, that’s part of it. I noticed sometimes that I am one of the more awkward people in the room and I kind of got used to awkward situations. I notice that if you bring people into awkward situations that aren’t used to it, then they are super uncomfortable. I feel that is important not to be afraid.
Is there anything you like to do to unwind?
I love hot showers, if I need something to relax then definitely a hot shower. I love my cats. I also like Netflix to chill out. For those busy people out there, make sure you make time to see people that you can talk with and have fun with.
Which historical figure would you most like to meet and why?
That’s a funny question. To be honest, it wouldn’t be a well known figure but maybe it would be cool to talk to a person whose skeleton they found. Sometimes they find these skeletons in a mountain top. I would be really interested in talking to one of these people as literally no-one actually knows what they went through.
Do you have a message for Burning Witches fans and our readers?
Thank you so much for supporting Burning Witches, you’re awesome. If you don’t yet, check us out and you won’t regret it.
Thank you Laura for speaking with Rock Out Stand Out today and best of luck with the album.
