In early February, Damn The Witch Siren released Red Magic, the follow up EP to their 2015 album Back To Dreaming. On Red Magic, DTWS explores self love, positive views on sexuality and feminist themes in a much more grandiose way than ever before. In this interview with band members Bobbi Kitten and Z Wolf, the self-described “witch rock” duo talk their sultry new songs, their winter east coast tour and what they’re learning as first time headliners.
Taijuan Moorman: How has this tour been crafted to give your audience an even better live experience than what they’re used to from you guys?
Bobbi Kitten: This tour is all of our new songs, so redid our set, we have a new light show, a fog machine, so its expanded. It’s a little bit wilder, like these new songs are just a little bit more wild. There’s certain parts where we’re just doing different things that we haven’t ever done before for an electronic band especially.
These new songs, there’s a lot more energy. So far the three shows that we’ve played… we’re having a little more engagement than before. We’re just busting people out of their shells a little bit. And that’s really what I wanted to do, writing this album too. I wanted to get a little bit more weirder and a little more personal. A little more sexy, and I feel like people are already vibing on that.
Taijuan: Is this your first headlining tour? And how have you been preparing?
Bobbi: Yeah, our other tour, we were randomly opening or stuck in the middle or something. We just decided that we were gonna do, not really a smaller tour but, one where we were headlining and having smaller acts open for us, and just get familiar with the cities that we kind of have already been to. Some of them we haven’t, some of them are kind of new.
Z Wolf: We’re just sort of playing it by ear. We’re just reaching out to the bands, trying to promote how we can, since we haven’t been to a lot of these markets. Also we worked with a booking agency for this tour, and they were really great. They got good bands to work with, and they’ve lined up a view radio station spots so, we’re just promoting how we can, [since] we’re such small potatoes.
Taijuan: Talk to me about the tour opener. How was the crowd? Did you get the response from fans that you expected?
Bobbi: The release show was kind nuts. I’d figured we sell a decent amount of presales, but they sold out of the presales that they were going to do. They stopped selling them the night before the show. I don’t know what happened, it was like the last three days before the show, there was a lot of buzz about it and I had people messaging me frantically about tickets. I had like a 100 people hit me up.
And so anyway, I was setting up merchandise a little bit before nine o’clock and doors opened at nine, and there’s a line going down the block of people just waiting to get in. The doors sold out at 9:03 my friend said. So that was really exciting. It was just a cool night to have the bar filled with people for all the opening acts too.
Taijuan: This tour is supporting your latest EP, Red Magic. Can you talk about the growth you two have experienced since Back To Dreaming?
Z: Well we both felt like we wanted to refine things a lot this time and just try to have a little bit more smooth of an aesthetic. Our last album was a little all over the place, and we wanted to make something this time that…had sort of a similar feel running the whole time. Just sort of like, club-y, sex music. It was very influenced by the shows we’ve been doing. We started to really find our footing live over the last year, so we wanted to try and make a record that felt kind of like what our live show was turning into. So I think that was successful. So yeah, it’s very dancey, dark, bass-heavy music.
Bobbi: We decided to start with the artwork. It really brought a lot of symbolism into the album writing [process] and it just feels, not even just aesthetically together, but just spiritually. A lot of the songs, they have to do with feminism and self love. Just an underlying theme of love and sex and exploring yourself and sharing yourself. Just that thematic kind of tone is throughout the whole record, and it was just exciting to finally make something that felt like a real album.
Taijuan: For any fans catching you later this month, what can they expect from a Damn The Witch Siren show?
Bobbi: A wild time I guess [laughs]. Our shows have been getting more wild, we’ve been getting more bruises every night we play a show.
Z: Yeah we’ve been getting beat up lately.
Taijuan: What are you getting beat up by?
Z: Ourselves [laughs]. [Bobbi] has been strutting her stuff a bit more, getting more comfortable and dropping down on her knees and stuff. She pulls her knee high boots off last night, and she’s like, “Look at my knees!” and they’re like black.
We also have a moment in the show when we’re playing a drum together, so we’re like, trying not to whack each other’s knuckles. We’re playing really hard, and I’m playing with a broken stick [laughs]. So yeah, it’s like guerrilla warfare a little bit.
Bobbi: Yeah [but] it’s a lot more fun than our old shows. I think we’re not as stuck to our electronics. We’ve been moving a lot more. I’ve been going out and dancing with the crowd, at it really just helps to have a connection with people and engage with people.
To catch Damn The Witch Siren at other tour stops, or stream their latest EP, visit their website here. You can also expect their return to Columbus in April. More info on that show is to be announced.