About The Wytches

The Wytches are an English rock band formed in 2011 in Peterborough. Following their formation, the band were based in Brighton. The band currently consists of singer-songwriter Kristian Bell, bassist Daniel Rumsey, keyboardist/guitarist Mark Breed and drummer Demelza Mather. Former drummer Gianni Honey left the band in 2019.

Kristian Bell and Gianni Honey had previously played together in the Crooked Canes in their hometown of Peterborough. Honey was taught by former Morrissey drummer Spike T. Smith and played in local bands.

Following the split of the Crooked Canes, the duo moved to Brighton to attend university and advertised around campus for a bassist. Daniel Rumsey was the only person to respond and joined the band. Rumsey was a singer-songwriter originally from Dorset who had fronted the "horror punk" band Fall Victim before moving to Brighton where he fronted Dan Rumsey & the Bitter End and the Voyage Andromeda. Initially called the Witches, the band changed the spelling to Wytches to make their band name more easily found on Google. The band also originally featured second guitarist Mark Breed, with whom Bell later started a side project with called the Mark and Kristian Band.

The band released their debut single "Beehive Queen" in June 2013 via Hate Hate Hate Records and follow up single "Robe for Juda" in November 2013. In September 2013 the band released a low key limited edition cassette Thunder Lizard Revisited. The band released their debut US single "Crying Clown" via Fat Possum Records in November 2013.

On 4 February 2014, the band announced they had signed with Heavenly Recordings and released "Gravedweller" as a free digital single. The band also signed to Partisan Records in the US.

The band released their debut album Annabel Dream Reader in August 2014. The album was recorded over two days at Toe Rag Studios in Hackney, London and co-produced by Bell and former Coral guitarist Bill Ryder-Jones. The album was recorded and mixed by Luke Oldfield on an 8-track Studer A80. It reached number 50 in the UK Albums Chart.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "The Wytches", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.