Singled Out: Witchskull's This Silent Place

Keavin Wiggins | 04-23-2020

Witchskull are releasing their new album "A Driftwood Cross " tomorrow (April 24th) and to celebrate we asked Joel to tell us about the "This Silent Place" single and video. Here is the story:

This was the last song written for our new album 'A Driftwood Cross'. Marcus came up with a simple progression and melody for a verse and chorus and asked Tony and I what we thought. Initially we felt it was a little stylistically unusual for us, but we figured it was worth working up to try and have it finished in time for tracking. I think we only finished the arrangement a week or so out, so we didn't really play the song all that much by the time we started recording.

We tracked this song a few days in, and unusually it's the only version we recorded. We track live without click tracks and I remember counting it in quite a bit faster that we had previously played it. I normally played 16th notes on the floor tom in the verses, so I assumed that once I got to the first verse the take would break down, but instead I just played alternative sticking which I hadn't done on this song before. Again, I didn't think the take would be a keeper so just continued until the end without paying all that much attention. I remember discussing afterwards if the take was ok and nobody seemed to have an issue, so we just moved on.

We tracked 12 songs for the record but only planned to use 8 because we prefer shorter albums. I think all of us were unsure if 'This Silent Place' would make the record, but once we got to the end of the recording process it seemed to have taken on a life of its own. Marcus delivered the vocals from a more vulnerable place than usual, which I assume is because of the lyrical content and looseness of the groove? Either way, we have never shied away from doing something different as long as the 3 of us dug it, so it made the cut.

We have since shot a video for the song which is due out a week before the album's release on April 24. We definitely never thought it would be the first song released so it will be interesting to see what people think? I really like its rawness; it feels real and uninhibited to me so I'm glad we captured it. It is different to anything else we have done

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about the album here