Rockezine.com interview with Witchery on Mar 01, 2006

with Sharlee D Angelo on Mar 01, 2006

Witchery just released their newest effort on Century Media. So time for your Rock-e-Zine reporter to have a phone call with Sharlee D’Angelo, who’s also famous for his work in Arch Enemy.
		How are you, what are you doing nowadays? I’m sitting at home on my couch in Sweden. These days I’m just doing promo stuff and shooting a video.
		Did you shoot a video for Witchery? No, with Arch Enemy we are making a DVD and we are shooting a video for that.
		Why did it take so long for the new album? “Symphony For The Devil” (their latest album before the newest “Don’t Fear The Reaper”) was such a fantastic album and it’s difficult to make the next album even better. But seriously everybody inside Witchery is very busy and doing stuff with their other bands, so it’s difficult to come together and make an album. The thing is that we had no label so we were looking around and around and then we thought: “fuck it” just record our stuff and then shop around with our demo. So we shopped around for a year and finally we found Century Media.
		Why did you sign with Century Media, weren’t there any other labels? Yes there were other labels but Century Media came with the best offer, not only for the money. Century Media had the best idea how to put our record on the market. Of course it is also easy that I know the people at Century Media and know how they work.
		You’ve recorded some old Satanic Slaughter tracks, why did you do that? I’m a huge fan of the old Satanic Slaughter songs. First we just recorded one song and it should appear as a bonus track on the album. It sounded so good that we decided to put it as a normal song on the album. Another reason is that not everybody knows the Satanic Slaughter songs and the old recordings sounding very shitty and you don’t want to hear them. They were released by some indi labels and know there’s the chance to hear these great songs with a great production.
		Can we aspect more Satanic Slaughter tracks in the future? I would say: YES. But that’s not only up to me.
		Witchery is among us since 1997, your album is released on a major label. Why isn’t Witchery a very famous band? Hmm, aren’t we? I thought this is one of the biggest bands in the world. If it was up to me we were the biggest band in the world. I can’t really answer your question. I think we are always hyped in the media. We don’t have time to tour a lot because of everybody’s busy schedule. If that wasn’t the case we would tour like hell.
		Almost everybody from Witchery plays in a successful band (Opeth, Arch Enemy, The Haunted) Do you ever have the idea that Witchery is some kind of all-star band? I really don’t want to call it an all-star band. Labels tend to do that. We’re just a band and accidentally we’re playing in this band. We don’t want to have a sticker with that kind of promotion.
		Does Witchery bring the best of Opeth, Arch Enemy en the Haunted together? No I don’t think so, maybe in this band there’s a lot possible which is not in the other bands.
		Is there time for touring? We are looking for a tour at the moment as we speak. I haven’t got any dates yet.
		What is the weirdest thing you ever saw or did when you were on tour? Tough question, I’ve played a lot of gigs. (he thinks and thinks). Once there was a guy who came to me and talked about his wife. He told me that his wife really liked me. Two days after our conversation the guy was in front of the stage pointing at his wife. The guy was pimping his wife to me, really scary.
		It’s possible that I missed something, what happened with your old label Necropolis Records? I don’t know. I think it doesn’t exist anymore.
		And now that I’m speaking to you, how is it going with Arch Enemy? As I told you before we are busy with the DVD. I’m not sure yet but it’s possible that the double DVD will be released at the end of March or April. We are finishing the video for the DVD and some fan stuff.
		What are the future plans for Witchery? We have got a lot of stuff ready for a new album, so maybe a new album and of course a tour soon.
		What’s your favourite classic album? Is it also one of the main influences? There are a lot of great albums brought out throughout the years. But when I’ve to mention one, it will be a Black Sabbath album. The most influence I got from Ronnie James. That man is a wonderful bass player.
		Do you have some famous last words for me and the rest of the world? These aren’t my last words. I hope to speak more to press in the future about more albums.
		Thanks for the interview. It was my pleasure.
(Jeroen Habets)