Witch Post on their Butterfly EP, the “fate” in their band identity and the collaborative process
Story by Anagricel Duran
Witch Post recently caught up with MARVIN to chat about the creation of their second EP, Butterfly, the “fate” in their band identity and their evolving artistic identity through collaboration and songwriting.
The Scottish-American Duo, comprised of Dylan Fraser and Alaska Reid, recently made their way over to the States to play their debut US shows in LA and NYC. The gigs were in celebration of their new EP Butterfly, a spellbinding 7-track project that features songs such as the metallic and fuzzy ‘Worry Angel’, the upbeat ‘Tilt-a-whirl’ and the bright ‘Changeling’.
Now, fresh off those performances, the pair reflect on how Butterfly came together and what it represents for them at this point in their journey. Read on for our conversation with the duo as they step into this next chapter.
AGD: Your origin story is filled with uncanny parallels. Do you see those coincidences as shaping the mythology of Witch Post, and how consciously do you carry that sense of “fate” or folklore into the storytelling on Butterfly?
Alaska: “That’s what’s been so fun with the band. We’ve felt like the coincidences have given us license to lean into more of the ‘in the ether’ / weird, in-between magical elements. Even just the ease with which we came up with the band name felt strange and harmonious.”
Dylan: “Definitely. I never thought I’d be in a band, and here I am. It really felt like something was pushing us to give the band thing a go.”
You both had well-established solo careers before creating Witch Post, yet you’ve shared that the band almost immediately connected with listeners differently. How has working on Butterfly reshaped your sense of artistic identity?
A: “It’s been a relief in a way because it allows me to get a lot of rock n’ roll out of my system. I’m joking, but yeah, when I originally came to California, I was doing more experimental Americana music. I was listening to a mixture of music like Dinosaur Jr, The Drive by Truckers, Captain Beefheart, The Breeders, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Miranda Lambert, Ella Fitzgerald, etc…
“Now I can write for a rock band and then go back to some of my folkier, Americana roots. I compartmentalize my songwriting more; for example, one song might be an Alaska Reid song and the other will be a fragment that we workshop as Witch Post.”
D: “Making this music with Alaska has put a lot of things into perspective for me. It’s made me think a lot deeper about music and different projects and finding space for all those things mentally.”
Do you feel like you’re amplifying parts of yourselves, or discovering entirely new voices with Witch Post that didn’t exist in your solo work?
A: “A little of both. As I mentioned, I’m almost learning about myself through doing the band music. I’m learning how to write for two different projects. We really talk about this as a band. It’s definitely made us do some interesting things vocally. Especially with new music we’re recording now, we’re really trying to weave our voices together to make something special.”
D: “Yeah, it feels like both things. It’s allowing us to view things from different perspectives.”
There’s a moment in ‘Worry Angel’ where your voices begin to blur into each other and become a single narrator. When building Butterfly, how intentional was that interplay? Are you thinking of your voices as characters in dialogue, or as emotional textures that merge and fracture depending on the story?
A: “We wanted that song to be like your consciousness and anxiety tormenting you as if it’s a pixie or a sprite of some sort. We personified anxiety because often it feels as uncontrollable as someone or something that exists outside the body, even though it isn’t. By the end, it’s our voices twisting around each other, one like an angel, one like a demon.”
D: We think a lot about our voices, even if it’s subconscious. We’re always looking for that texture that feels complementary to the music and lyrics.
What draws you guys to that tension between myth and modernity within your music, and how do your respective backgrounds influence the specific kinds of stories that end up within your songs?
A: “I listened to a lot of songwriters when I was growing up, as well as country music. Some of the best songs in this genre are like short stories — what springs to mind immediately is ‘The Road Goes on Forever’ by Robert Earl Keen. This song in particular inspired ‘Country Sour’ off of our Butterfly EP.”
“When it came to Witch Post, I knew we had to morph stories and songs into something that felt like it could also come from Dylan’s culture.”
You’ve described your working dynamic as almost sibling-like. Can you walk through a specific moment on the EP where conflict led to a breakthrough?
A: “‘Twin Fawn’ was started on piano, I had this little loop I would stumble through on the keys. I could tell Dylan was freaked by it because it felt so sugary, almost too nice. We ended up making something weirder with the same part as a through line. We really fight overthinking, especially for each other.
D: “‘Worry Angel’ we got fighty with each other, haha. I had chords for the chorus, and Alaska wanted to change them. I was freaked out, but something led me to trust her and she was in fact, right about changing the chords; it made it so much better. It’s kind of fun for ‘Worry Angel’ because you can hear it in the song. I think we’ve gotten good at deciding when to put up a fight and when to trust the other person.”
How do you know when a song has reached that point where both of you feel fully represented?
D: “We don’t finish things that don’t feel right so a song wouldn’t even make it to the recording process if we don’t feel represented. We sit and map out songs before we record and go over lyrics and get them to a place where we both feel happy. So I guess to answer your question, we both feel represented after the initial writing of the song. The studio stuff and figuring out sounds is fun because at that point we’ve decided on the song.
You’ve previously shared that ‘Butterfly’ came together during a “scrappy and chaotic” period. How did that pressure and the shift toward more resources change the way you approached risk, experimentation, and scale on this EP compared to ‘Beast’?
D: “It’s funny because we worked on Beast and Butterfly at the same time. They weaved in and out of one another. It was chaotic and fun. Montana, London, LA. Janky home studio setups and beeswax candles. It was scrappy, and we tried not to overthink things, and that’s what I love about it.”
Witch Post are set to embark on a run of gigs across the UK and EU. Visit here for a list of tour dates and to purchase tickets. Visit here to stream ‘Butterfly’.
