Withdraw. Interview with Witege

Interview by Jay Parker

This is Jay reporting from Bogota, Colombia... Today I’m lucky enough to be talking with Toni from the Austrian band, Withdraw. If you haven’t heard them, check them out NOW... some of the best melodies and songwriting I’ve heard for many a year... beautiful music, beautifully dark and original.

1) Tell us who is in the band? When and where was the band formed?

Withdraw is a solo artist from Vienna, Austria. The head of Withdraw is Witege, which is a kind of stage name. Withdraw was created in January 2021, because I was looking for a new creative realization. At the same time, due to the Corona pandemic, the mood was there and I somehow found my way back to the music of my youth. Decisive was a video of the guitarist of the band Mayhem - Teloch - on his Youtube channel. The name of the video was “Norwegian Black Metal Beginners Guide”, hahahaha. The message he sent in this video – beside a lot of ironic and funny stuff – was “Do whatever you want, dont care what others say, freedom, satan!” hahaha, so I thought: ok, let’s do it.

And I started recording with my old Mac book and the onboard overdrive from Logic 7 sequencer and the debut album “Perv Plague Penetration” was finished in March 2021.

2) Run us through your releases and tell our readers where they can buy them...

In 2021 I released 4 albums, in 2022 I released 5 albums so far, so the output fits. The first album “Perv Plague Penetration” was recorded between January 2021 and March 2021. It was the first metal album I ever made and I had no experience with it. The result was cool, the guitars just thin and recorded with the onboard distortion, hahaha, really nice lo fi sound. Thematically the album is about different aspects of human existence, ups and downs, good and evil, more evil. Most are taken from my life or from my experiences and then also deals with people who are close to me or have been close to me, who I know, etc... There are also themes concerning the Corona Pandemic, which is why the album is called “Perv Plague Penetration”. The following album “Putiservant” is similar in theme to the debut album, it is about human traits, urges, desires, trauma, dependencies, mostly on people or circumstances and how to deal with them. Technically, the arsenal was expanded with a black metal foot pedal, as well as a real guitar amplifier during the album recording. You can also hear this in the guitar sound. Now we come to a point that I particularly like, it’s about the third album in 2021: “Vorfall13102021”. This is the first “one-day album” that I have made. The idea was to “create” an album in one day. That means there were no lyrics, no chords, no melodies, nothing. I started to record drums on 13.10.2021, just like that, without a plan, without ideas, just improvised, I left most of the drum tracks for the first take. Immediately after that I started to play the guitars, this also off the cuff, so improvised, right after that the bass and then sometime later the vocals. Everything was created in the moment, without script, without guidelines, just like that. On the same day, after a short mixing, I uploaded the album later in the evening on bandcamp as my first “one-day album”. In November 2021 I released the next album within 2 weeks: “Abgründig”. On this album you can clearly hear the dirty and quaint sounds of “Vorfall13102021”, somehow I haven’t quite gotten away from that yet and overall the album has little to do with black metal as such, it was the first step in a direction that should denote my own style. In the meantime I was contacted by Running Wild Production, an Austrian non-profit label and they released a song of mine, “Falsche Zeit” from the album “Putiservant” on their “Amen Vol.1” metal sampler, together with many other excellent Austrian underground black metal bands. Since then there is a good cooperation between Running Wild Productions and me and on their current “Amen Vol. 2” sampler is the own label anthem which I composed especially for the label. Running Wid Production provide me with promotion and excellent support, their work for the Austrian underground scene is remarkable and deserves great recognition. https://runningwildproductions.bandcamp.com/ We are now in the year 2022 and in March 2022 I released my album “anima smorzando”. This album was by far the most mature and well thought out album I had produced up to that point. The songs are very different, from classic blast beat drumming to slow pressing rhythms, everything is there. The sound is much more mature than on the other albums. Thematically, the album is about the self reflexion of a person, who is in a steady “fight” with himself, in a constant search for their true and righteous way of life, always in the full perspective of what is possible or what is real.

It’s about finding and accepting yourself an say “Yes” to your faults and inner demons who are there, everytime and everywhere. “anima smorzando” was produces in a small numbered digifile edition by Running Wild Productions which is available on witege. bandcamp.com and runningwildproductions.bandcamp.com. anima smorzando was released physically in two versions, one digifile version with the official cover and another “promo” version with the cover which was originalls intended by me, well, we took the other one, hahahahaha... After “anima smorzando” still in march 2022 I had the absolute willing to push something out. So i decided to start the second attempt for a “one day album” and I recorded “Stimmung300322” at the – YES, YOU ARE RIGHT – at the 30th of march in 2022, hahahaha. Same idea like the last year, creating everything in one day, released at the same day, the one day album “Stimmung300322”. Time goes by and I remebered the meet and greet with Burkard from “Winter’Breath” - https://wintersbreath.bandcamp.com/, after both of us had a song on the “Amen Vol 1” Sampler from Running Wild Productions. Winter’s Breath is an black metal artist, also settled in vienna. We met each other for fun and talked about music and our future plans. We came togehter and fixed to realize a split album which happened in April 2022, where our Split Album “Zwei Stimmen” was releaed. All togehter there are two full lenght songs and additional 2 Songs intro and outro. The plot concerns “voices” which is the english word for “Stimmen” which have influences on our lifes in so different forms. The last released Album by Withdraw was “Histriogram”, which is about the the phenomenom of the „histrionic personality disorder“, whose symptoms are a high amount of emotionality, very ego oriented. People who are affected are very interested to be in the focus of others, artistlike behaviour, funny, loud, charming, flirt with people to be admired by others. Their language is very ambitious and dramatic but on the other side they are very superficial persons, even if they think or act like they are very deeply involved in things, their target is the immediate satisfation of their own needs. In conversation i.e., their mood can change in seconds from good to bad. If they are listening somehow to what another person is saying, they are thinking in the next moment about what they will do next week with their bike, for example. Histriogram describes the up an downs, the ambivalent behaviour and moods of a person who is affected by this disorder.

So the intro is followed by the fast entrance song „Der Auftritt“ which describes the „appear“ of the histrionics. „Lebenstraum“ is a deep dreamly song about dreams and needs you are afraid or too blind to see them. The fast „mood changes“ – which are part of histrionics – are announced in „Intermezzo uno“. This mood change is manifested in the following more fast song „Musenkuss“, which is – untypically for the „black metal mood“ – arranged in „major“. So the sound is very „positive“ but the vocals are still hard screaming which creates some sort of contradiction. This template of emotions materialized in the music in form of very variatising sounds is the red line through the album, which culminates in the song „Was du bist“, which describes the moment a person is „detecting“ your „histrionic disorder“ and is „convicting“ and „seeing“ your true nature and essence. So Histriogram is – again – a journey, through deep abysses and dark corners of human nature or just a way through a declaration of true existence and honesty. All my music is available on witege.bandcamp.com and some specials on runningwildproductions.bandcamp.com.

3) What is the inspiration behind your sound? I’ve been listening to your albums over the last 3 weeks,Histriogram is my favourite, but they’re all great. You create a very unique atmosphere.

The inspiration behind the sound is I would say the true norwegian sound with big reverbs and a high treble peak amount, but this is or was just the inspiration. Now I am far away from true black metal sounds, but this was just happening. I think the best thing ist to just play, make music and see were it will take you. The mind is free and art doesn’t know rules. Each person – so me – has a flew, an inner river which is flowing all the time, the delta or the end of this river is different from person to person. Your individual inner light or darkness – or the mixture of these – brings you to your individual river delta, which will maybe never be reached. But the way to get there, is your individual creative journey where nobody has the right to take it away from you. If you do something and something comes out, it’s you – as real as it is. Don’t let anybody take this from you. So for me the inspiration were the words of Teloch from Mayhem (Freedom – Satan) and some bands I was listening to, but now I made big steps, a lot of kilometers in the search of myself and my music, my individual creative output. So the atmosphere somebody is creating is as real as she or he is bringing himself honestly in. Stay for yourself, with all the darkness and lights...

4) Tell us about the songwriting... how do does that come together? What inspires your lyrics?

Well, thats funny, I think this is something which is not heard often, hahaha. My music is very often just “happening”. Most of the time I just start playing drums. I was a drummer first way in my hobby musicians life, so i played in a few Rock bands in my youth. I play drums with some mood with a melody in the backyard, but not always, sometimes i just want to „make“ some music, sometimes without a conrete goal, and I record this. Then I start adding guitars, sometimes I got some „guitar feeling“ when i record drums, I try to add this afterwords, but its not always like I thought about it before, hahaha… Ok for real I never „write“ songs. I write lyrics, sometimes. But I am also just start singing and improvising lyrics. When I start singing/screaming to a song, it’s the feeling which generates the words. I am good with rhyming spontanically, so this is finally how my lyrics are working. The music is „happening“, and then I’m adding or removing things, it’s some sort of growing by doing.

A part I really like in this „creative process“ are my „one day projects“, I talked of them before, I really like the idea of this creative process, as it responses so many moods, feelings and spectrums of this one day it was recorded…..It is like an „musical diary“, a relict of one day. The lyrics in my music sometimes are very personally, I think sometimes they are funny and on the other day they are just anything comes to my mind. In „Abgründig“ it’s a mixture of these elements, but hey...if you want to know something about the lyrics, listen to them, hahaha…

5) Why did you decide to play black metal? What was your goal when you first started?

Well, Metal – and also Black Metal – was the music I was listening to my whole life, mostly in youth. When I started to make music as a hobby, it was more pop music, maybe with brit pop or austro pop elements, but it was kinda soft an relaxed pop stuff, with some dark/depressive lyrics, but yeah, different. The decision to start with making black metal was because of the mood of corona pandemic, the mentioned before video of Teloch from Mayhem and maybe just because I wanted to try how it would sound, how I would be able to do that. So it was a “jump in the cold water” and I just tried. The goal was...I don’t know, to be creative, to sound in a way cool or dirty, lo fi, trying a new way of creative output and trying to make music I always loved but never had the selfconfidence zu try it because of...whatever. So there was just the “fun aspect” of doing something creative in a way I never did it before.

6) Tell us about your genius idea of writing recording producing an album in one day.... where did that come from?? And how the unholy fuck did you get such cracking albums together in 24 hours?

One day I started recording drums in the morning just for fun, it was more „brainstroming“, hahaha… and I had no clue what i want. It was just happening and i raised the idea of making a whole album in this moment while recording. So it just started with some jamming alone in a room and became an album, hahaha It happened the first time at 13th of Octobre in 2021 where the album „Vorfall13102021“ was recorded in one day. After recording the vocals – which were also recorded „spontanically“ just out of the mood in the moment, maybe a second take when i had to sneeze, hahaha, I realized that the content and the meaning of the lyrics where mostly things which make my think about in the mood of this day ot things which concerning my emotional environment for a long time but didn’t get the „room“ to talk about them or to deal with them. I liked the output, because such a thing is nothing you can „plan“, you could, but it won’t fit the spirit oft he idea or the thing itself. Catching music in the moment of raising, of evolving is a very nice thing because it’s a picture of one moment, you will never do it again like this. You would do it better different, you would mix a guitar louder a synth region more silent, you wuld play another accord, and so on…. . It’s the complete difference of producing a tight, well sounding, well-thought and planned album, and maybe this is what I like so much about it. Most drums were just recorded first take and it was done. Immediately I recorded guitars, just playing what comes to mind, most of them first take, bass directly after guitars. Vocals were added the rest oft he day – with breaks caused by allday duties – and in the evening I mixed very short, some keys, sytnhs, bouncing, cover shooting 15 Minutes artwork – Release. So it is an album „founded, recorded, released“ in „one day“. So there were no ideas or lyrics or harmonies before in conrete, everything „emerged“ in one day.

The results are cool – I think (!!) hahaha – as I like the fact that this two albums – „Vorfall13102021“ and „Vorfall30032022“ are „wittnesses“ oft he day. All the mood and the spirit of a one day feeling is treasured in one music effusion. So ist some sort of a „sound diary“, listening to them today revive the feeling of these days.

7) Tell us about your influences... and which bands you listen to today...

Music inspirations are/ were (didnt care for order): Blind Guardian, Queen, Mayhem, Vallendusk, Magoth, Dimmu Borgir, Tom Waits, Cradle of Filth, Dark Funeral (Where Shadows Forever Reign…..masterpiece), Anamnesi, Gorgoroth, God Seed, Sorgelig, Dissection, Elderblood, Christoph und Lollo……..and – what everybody has – „our“ LIFE. Nowaday I listen a lot to symphonic Black Metal, or Black MEtal with a lot of additional instruments like Elderblood, Winter’s Breath (an great austrian Black Metal artist I am working together now and then) and other not too famous – more underground – bands, I really like underground sound... But what drives me and keeps me going is just the human beeing with all his depth and abysses. Bringing light in the dark and motivate individuals to honesty and reflexion of their own presence.

8) What have been your best and worst experiences as a musician?

Puh....as I have no real social interaction relating to music, as i am doing everything alone and making no live performances.....there’s nothing “bad” or worst which comes to my mind...not now. But when I was young, around 17, my band an me – a “psychadelic grunge” band, hahaha – played at a bandcontest and we were late cause of the traffic, so for fining us because we were late they set us as last band for the contest.....so we were fined with beeing “headliner”, hahahaha....... “WORST”? The best experience in my musician life was, when Rainer Wild from Running Wild Productions - https://runningwildproductions.bandcamp. com/ - an austrian non profit label, contacted me, asked me if I want to be part of his “AMEN” Project (Austrian MEtal News Vol. 1 – a metal sampler) an bought my music. It was the first time in my life I “sell” music, I didn’t even have a pay pal account installed, hahaha, because I never thought somebody would buy my music. This was the beginning of this little “upgraded” hobby doing Black Metal.

9 ) What are your plans for the future? Are you planning to go live? Are you writing new material?

As a solo artist playing live is not possible that easy, even if I found musicians for a live gig, I dont have the time ressources for countinous practising together. But never say never… The plans fort he future is to keep going producing music, beeing creative and open for new things, maybe different things. If I listen to my metal from March 2021 till today it’s a very interesting progress and a very variatising range of music in style and sound.

It’s sometimes different, but you still here Withdraw in every song, even if it’s in a completely different approach. I will keep the sticks clashing, the guitars crying and sounding. I am aiming on a new „split project“ with Winter’s Breath – we had a great Split Release, „Zwei Stimmen“ together you find in my Diskography –, I have an idea of producing a song in a cooperation with a german female singer, but this is only future music now. In a short time schedule, maybe I will head for something different, maybe another „one day album“, maybe a completely different thing in a side project concerning „minimal dirt sound“, i dont know. I dont know what will hit me the next month, but my head is always establishing things, i have always ants in my pants, so something will happen. I already habe a new „Withdraw – album“ in my head, a cover, an idea, what it should be about – BUT – easy going…. There is time… sometimes too less…hahaha For now, I will give „Histriogram“ the time it needs to settle down. Maybe sometimes ist good to lean back, look what you’ve done and think: „There’s so much more I could do“, hahahahaha…

10) Tell us about teh scene there in Austria at the moment..recommend some new bands...

I am sad to say, I dont have real connections points with our local scene in austria/vienna. But after the Release of my Song „Falsche Zeit“ on the Sampler „Austrian Metal News Vol. 1“ I connected with „Winter’s Breath“ https:// wintersbreath.bandcamp.com.

Together we realized our Split Release „Zwei Stimmen“ BL from Winter’s Breath became a friend and we are aiming for further „split projects“ in the future. In June 2022, Masters of Kaos Productions, an underground metal label, recording studio and video production unit based in Bogota, Colombia agreed to realize „Zwei Stimmen“ on CD, soon available on https://mastersofkaos.bandcamp.com/ . For a qualified comment about a local austrian scene, I am sad to say I am not deep enough in it to give a real feedback.

11) Lets get technical for the musicians out there... tell us about your instruments and equipment, favourite tunings, pedals. where do you record? What do you use?

Ok....I will try. I use an iMac mini from 2013 I think which was a gift of an informatic guy. I record with the Focusrite Scarlet 2i2 as interface. From there i go direct in the Mac, recording software is Logic. So far with the computer shit, hahaha... (I am not the biggest fan of those computer things) My guitar is an Ibanez in black, i knew the product name in the past, i forgot it, i dont wanna look now, but it was around 600€, so not too much, beginning auf the middle class i would say. As Amp i use a Line6 Modelling Amp, i really like it because of the big spectrum of options which can be chosen very fast and uncomplicated. (this is great because I am very lazy and unpatient all the time) Bass i a Harley Benton Bass for 149€......yes.

Drums, there are two – or three – options: an accoustic MAPEX drum set which is most of the time not available (kids are also studying music) an e drums set – which I use most – a Roland KV17 KVX (I think) and at lest programming them with MIDI in Logic (which I never did since making Metal, but it also worked in the Pop things). Vocals are recorded with a Focusrite Kondenser Microphone (was part of the Focurite Scarlet “Bundle”) and/or an Shure SM58. I record everything at home in my own family flat in the childrens room of my middle son. He has the biggest room, and because they are all three learning/studying music he has the music equipment in the room, hahaha...

12) Do you have any wise words of advice for the youngsters that are reading and looking to follow in your footsteps?

No, I am not wise, but I have some creeds I try to follow. My footsteps are describing my way, it’s ok to “follow” them (who do this? Following ME???? hahaha) but soon, I hope you will leave the prepared path and try your own way through the very deep crooked universe of beeing......you. Do what you like and do it from the heart. Don’t think about what anybody wants to hear or what somebody expecting from you. This makes what you do wrong, it’s not honest, it’s not your pure idea. Follow yourself, go inside, search and find yourself and say yes to all your darkness, to all your mistakes and characteristics and deal with them. Say it, shout them out, let them know. This makes you free, this cleans your inner dungeons and you accept yourself and you will be more ok with your environment. Your music is what represents YOU, nobody can take it. Do what you want, do what you are, see yourself. – ART IS TO CONSOLE THOSE WHO SEE THEMSELVES –

13) What’s your favourite album of all time and why?

I don’t have one, sorry. What I like at the moment very much is “Where Shadows Forever Reign”, by Dark Funeral , One of the greatest sounding, arranged and “balanced” Black Metal Albums. Really nice, as I like Nils “Dominator”s drumming so much, this guy is a clockwork.....a fast clockwork. I also like “Cruelty and the Beast” by Cradle of Filth, for me because of the questioning and long discussed sound, which is very thin, but I like the atmorphere in the album and the concept. What is also very gret is “Grand Declaration of War” by Mayhem, I love the album because of the very special additional sounds and the whole construct of the album. ...and the list is longer and longer......... so take this three, hahahaha.....

14) Would you like to add anything for our readers?

Be creative, make output, do what you like, don’t care what anybody says, make music, be loud!!! Thanks Jay and Masters of Kaos Productions for the interview, thank you very much for your support and for publishing my music. Stay Black! Best Regards from Vienna!

A massive thanks to the Withdraw. Hail the Austrian Hordes!!!