Seven Year Witch is a blues punk band out of South Carolina. They have been releasing a slew of great songs from originals to covers keeping fans itching for the next song to drop. BareBones Ent sat down with the band to discuss, their music, covering Akon, and making videos. Stroll on below and see what all they had to say.
BBE: Your band has a great sound. How would you best describe it to potential new listeners?
SYW: It’s hard to pigeon-hole ourselves into a genre, but we’ve been frequently described as Blues-Punk by many of our listeners. We try not to constrict our writing to that category, but if that’s what the people make of our sound, we’re happy to keep doing it.
BBE: You have been having a busy year. Do you get the same feelings prior to releasing each new song, or are some more nerve-racking than others?
SYW: We definitely have some songs that we get more excited about releasing. Like any music lover, we have favorites. Originals in particular tend to be more nerve-racking though because of how vulnerable it makes you. You’re putting something you created from scratch out there for the world to pick apart, and that can be scary. However, we put 1000% into everything we release, because in this industry there’s no room for not putting your all into everything you do.
BBE: Let’s first touch on your cover of Akon song, “I Wanna Love You”. What made you want to cover that song?
SYW: Well first off, that song is one hell of a bop to begin with. We love genre-bending as well so “I Wanna Love You” was the perfect cover for us. We started playing it during our live sets and crowds absolutely ate it up, so we figured it was about time to record and release our first cover. So far, the reception has been amazing. Now we just need a feature by Snoop Dogg and we’ll be all set!
BBE: How did listeners respond to the song?
SYW: So far, the reactions have pretty much been extremely positive. It goes without saying that there are a few who have expressed mixed feelings about it in some of the comments on social media, but we love those opinions as well. If we’re not polarizing to some degree and riling people up, we’re not doing our job. However, the outpouring of love has tremendously outweighed any hate, and we’re very grateful for all of the fans who are blasting this song in their car! [Peep it below and then read on!]
BBE: How do you approach working on a cover compared to creating an original aside from the obvious one being a whole new creation?
SYW: A cover in some ways can be easier. Having lyrics and a basic chord progression already laid out for you really facilitates the whole process. From there it’s just about “rocking it up.” We try to create new riffs from the melodies while keeping some semblance of the original. That’s where things can get difficult. It’s a fine line to ride unless you’re trying to rewrite the song completely, which can also be cool.
BBE: You recently released a new song, “Cyanide”. How was the creation of the song like for you?
SYW: Some songs require tireless work and effort to bring them to life, while others have a will of their own and grow organically without much coaxing. “Cyanide” was definitely the latter. Once the basic verse and chorus instrumentals were written, it seemed like every other part just fell into place. We liked the idea of having a happy sounding chorus instrumental combined with very dark lyrics, so poisoning your girlfriend’s dad seemed like the perfect theme. From there, the song seemed to write itself. We are extremely proud of this one!
BBE: The video was very interesting. How did you come up with the idea for the video?
SYW: The basic plot was already there in the lyrics, so it was easy to create a story from that. Beau actually had the genius idea of setting it in a dystopian world full of clowns. It’s a statement about the absurdity of conformity and how it dictates the social norm, for better or worse. From there it was a matter of connecting the lyrics to that world, which was an extremely fun process.
BBE: What was the filming process like for you?
SYW: The filming process for “Cyanide” was by far the most grueling session we’ve had. It consisted of 21 hours straight of filming with pretty much no breaks. However, it was also a very fun and entertaining experience. We built the entire circus tent set from scratch, nearly a week-long ordeal, and setting up lighting and all the other necessities was a total pain. But most of the extras are very close friends of ours so there were a lot of jokes and humor to keep spirits high. Overall, 10/10 would and will do it again!
BBE: What is next for you?
SYW: We’re planning on dropping a couple more singles over the next few months while we work on recording new material. We also have a west coast tour with Buckcherry coming up in June, so our fans should keep an eye on our social media for dates near them and come on out. We’re grinding constantly and we’ll be announcing more dates over the next few weeks. We’re trying to conquer the world!
BBE: What is the best way for fans to keep up with your releases?
SYW: Fans can keep up with us through our website at www.sevenyearwitch.com or through any social media platform (Facebook/Instagram). We post nearly every day so there’s always valuable info being dropped for our fans.
BBE: Anything else you would like to add?
SYW: We’d like to give a huge shout-out to Josh “Porterhouse” Saldate at Barbarossa Studios for bringing our music to life and to Justin West for all the amazing videography over the years. These guys are true artists. We’d also like to thank our booking agent Andrew Goodfriend at TKO for keeping us on the road and busy.
