The new Witherfall record was produced by Iced Earth’s Jon Schaffer, who just turned himself in to authorities to answer for his role in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 by a mob of seditious Trump supporters.
The core songwriting duo behind Witherfall, guitarist Jake Dreyer and singer Joseph Michael, say they were advised by their lawyers not to comment on Schaffer’s dumbfuckery. All they can do is confirm that Schaffer did indeed produce their new record, Curse of Autumn.
But with this particular plot twist following hot on the heels of the chaos and unpredictability of 2020, Michael laughs: “It’s like 2021 is like, ‘Hold my beer.’”
You might say the pandemic turned life in 2020 into something of an immovable object – what with all the lockdowns and travel bans, most of us weren’t able to go anywhere or do anything. But not Witherfall. Fancying themselves the proverbial unstoppable force, the band forged ahead.
“We didn’t really stop,” says Dreyer. “We basically got the record done at the deadline that we needed to, that we had set for ourselves pre-COVID. So, I don’t think anything really changed.”
Aside from a February 2021 tour of Europe that was postponed to October, the only big change for Witherfall in the age of COVD, Dreyer notes, was the release date of the absolutely massive-sounding progressive power metal opus, Curse of Autumn – originally due out last November, it’s now set to be released on March 5 by Century Media Records.
That’s not to say everything went according to plan, but no matter what came up, Dreyer and Michael persevered. Pandemic-related travel restrictions trapped their original drummer in Spain, for instance, so the songwriting duo recruited Marco Minnemann (The Aristocrats, Joe Satriani, Necrophagist) to man the skins for the recording of Curse of Autumn. The drums were captured in the band’s hometown of Los Angeles, but recording sessions then had to be moved to Indiana. Additional recording, mixing, and mastering took place at the legendary Morrisound Recording in Tampa, Florida with brothers Jim and Tom Morris.
Though the band couldn’t do regular promotional activities for the album, like album release shows and tours, they still managed to shoot a video for the single “As I Lie Awake.” The video, comprised of a vampire story with something of a surprise ending, was directed by Zev Deans, who has done videos for everyone from Ghost and Behemoth to Chelsea Wolfe, Denzel Curry, and St. Vincent, and shot on location in Brooklyn and upstate New York.
“We were flying all over the place,” Michael says. “There were points where, because this was early on [in the pandemic], we were the only people on planes. It was like that Stephen King movie, The Langoliers, it was like everyone else had disappeared.”
Dreyer acknowledges that some people might be upset that the band continued to travel, work in studios, and shoot videos on location while the pandemic raged out of control.
“I’m sure we’ll probably get slapped on the wrist by some people, you know, thinking that we weren’t being careful. But we were. No one, knock on wood, no one on the team that we did all this stuff with got sick at all.”
Michael adds: “The thing is, if we were working jobs we hated and someone was like, ‘Go to work during COVID,’ I’d be like, ‘I’m not going to risk my life to go work at the gas station.’ You know what I mean? But this is our life’s work. We weren’t going to take a year off, or, what, it might even be a year and a half, the way things are going with the vaccine. It’s a risk, and we know it’s a risk, but you know, this is our passion. We couldn’t stop, we had to do it.”
The pandemic wasn’t the only historical event that impacted the recording of Curse of Autumn. During the month they spent recording in Indiana, the protests against racial inequality sparked by the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were taking over the streets on a daily basis.
“We used to wake up and go to the studio and track for fucking 16 hours or so, and then get home and just put the news on and it was just fucking chaos,” Dreyer says, adding that all that chaos leaked into the album “subliminally.”
“Yeah we were drinking heavily during the whole process,” Michael adds. “It was dark, it was very dark. You know, I don’t like talking politics, but the shit that was going on, it’s just ridiculous. It was sad to see.”
While remaining cautiously hopeful that their European tour in support of Curse of Autumn will actually happen this fall, there doesn’t seem to be a concept of “free time” in the Winterfall camp.
“We actually start working on another record next week, while we’re doing more press, we’re gonna keep busy,” Michael says. “We want to be like one of those bands like KISS where it’s like a record a year, as long as we stay creative.”
Pick up a copy here
