Interview: Getting to Know TurboWitch (Written)

A Witch has left the woods, speeding off to Merlin’s castle, ready for some crazy music rituals. What is this about? Founded by Merlin in London, TurboWitch is an international project of music witchery. Together with his witches, wizards and magicians from all over the world, they explore the mysteries of life and celebrate its ups and downs in their music rituals. In this interview, we get to know TurboWitch a little better.

1. Hello! Thank you for taking the time to chat to us. First things first, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started.

I have to say ‘thanks’! Merlin and his TurboWitch never had a definite starting point. It is more of a road young Merlin knew he was headed towards. Once upon a time, there was this shy little boy, feeling a bit trapped inside. One day, he discovered rock music. Then he quickly discovered he definitely preferred the harder genres of it. This inexplicable urge arose to pick up an instrument. Singing was a clear ‘no’, apart from that, he wouldn’t know where to begin. Then Aerosmith dropped their record ‘9 Lives’ and he heard ‘Falling in Love (is hard on the knees)’ and knew – it was the guitar. Quickly obsessed with it and practising for hours every day, it kind of opened doors inside. He would no longer feel trapped. It felt like a free road to travel. So Merlin would pursuit all the steps needed to become the best guitarist he possible could be. A huge step fast forward was his move to a London music college and the music scene there. That’s when he came up with the band name “TurboWitch” and his vision became clearer – but not less mysterious.

2. Someone comes to you and asks you to sum up what kind of music you play – what do you tell them?

First of all, Merlin warns them that he really sucks at naming this. Something with rock, grunge, goth, melodic types of metal, a touch of blues, and so much more. He tells them that’s where he comes from but he doesn’t care about labels and genres, he wants to combine the best of them into a new blend of emotional music.

When he had lessons in modern music history, which meant watching videos, in one interview from back in the 80s, an early producer of Metallica called them a “second Led Zeppelin” because “they would just take anything they liked from any kind of music and smack it together into something wild and heavy, which is what Led Zeppelin had done before.” The producer named this the “Led Zeppelin” principle … and finally Merlin’s mystical quest was over: put everything together you like, creating something wild, don’t worry about genres and labels.

Black Sabbath today, Blues tomorrow, Bossa Nova the day after. Anything goes, but over the years a rocky post-grunge sound seems to be the backbone.

3. What’s currently keeping you busy? A new album/EP/single release? A new video? Playing live, or planning ahead?

Yes! All of it. We are working on new tracks, videos coming after the recordings. Planning next steps and looking into a potential Europe tour for “Alchemy” this late autumn or winter.

4. What is about this current period that is particularly exciting for you?

The forced pause during the lockdowns was a bit of a blessing in disguise as Merlin used that time to upgrade his gear and take music lessons. Last year, with “Alchemy” Merlin was able to put this all together. Also as a band, the lockdown forced us to change our structure and approach, which was another crucial thing we tested for “Alchemy”. This all worked out as hoped, which is super exciting, and right now we are making even further steps musically, as if a door has been opened. All possible because we found a new record studio with a fantastic producer. This all is unbelievable for us.

5. Tell me about the work that has gone into making it a reality and what it means to you.

For the EP, things took unexpected turns as we had to undergo changes in the band and there was our Japan tour in-between. All of this dragged-out recording and production, which was a lot of work, but now we are musically where we wanted to be. Music is a key of our lives, for Merlin the key opening many mysterious doors – so this means the world to us.

6. Making music and being creative can be a very positive experience and can be very good for the mind. In what way has making music had a positive impact on your mental health?

Being able to communicate his feelings, to express himself, to be more social … for all of that, Music was Merlin’s teacher. Music and the needed social interactions helped him grow. Being on stage was that much needed boost for his self-confidence. And whenever life knocked him down and the world turned dark once again, music really helped relighting the inner fire. He still has his musical pharmacy with certain songs for certain moods and situations which works like medicine.

7. It can also be incredibly challenging, more so in the modern times. What have been some challenging aspects of making music and how have you overcome them?

Three things come to the mind that seem to have changed a lot:

Band structure: of course, there are still many bands that are a super tight group of best pals sticking together until the bitter end, but many bands nowadays seem to have a constant rotation of members. Less musicians really wants to or are able to commit to one thing. Doesn’t seem to fit into modern live styles. So we changed the band into a coven: Merlin and the Morrigan at its core, and a nightingale as singer, and some crazy magicians, witches, and other magical creatures world-wide joining us for our rituals.

Openness to other genres: Musicians seem to stick to their genre and tend to narrow it further down, instead of mixing with other genres to create new sounds. We believe those great epics sounds are often the result of combining different styles as bands did in the past.

Social media has changed the art of promotion fundamentally. There is no turning back so we fully embrace this.

8. How do you handle the online aspects of being in a band? Having to put out content constantly, promoting across several different social media platforms, and having your success measured in likes and follows?

It’s a curse and a blessing. The different platforms keep it interesting. Putting out content yourself, as musicians learn to do these days, forced us to acquire new skills which actually has made this quite rewarding and we are grateful for this. But having to do this constantly can be quite tiring. Personally, Merlin measures his success in how many people attend gigs, or fans telling him what his music means to them. The rest, views, likes etc. is fake too often anyway…

9. How do you make this part of things enjoyable, and fulfilling, for yourself?

Putting all these new skills needed for content creation into use. They are more tools to toy around with. More ways to express our creativity. Also, we are independent, we are free. We are in direct contact with people across several countries who like our music, which is very rewarding.

10. Speaking directly to listeners – what would you ask they do to help support you?

Not asking for anything. But Merlin would remind them on the following:

If you want epic music, you need to support the artist. Your monthly Spotify subscription does not do that – at all. Pay & download their tracks, buy a t-shirt, etc. You don’t need to do this, but then do not complain when contemporary music is repetitive and boring – because the free artists never received any help. This is your call.

11. Outside of music, what do you like to do to relax?

Next to meditating & spending time with his beloved ones, Merlin loves drawing, and recently playing vintage video games.

12. Where can people find you?

Bandcamp | Distrokid | Website | Instagram | TikTok | Facebook