If I were to give a Damn the Witch Siren a Rorschach test to enable my intro paragraph description; I might show them clips of Lady Gaga, a drag queen dancing, Grimes, and Tracy and the Plastics.
According to their social media: they are witch rock. Left to my devices they would end up either covering the Tucker Carlson “Eyes of Newt Conversation,” talking about Kendrick Lamar's “Damn” Album, Aaron Hall and their current home Marion's haunted tourist sites.
However, people don't do interviews just so I can have conversations; they do interviews so humans can find their music.
Damn The Witch Siren has a new album called “Red Magic” which is having a release party at the Spacebar February 10th, and a subsequent tour. We discussed “Red Magic,” iTunes rejecting their initial album cover, the impact of participating in the boycott of R. Kelly's Fashion Meets Music Festival, and Z-Wolf's dad.
What is “Red Magic?”
Bobbi Kitten:I guess it's “Sex Magic.” Laughs. But it's a lot of things. We wrote a dance party album with the idea of calling it “Red Magic” before any of the songs were written. So I kinda think it just set the tone for all the themes of the songs. It's a super sexy album. But it's also about loving yourself.
It's about spirituality. It's about feminism. It's about love.
Politically we went through a hard year and saw a lot of Dark shit, this year. We just wanted to counterbalance that a little bit. And just have something to say about love. And all different facets of love. Red Magic means being in tuned with yourself. And loving everyone around you. And sex magic.
What Happened with Apple Music?
Z-Wolf:Our distributer. We sent it to all the streaming sites and everything. And they rejected the artwork. Because it had her nipple on it. The lines were so blurred. What were we even arguing about? Why did it have to be censored? We put the artwork up and it had parental advisory over her tits.
Bobbi Kitten:I know this is a really sexy album. It's about the liberation of women. It's artwork for our album. It's conceptual. Not only that. But where do we draw the line? If men can show their bodies all the time; but women can't because we are super sexualized creatures? It was kinda funny that iTunes did that.
The album is kind of about that too. It's something we believe in strongly. So anyway.
Quote which occurred later in the conversation:
Bobbi Kitten:The conversation about women's bodies. And how you’re not asking for it. Even if you’re putting it out there. If it's art. If it's self expression. It if's photography. If it's you expressing your freedom. Loving yourself.
Can you remember an album when you were like 12 that was considered offensive that you were drawn to?
Z-Wolf:I remember hiding Rage Against The Machine's first album from my mom. And I got into Nine Inch Nails in 1993. That was always a thorn in our household.
I never heard anything like that record. When I was that age. It was this whole other world. It was crazy. I dove into it completely. At times I'm not sure how my parents felt about that.
Bobbi Kitten:Definitely Nine inch Nails. I just remember “Closer” coming out and I was really fucking young. I loved that song. Everything was really sexual about it. When you are a kid.
My first sexual feelings were with David Bowie. Coming close to that was definitely that song. I just remember it being banned from everything. Both my brothers had the album. And we shared Nine Inch Nails.
I think you get a lot of Blog Support for bands that aren't on a label. Does that start with the R. Kelly FMMF debacle and grow from just people liking your music?
Bobbi Kitten:I hope it's because people like our music. I think the R. Kelly thing helped but we also had a lot press at the same time. We put out an EP a month before the R. Kelly thing happened. It was our first EP called Super Delicious.
You played the Marion Music Festival. Sorry. I keep bringing up Marion. What was that like? Sorry, I'm intrigued with small towns?
Z-Wolf:That's the only show in Marion we've played. FYI. We’re still in Columbus. My dad is one of the guys who put that festival together. The past couple of years. He wanted us to play...it's strange. A bunch of old timers that used have bands in town and all their connections to music here.
