It’s been over a year since The Quietus was entranced by the perfect gothic pop created by Brighton trio Esben & the Witch. With an early demo of theirs rendering us spellbound, they’ve gone on to become one of the UK’s most exciting unsigned bands and continued to hone their opulent mixture of brooding electronics, crackling guitars and mythological rhetoric. We’re thrilled, then, to announce that Esben & the Witch will be playing at Field Day as part of our line-up on the Village Mentality stage – and to celebrate, they’ve made us the following mix. We also caught up with Thomas from the band for a quick chat…
Hullo Esben, it’s been a while since we caught up. What the hell have you been up to?
T: Keeping busy. We’ve spent much of our time writing, recording and the like. This has been interspersed with continued forays into the live arena.
We presume you’ve been busy writing new material, can you tell us a little about how it’s sounding?
T: We are gradually developing as musicians and hopefully the tracks are becoming increasingly dynamic and nuanced with it.
And you’ve always been ones for interesting influences to lyric & aesthetic. Can you give us some nods as to what might be guiding you now?
T: The same things that have always guided us are still doing so. People, landscapes and stories. That may sound a little vague but its better, we feel, to retain an element of mystery until the tracks themselves are ready to be heard at the very least.
If you could collaborate with one other artist on the Quietus Village Mentality stage, which would it be?
T: Amiina, maybe. That could make for an interesting collaboration.
And if you were to cover a track by The Fall, which would it be?
T: ‘No Xmas for John Quays’.
Tell us a bit about what guided your mix?
T: There isn’t any particular theme apart from the three of us selecting tracks we love and arranging them in a running order befitting of their brilliance.
What do you have planned for the rest of the year?
T: We hope to continue to develop the songs, work on our stage show and replace our missing owl.
Look, you’re goths, aren’t you?
T: We’ll leave that for you to decide.
Esben & The Witch Field Day Mix for the Quietus by theQuietus
