The Writhers are a band from San Diego, California. I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with the self proclaimed “Horrorpunkabillydeathrocknroll” act on a recent tour, and really enjoyed the set.
The whole night carried like a haunted side show attraction; the musical equivalent of a Halloween goodie bag. I sat down with the band to find out more about their new single, "Drown", subsequently remixed by both Widow Rings and Our Frankenstein.
Introduce yourselves.
Robert Writhe - Vocals, accordion and art
Rikk R Treat - drums
Chewy Morsel - guitars
Kenny Wolfsbane - bass
Where is the band based, and how did it all come together?
Robert: San Diego officially but over the years the band has spread out over Southern California with only myself still in San Diego proper.
I wanted to start some sort of an accordion based punk project but was also interested in horror inspired bands particularly the Cramps and a little Midwest group from the late '90s called Blaster the Rocket Man. I was helping Rikk with graphics for his previous band and he was booking a Horrorpunk show in December that still needed an opener.
I took the opportunity to write a couple songs and recruited the guys I was playing with to start a new band. Rikk agreed to drum for us, only temporarily at first and then quickly full time. While the accordion concept was moved mostly to the back burner, the lineup took off running and here we are.
Rikk: We played many local shows and did a mini tour up until our first EP release. We added Kenny on bass right as the world shut down in 2020.
What other bands have you all played in?
Robert: In early 2017, I played bass and occasional keys in Wolves Made of Stone, a three-piece alt / post-hardcore group in San Diego with two guys who would eventually become the Writhers’ guitarist and original bassist. During the Writhers, I played bass briefly for post-punk, darkwave group Poised in the Darkness in 2022 until my work travel became too intrusive for their schedule. Recently, I recorded some accordion for our friends Butt Candy’s new album. I also played accordion with another local darkwave group Heirgloom for a special Halloween show in 2017.
Rikk: I’ve played in a few bands over the year in various parts of the San Diego scene. The most notable one was a deathrock band called They Feed at Night. The singer of that project currently plays in a band called New Skeletal Faces. I also had a horror hardcore band called JXV aka JASONxVOORHEES which is the band I was in when Robert and I met. I’m also working on a project called Apparitional currently.
Chewy: I had my own indie rock/post hardcore project before The Writhers called Wolves Made of Stone, however it basically ran it's course and died off. I'm looking at getting an acoustic-singer songwriter project going soon.
Kenny: Kryptid, Trash Bats, and my newest band, Velocity Raptor. I also do some character/stage work with Forced Edge when I can and am currently slated for a few other features and BTS work.
What are your influences?
Robert: When we started the Writhers, our primary influences were the Cramps, the Misfits, and Dead Kennedys. As time has gone on, I’d say we relate more stylistically with the Damned, early TSOL, Oingo Boingo, and maybe even the Birthday Party.
Collectively, we have varied influences and, for the sake of space, we’ve attempted to cut it down:
Robert is often influenced by the more bizarre, artsy, and chaotic styles like They Might be Giants, Blaster the Rocketman, and Otoboke Beaver. Rikk is usually in the aggressive moody horrorpunk/deathrock sphere bringing influence from bands such as AFI, Blitzkid, and The Creature.
Chewy is the band dad, inspired by classics like Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, and Van Halen. Kenny is typically pretty squirrelly with his interests but has a firm root in thrash and is currently very into electronic-based bands such as Dance with The Dead and HEALTH. Throw in some post-hardcore and surf elements and you basically have a good gauge on what we feel influences us.
What is your relationship as a band with the Southern California music scene?
Robert: It’s complicated. We get a long great in the general local punk scene in general, also crossing paths with psychobilly and goth bands. Though we’re generally received well, there is no one crowd we can say claims us.
They Might Be Giants, a big musical influence of mine that was birthed in New York at the peak of the punk/new wave movements, once said they were too loud for the art crowd and too artsy for the punk scene which forced them to find there own space. I think we relate to that position a lot as we’ve almost had to build our own community. Our fan base is sprinkled throughout all related subcultures in SoCal.
Chewy: It's a huge honor and humbling to be counted as part of such a rich and talented scene! It's great knowing such amazing and kind people! It's like one huge family!
What are your favorite shows you’ve played so far?
Rikk: We’ve played some banger house shows with big mosh pits and people watching us from the roof! We have really enjoyed getting the chance to open for a sold out Blitzkid show and more recently a sold out Agent Orange show. Our packed Tower bar show from 2021’s Halloween Inside tour was also a huge accomplishment for us.
You book an annual event, Ghoul Gang Gala in San Diego. Tell me about that.
Robert: The Ghoul Gang Gala started in our first year because it was suggested that we should be hosting our own Halloween show. The first gala was in October 2018 at an extremely small but fun dive called the Go Lounge, it was a costume party and we had 7 bands including ourselves. The following year we booked a bigger venue at Brick by Brick, had art venders, a live painter, giveaways, and 8 bands.
Our third year probably would’ve seen more growth but that was 2020 and we all know how that went. Instead, our third Gala was a live stream event with ourselves and the Order of the Fly performing live, as well as special, exclusive pre-recorded snippets from some bands. After that, the event went on hitaus until Spring 2023 when our Washington friends in Evelyn’s Casket asked to book something big with us in April of that year.
Since then, the Gala is now a springtime, halfway-to-Halloween event. The Ghoul Gang Gala is the embodiment of us making a scene for ourselves, bringing together horrorpunks, rockabillys, goths, and weirdo punks who just like a good time.
What are some bands you’d like to play with in the foreseeable future?
Robert: Opening for the Damned is a bucket list show for sure. We’ve been asked to support the Venomous Pinks whenever they come to town and as great as that show would be, the timing is never right for us so that needs to happen someday. Some others I’d like to play with would be Vision Video, Piñata Protest, Trap Girl, the Flytraps, Shock Therapy.
Rikk: We would also love to share the stage again with our brothers in horror punk 5 cent Freakshow and Evelyn’s Casket, as well as Dark Ride.
What are some bands from your area you’d recommend?
Rikk: San Diego has some great bands throughout the scene, so while this list isn’t perfect, we think it’s a decent summation of our peers!
Please check out Butt Candy, Project Sell Out, Mood of A Sinner, All Monster Revue, 13 Wölves, Busted Coffins, Substitute Gym Teacher, the Midnight Block, and Squirrelly Arts.
Any touring plans for The Writhers on the horizon?
Robert: Forthcoming is our Summer of Terror tour with Our Frankenstein, a short 7-stop West Coast run. We hope to plan a Midwest or East Coast tour in the near future as we’ve been talking about it for a while.
I’ll be vague since it’s unannounced, but we’re looking forward to opening for our pals Qbomb in the LA area later this year. Qbomb has grown and found a lot of success with Ghost Pixel Records since the last time we played with them in 2019 so we’re excited to share the stage with them once again.
Final thoughts?
Rikk: Please check out our new single “Drown (In The Swamp)” which hit streaming earlier this month, and look out for our Bug Stuff EP coming October 2024!
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The Writhers on social media: Instagram
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