BURNING WITCHES The Hot Female Metal Band! Interview with Lala Frischknecht

BURNING WITCHES is a very Hot Female Metal band from Brugg, beautiful Switzerland!

The amazing BURNING WITCHES band was founded during spring 2015 in Brugg, by the beautiful women and specialist guitar player Romana Kalkuhl from Switzerland. It has always been her big dream to perform with a women’s heavy metal band on stage. During the music university studies she already started her first group: ATLAS & AXIS with which she has already recorded two albums and played several concerts!

In 2015 Romana started to look for talented ladies for the new combo…it was the time for the very Hot Female Metal band , from Brugg!

BURNING WITCHES from 2015 till today had realised 4 albums, 9 Singles & EPs, also 1 Compilation album.

We must say that the 5 girls, I mean BURNING WITCHES members are ready to make history together – the hottest Hard & Heavy export from Europe in a long time is ready to kick your ass!!!

The Band Members of the hot BURNING WITCHES are: Laura – Vocals, Romana – Guitars, Larissa – Guitars, Jay – Bass and Lala – Drums !

During the crazy pandemic days of COVID- 19, Athenscalling.gr webzine team in the context of the presentation tribute about the albums, that thinking are important in the year 2020 and about the names from the International Music Scene, one day in December we contacted with Leoni Dowidat from the Teamlead Promo, of the record company Nuclear Blast, to bring us in contact with Burning Witches who created the great and very explosive album, entitled ΄΄ Dance with the Devil΄΄!

The response to our request from Nuclear Blast was immediate and so via the internet in the following days, we got in touch with the explosive drummer of Burning Witches… Lala Frischknecht and we had a very interesting chat with her, about the album… Dance with the Devil … and not only!

Athenscalling.gr: Hi ! Welcome in Athenscalling.gr, all the best to you and to other members of BURNING WITCHES , my dear Lala!

Lala Frischknecht (BURNING WITCHES): Hello Athens Calling and to all our fans and supporters in Greece Thanks for having us in your interview. I will speak in behalf of the girls.

Athenscalling.gr: Where are you and how passing all these days of Covid –19?

Lala Frischknecht (BURNING WITCHES): It’s hard to do things like before. We are used to play in many shows Things change and everyone suffers. We didn’t even had a chance to tour in support for our third album titled ΄Dance with the Devil΄ Fortunately it was a success and we are so happy with all these positive response from the fans and reached high rank in Charts including the US. We are using this crazy times doing something good . We made new songs for our fourth album and currently now recording the guitar tracks. It was planned to release it on April 2021, but let us all see how things develop in current situation. Hope these things will end and everybody can live in normal life as before.

Athenscalling.gr: “Dance with the Devil”, explosive album, why choose this title?

Lala Frischknecht (BURNING WITCHES): The idea behind ΄΄Dance With The Devil΄΄ is inspired by the famous Walpurgis night, the saga of the gathering of the witches in the middle ages.We thought this magic show down on the Brocken mountain symbolically stands for strength and the friendship of the band that’s why it’s the perfect title for the new album !

Athenscalling.gr: Tell us about the lyrics of it. How was making?

Lala Frischknecht (BURNING WITCHES): Romana is our song writer and her ideas are limitless. A great gift indeed. Her tandem with Laura and how they sound like ( Riff and Vocals ) are absolutely on top. Lauras’s melodic aggressive voice fitting her lyrics to Romana’s Riff add spice and dimension to our music. Laura is a fan of fantasy and magic. We let her show her own ideas lyrically since its her debut album with us. Songs are also based in her opinions experience and Witches! ΄΄Dance with the devil ΄΄ is basically deals with Walpurgis night.The story behind the lyrics of “Wings of steel” is we are here ready to face all the thunders in the skies riding on wings of steel , strong enough to face all these obstacles. Black Magic obstacles.’ Black Magic’ is about Laura’s crush and feels like that guy put a spell on her like a Black Magic. Nice to write based on your experience that fits perfectly to a beautiful ballad.

Athenscalling.gr: And the best song from the album? Is there any of the songs?

Lala Frischknecht (BURNING WITCHES): Its hard to tell which one is the best because every song in our album ‘Dance with the Devil’ has its own power characteristic story, energy and punch. I would say ‘ ‘ Wings of Steel ‘ ‘ ΄΄ Lucid Nightmare ΄΄ and ΄΄The Sisters of Faith΄΄ are my favorites. For sure the other girls have their own faves in this album.

Athenscalling.gr: I like very much the cover of the album it is a fantastic picture.

Lala Frischknecht (BURNING WITCHES): It was made by amazing Hungarian Artist Gyula. He is the one making our album artwork since the start of the band together Damir Eskic ( Destruction- Gomora)The idea is… we want to look like a powerful fantasy cartoon in the cover holding a sword or fire and to fight the demons in our back. It turned out pretty well.

Athenscalling.gr: If Devil was here and he wants to dance with you?

Lala Frischknecht (BURNING WITCHES): We could just dance with him while ΄΄Dance with the Devil ΄΄ song is playing in a 100.000 watts PA system . For sure he will love it……ha ha!

Athenscalling.gr: I want ask you now about the others members of your band.

Lala Frischknecht (BURNING WITCHES): Every girl in the band is nice and sweet. We treat and help each other like real sisters. These lovely girls are full of talent. I grew up in a small town in the Philippines . My culture is totally different from them but they made me feel at home, they made me feel the same. Music and laughter are the two most powerful things we are sharing together.

Athenscalling.gr: And about you, when and why start play music?

Lala Frischknecht (BURNING WITCHES): I was exposed in music at very young age.My family loves to sing and play musical instrument.This is one of our family bonding. I used to sing during my elementary and high school days every time there was an event in the school. I was a guitarist in a hardcore band back then and end up of playing drums in a thrash metal band after a few years. Music is great tool dealing all the struggles and challenges of life as you aged. It’s good for the heart and soul.

Athenscalling.gr: Tell us about your preferences in the music?

Lala Frischknecht (BURNING WITCHES): I’m a hardcore punk kid and that was my early habitat then listen to crossover, thrash, death metal, grind core and so on I used collect cds,tapes and vinyls and still have some left. I can say that D.R.I. (Dealing with it; Crossover) taught me how to love Thrash metal. Mad ball (Ball of Destruction – Demonstrating my style) and Agnostic Front (Cause for alarm – One Voice) taught me to love hardcore and punk There’s a lot of great bands that influenced me. Also Exodus, Sacred Reich, Destruction,Sodom, Carcass. So many …ha ha!

Athenscalling.gr: Do you remember about your first teacher in music…?

Lala Frischknecht (BURNING WITCHES): I’m mostly self taught. My first Drum teacher is Imad (6 Handful of Blues). He plays blues and funk in many bands. I owe him huge thing because if it’s not from him, I will not be able to know these lovely girls. I also had two years drum lesson with Norman ( ex Triptykon ) to enhanced what I’m missing in terms of drumming. Since i just came back into playing for a few months before joining BURNING WITCHES. I had a long years of break in playing drums.

Athenscalling.gr: Your favorite memory from the past and your bad memory in the year 2020!

Lala Frischknecht (BURNING WITCHES): It was nice to remember all these tours and shows we had before this
pandemic time were at our normal days seeing our fans from different places.Their faces and responses while playing live shows was priceless.Meeting and greeting them or taking pictures as well .We all miss it . Bad memory in 2020 is obviously this pandemic that we cannot play any shows. So glad that we did a small tour with mighty Destruction last September and after that, there’s nothing anymore. Hopefully next year we can slowly back to our normal routine… all of us!

Athenscalling.gr: O.k. and any plans for the future?

Lala Frischknecht (BURNING WITCHES): We have so many cancelled and re-scheduled shows like Sabaton open
open air in Sweden, Alcatraz Hard Rock Festival in Belgium, HRH Vikings in the UK… to mention a few. We are are hoping that these shows will be possible in 2021 so that we can rock the stage once again. We are currently working for our 4rth album that will be released maybe April 2021. Our third Ep ‘ ‘ Circle of Five ‘ ‘ released the 4rth of December 2020 with 4 songs and 3 of them are from our live acoustic Jam.

Athenscalling.gr: Let’s Travel now in my country… in Greece and if you want tell us what exactly do you know about Greece. I mean any place, or any musicians or any foods… or anything you like.

Lala Frischknecht (BURNING WITCHES):We sometimes go to our favorite Greek Restaurant in Germany . Everyone likes saganaki and octopus salad. Schmier introduce us to this nice restaurant. Greece have also nice beaches , Landscapes and historical places which I really want to visit once. I know bands like Firewind also Rotting Christ and Septic Flesh.

Athenscalling.gr: Thank You Lala for your interview! All the best to you and to your band, before the end please, give your message please to the world during Pandemic days.

Lala Frischknecht (BURNING WITCHES): Thanks a lot for the interview. Hopefully we can visit Greece someday and burn the stage! Thanks also to all our Greek fans and supporters. We can all beat this virus. There’s a light in every end of the tunnel. For now, we can just take care of ourselves and the others by following safety precautions and rules.There is an end of this. Later on we can have a normal life again. Stay safe and healthy everyone. Thank you!