Two Witches reflects on ‘The Vampire’s Kiss’ more than 30 years after its release.
As promised in our second edition of Cápsula, the band’s founder, Jyrki Witch (vocals), along with current members Miss Blueberry (vocals and synthesizers) and Marko Gravehill (guitar), spoke with us regarding the 30th anniversary of the release of The Vampire’s Kiss (1993). They commented on the reception from both European and Brazilian audiences, and shared behind-the-scenes stories about the recording and release of the material. Once again, my thanks to the band for their kindness! Did you already know the band? Just discovering them now? Tell us what you thought of the interview and which artist you’d like to see here next! Rewinding The Finnish band was originally created by vocalist and songwriter Jyrki Witch and singer, songwriter, and keyboardist Anne Nurmi, who left the band shortly after the album’s release to join Lacrimosa. Two Witches‘ lyrics explore themes such as vampirism, psychological horror, fear, and sexuality. With a rawer, edgier, and less commercial sound, Two Witches brings a striking and unique tone to gothic music. This ’93 record certainly deserves a place of honor, alternating between Jyrki’s vocals and vocal passages by Anne and Nauku (the second backing vocalist who would leave the band a few years later), blending elements of darkwave and punk. The Vampire’s Kiss – The Release Jyrki shared some comments regarding the album’s release before the interview itself; his full remarks follow below: How has the band’s sound evolved since the 90s? Have your influences changed? Jyrki: Of course, each player has brought their own influence on the band’s sound and songs. I’m the only one left in the band from the 90s lineup. Studio technology has also changed a lot and that affects the sound. Before, we had to do everything completely in advance and then we just went to the studio to record the songs quickly. If the playing went wrong or something else unexpected happened, we had to leave all the mistakes on record because we didn’t have the money to pay for new studio days. Now we can record everything in home studios. Our guitarist Marko Hautamäki joined the band 2001 and nowadays he is also composing most of our songs. Miss Blueberry joined 2017 and plays the keyboards. We also have three live musicians; Alarik Valamo (drums), Antti Hermanni (bass) and Haydee Sparks (guitar). Over the years, my influences have certainly changed in many ways, but at some point, they always return to where they started. I still like the same bands, books, movies and other things as I did back in the 80s. Marko Hautamäki: When the line-up has evolved over the years, all new members have obviously brought in some of their own influences. Also the whole music scene has had its own evolution, and that also affects us as music listeners and consequently also as music writers. I don’t think there are any “original” influences whose influence on our music has somehow become any less over the years, but there are plenty more influences in the mix now. Two Witches has always been a more experimental band than people tend to think. In the early days there were experiments with poetry and such. Nowadays we experiment more within the broad “gothic” style and the various musical elements within the larger scene context. That said, our “GoodEvil” album also featured some of the early days’ poetry experiments so we haven’t forsaken our roots in that sense either. Miss Blueberry: I love dancing and I try to inject danceability into our current songs. I would like to bring more rhythms to the songs that would work on the dance floor. How do you see the reception of Two Witches in Brazil compared to Europe? Marko Hautamäki: Apart from audiences behaving very differently in South America vs Europe, we are seeing a big shift in the scene as a whole. The European goth scene has a lot of history but that also tends to make things a bit stagnant. People tend to concentrate on the bands and artists they fell in love with back in the 80s or 90s and don’t seem to care much what has happened since. On the other hand, the 2000s goth/darkwave etc bands seem to be supported mostly by a different audience. They still are within the same scene but the people are mostly different. That means that there is basically the old school vs new school division within the scene. In Brazil and South America in general (along with few other places) the scene is younger and while the influential bands are the same, that kind of division doesn’t seem as drastic and that makes the scene much stronger overall. For Two Witches it shows the immense support and enthusiasm that we are getting from the Brazilian audience. We hope to be back there as soon as possible! Jyrki Witch: I don’t know why, but Two Witches has been more popular in Latin American countries than in Europe since the 90s. Especially in Brazil we have been received very warmly. But of course, we love Latin American countries and our audience in return. If it were financially possible, we would like to play in Brazil every year. Miss Blueberry: There are much more incredible audiences in Brazil than in Europe. Although there has been a warm welcome in Europe, the welcome from Brazilian fans has felt really good. How was Anne Nurmi’s departure to Lacrimosa? Have you kept in touch over the years? Jyrki: Anne wanted to go and see what the world was like outside of our home. She joined Lacrimosa and I continued Two Witches. We were both so young at the time and future seemed to be wide open. Now we have both built our own careers and maybe some of the fans might even like both bands. After Anne left, I decided to continue with Two Witches, Nauku learned to play the keyboards and there were also some other changes in the line-up. It didn’t affect the songwriting or lyric work, but of
2nd edition – Capsule: records lost in time
Hello, how are you all? It’s been quite a while since our last edition, and I believe some of the records on the list are no longer so lost, with their artists back in full swing. Let’s recap and see what’s happened since then. Four months after our article, Fausto Fawcett gifted us with the album Favelost (something like lost favela/slum), the soundtrack to his book of the same name. Previously only available on a promotional website, we finally have this incredible work available on digital platforms as well. Additionally, Fausto has been making various appearances at São Paulo venues, with several shows, special guest spots, and autograph sessions. It’s always good to keep an eye on social media to see when the next event will be. Meanwhile, MopTop announced their return with a show at Augusta Hi-Fi on July 12th (2025), with a fresh new album that was initially going to be called Ghosts but ultimately ended up being titled Long Day. I hope it becomes a tradition to have news of incredible artists after a capsule edition. To accompany this edition, we will have, in a second moment, exclusive interviews with two artists from the list: Ana Carolina Fontoura (shadoW) and the band Two Witches. I want to immensely thank Ana for being so welcoming to us and willing to share a bit of her work and the ideas behind the project. I also want to thank Jyrki Witch from Two Witches, who so readily agreed to participate along with Miss Blueberry and Marko Hautamäki, sharing incredible behind-the-scenes stories from the release of the album we’ll be discussing in this edition, with an incredible amount of detail, as well as answering our questions. Did you enjoy this edition? Don’t forget to support the artists by following them on social media, going to their shows, and buying and listening to their music. David Sylvian – Secrets of the Beehive (1987) David Sylvian is an English musician and composer who became well known in the ’70s for being part of the new romantics movement with the new wave band Japan. In 1987, David Sylvian released his third solo album, Secrets of the Beehive, full of poetry and existentialism. Sylvian’s voice hovers between instrumentation filled with orchestras, trumpets, heavy percussion, synthesizers, from rock to jazz, which don’t make the record anachronistic, much less dated, but still reflect a bit of the sound of its time. Aging like a fine wine after nearly 40 years since its release, full of nuances and secrets that unfold with each listen, even today, after listening to it for so long, I still find myself discovering a new track and repeating it over and over again. (Currently I’m stuck on Let The Happiness In). A melancholic, sophisticated album that demands something from the listener but gives back so much, it continues to be a classic and it surprises me how little it’s mentioned. Two Witches – The Vampire’s Kiss (1993) I remember coming back from school still in middle school, many years ago, when I still had hair and was emulating Robert Smith with my messy, windswept hair over my face, while playing Disintegration on my headphones and thinking that was the ultimate in “gothic rock”. To this day I still love The Cure and the band certainly has its value within the scene, but after walking a few more blocks, a high school girl, Bruna (if you’re reading this, I’m so grateful for the bands you introduced me to back then), stops me on the street and starts talking to me as if she’d known me for years. We became friends right away, and a few days later she would send me a zip file, still on the late MSN, of an incredible album by a band unknown to me until then: Two Witches and their The Vampire’s Kiss. The Finnish band was originally created by vocalist and composer Jyrki Witch and singer, songwriter and keyboardist Anne Nurmi, who shortly after the album’s release left the band to join Lacrimosa. Two Witches’ lyrics address themes like vampirism, psychological horror, fear and sexuality. With a rawer, grittier and less commercial sound than bands like Sisters of Mercy (which I love), but a bit more palatable than Poésie Noire, for example, Two Witches brings a distinctive and unique tone to the genre, and this ’93 record certainly deserves a prominent place, alternating between Jyrki’s vocals and vocal passages from Anne and Nauku (second backing vocalist who would leave the band a few years later) with elements of darkwave and punk. In the underground, the band continues active to this day, releasing albums and focusing more on live performances. They even recorded a live album in São Paulo from the show they did here in 2019, released in 2020 by the Brazilian label Deepland Records, called Deepland (Live In São Paulo – Brazil). The band was super receptive and talked to us about the album and its impact over the years, as well as sharing some interesting behind-the-scenes stories. We’ll be publishing it soon, stay tuned. Shadow – It only hurts when we stop laughing (2012) Shadow is a one woman band, a solo project by a single person responsible for playing all the instruments you hear on the recording. Created by Ana Carolina Fontoura, the Portuguese-Brazilian known as Shadow, she released on January 1st, 2012 what I consider her most visceral and resonant work to date. Throughout six raw and hypnotic tracks, we’re taken into the deepest depths of a mysterious, reserved singer who is nonetheless full of intense feelings and thoughts to share with the world. The EP, “It Only Hurts When We Stop Laughing”, features lyrics in Portuguese and others in English, all independently produced in her bedroom, with tones of post-black metal, depressive rock and some mixtures that nowadays remind me a lot of what the band Germ did almost two years later, at the very end of 2013, with “Grief”. Anyone who
