Witch Post are bringing the cool back to rock music

"The witch post.... was meant to deter witches, and people would carve them on the mantels...and this is so weird, but I kissed it," Reid tells me. At this time she was exploring the idea of collaborating with Scottish songwriter Dylan Fraser, and, aside from a black cat following her shortly after, this moment gave her the concept of the band name, and a new chapter for both of their lives.

Fraser and Reid are, for all intents and purposes, two sides of the same coin. Both solo artists and in their mid-twenties, Montana-native Reid initially began in an indie-outfit (Alyeska) before embarking on a solo career driven by narrative-laden indie-rock that delved into country-tinges and electronic elements. Her debut album Big Bunny came in late 2020, and its follow-up Disenchanter three years later. Fraser's start was via a more modern entry into the business – a meme-based website that earned him enough money to start focusing on his real passion for music. After uploading tracks to YouTube, his debut EP The Storm also came out in 2020, its electronic beat under-towing honest reflections of life. While their backgrounds and journeys may differ, there's an inherent similarity that means their partnering up for a project was, in the grandest sense, meant to be.

“I think we're secretly related somehow,” Fraser laughs. “Alaska's second name is Reid, it's very Scottish. She has Scottish descent, somewhere in a past life maybe we lived in a bothy in the highlands, and were eating boiled meat and veg.”

A spiritual element exists in Witch Post: it’s the same idea that brings together two people, artists, with an unspoken connection that can only exist in a realm beyond us. It's a mystical X Factor that's gifted the world numerous artists, and it's something the modern world seems to be missing more and more of. “I think you can't really explain it, and we obviously can't really explain it. I think that's actually what's mysterious and attractive about it. It almost feels like magic,” Reid explains. "I mean, Dylan was born in the town that has the same name as that I'm from, but in Scotland. And I remember being like, That's so weird. It really feels like magic. It really feels kind of witchy sometimes."

The pair met a few years ago after Fraser heard one of Reid’s songs during one of his five-hour journeys from Scotland to London. After messaging her on Instagram, the pair became fast friends. A planned to meet up in London was pre-empted after they accidentally bumped into each other the night before the rendezvous at a gig at Lafayette in London. “I just remember you had a very distinctive haircut, and I saw it from behind, and I was like, I think that's this person I'm talking to,” Reid laughs.

Reid and Fraser headed to the studio the next day, more for a casual session than real intention, and wound up delivering "Vampire", from Fraser’s 2022 EP, 2030 Revolution. They kept in touch, and after Fraser stopped working with Atlantic Records, he and Reid headed to her home state of Montana to record the sessions that would become Witch Post's first songs (as well as an unnamed second project yet to come).

Being in a band wasn't their intention; the pair are solo artists by design. “I've always said my whole life, I'm never going to be in a band,” Fraser laughs. As the kid in school who led group projects with his own singular vision, opening up to Reid was as much of a process for Fraser as it was for her. “I feel like there wasn't really any ego in the room," adds Fraser. "I mean, don't get me wrong, we fight like brother and sister as well, she'll tell me to shut up, and I'll tell her to shut up."

Reid’s prior experiences had turned her off band work entirely. “I was doing the indie-rock chick thing for the longest time before it became cool," she sighs. "I'm lucky that there's a lot of girls that came in and made it fun and socially acceptable, people like boygenius, that brought about a renaissance of being an indie chick. But, it's been lonely for a long time, and it still is.”

It was a lot of back and forth before Witch Post would see the light of day. Even today the pair are still unsure of what exactly this period of their lives is leading to, but they do know that it came at the right time. "We really had a situationship that lasted many months," she continues. "Of us both at one point being like, Let's do the band and another one be like, No. Finally, I remember we had this moment where, I think Dylan, you offered the ultimatum. You were like, we just need to commit to only this if we're gonna do it," Reid explains.

This was the biggest hurdle for her to ascend: “We're writing these great songs together, and people are kind of being like, Oh, you guys have a vibe together. And in my head, I'm like, Oh, what's the next Alaska Reid solo record? Clearly I'm writing these songs to push this band forward, and I'm not really writing as many Alaska Reid solo songs. And then I'm sitting there being like, Oh, I don't want to do the band.”

As for the band's name? “I almost feel like we're the witches in a way," Reid explains. "In so much of my life – especially in rock music – everyone's been like, Fuck off. You're a girl. So in a way it already feels a bit witchy... It all feels punk in a way, but in our own way."

“It's also scary," Fraser laughs, "I didn't know what the fuck a witch post was, and Alaska was like, let's call the band Witch Post! She explained it to me, and then I Googled 'witch post', and it literally has the St Andrew's Saltire carved into it…it's probably a fuck you to Scots. It's probably not a good thing, but we're reclaiming it!” Fraser beams.

Eventually, the first song they penned together made it out into the world. “Chill Out” leads with ramshackle guitar chords, before a howling Fraser comes in, later joined by the soothing sounds of Reid as the driving track careens with the freedom of the band unleashing their intentions. Fraser’s vocal sounds lived, a rawness that only life can tune in: “I’d projectile vomited on the street before I got into the studio. I was hanging out of my arse. It was awful!”

The pair recognised a space in the musical landscape for the kind of rock band that died out at the turn of the millennium: all dirty-fingernails, grit and restless energy. And while it may be a grand statement to attribute to Witch Post, their appreciation for 90s alt-rock is deep in the duo's DNA; Fraser has an affinity for Sonic Youth, Nine Inch Nails et al, while Reid loved Dinosaur Jr. and The Replacements. They pay tribute to these influences on the cranked-to-eleven single "Rust", released today.

"In my heart, The Replacements the biggest band ever," Reid enthuses. "In a way, I feel like Dylan and I are writing songs in that alternate universe where The Replacements are playing massive arenas and stadiums. We're writing songs for all of the artists that we feel like that about.

"We're bringing back good, cool, rock music. Sometimes I feel like there's not a lot of that out there. There's definitely people doing stuff, but then there's a lot of boring shit, and we're not going to be boring." And if that wasn't enough, she follows this promise up with an even larger one: "We're ambitious, and we're going to make you listen."

Just like The I Don’t Cares – the slept-on collaboration between The Replacements' Paul Westerberg and Blake Babies' Juliana Holter – Witch Post is a lo-fi melding of two street-level songwriters and kindred spirits that can float back and forth between the same page and turn the next one over with an implicit understanding.

Being able to trust Fraser has helped Reid get to grips with band life once more too. “Something that's been insane for me, is being [able to] trust this person, and I trust writing with them, and I trust saying ideas, and I trust their ideas," she tells me. "The other person that I feel like that with I'm in a long-term relationship with them [producer A.G. Cook]," she laughs. "See what I mean? So I knew when I met Dylan, I was like, 'Whoa, this is a major feeling. This person, we're going to change each other's lives'."

The new project has also given Fraser a renewed sense of purpose. After being dropped from Atlantic, he's been kept busy tinkering with other projects and ideas but Witch Post helped him feel grounded once again. “Landing in this place has been really good for me, because I wasn't ready, and I'm still not ready to go out on my own again,” he shrugs. “For me, it's freedom…it's a bit of a fuck you to my past and everything that I've been through to this stage. I was super young when I was doing my other stuff, but now I have this confidence. I just have a really good feeling about this project."