Interview: The Wytches Guitarist Kristian Bell

Kristian, first of all – welcome to the Orange family! Can you tell us a bit about why you wanted to swap over and which amps you’ll be using?
Thank you for having me. Well my amp broke a while a go so I started using Dan’s touring Terror Bass that he’d left at my house. I’m not sure if that’s bad for the amp or anything, but it sounded great so at practise I started using an AD30 they had at the rehearsal space. My old amp didn’t have a gain knob, so I had a gain pedal for clean, but had to turn it off when a fuzz pedal was on. The big muff sounded better to me going through a clean amp, but with the gain of the Orange it seems to make the fuzz sound better. 
 
Do you remember your first ever encounter with Orange, whether it was seeing someone else play it or playing it yourself?
I remember seeing a Black Sabbath video with some Orange stacks in the background, and I loved how vibrant they looked matched with dark music. A friend of mine at school also had an Orange head and cab which I thought looked and sounded great, he was the first person I knew who actually had one. He is an amazing guitarist with a kind of Sabbath sound and I used to love hearing him play.
 
It’s been quiet from The Wytches for quite some time now, what have you been up to in the meanwhile, any other musical adventures?
I released an album with my other band ‘The Mark and Kristian Band’ earlier this year, as well as recording a few other bands, and I find it really beneficial working and recording with others as it makes me think more about guitar tones and sound. 
 
Can you tell us a bit about how you got into playing in the first place?
I initially started out playing drums as a kid, and didn’t really get into guitar until I was 17. I’d watch people play Nirvana covers on YouTube and just copy what their hands were doing, that’s how I learnt the basics. I guess already knowing how to  play an instrument was a bit of a head start but I wouldn’t really say I’m a real guitar player, I just wanted to be able to play the Nirvana songs.
 
What are you currently listening to?
I’ve been listening loads to these two Captain Beefheart albums, ‘Spotlight Kid’ and ‘Clear Spot’, and not much else. I didn’t know much about him before and was told those two albums were some of his more conventional ones, but they still sound pretty out there to me!
 
What would your dream rig be, and why?
I really like the 50’s and 60’s Gibson ES hollow body guitars. I used to have an ES120, but sold it a while ago. I’d love to buy that back and have a good quality tremolo pedal, the one I have was like £15 on eBay, but it does the job I suppose. I like the old hollow bodies because they have this ‘plonky’ sound that seems good for a lot of genres. Surf, jazz and rock ’n’ roll.