Wither: Members Of New Australian "Supergroup" Discuss Their Latest Endeavour

The five men behind the local scene's newest "supergroup" heavy act, Wither, speak about the creation of this joint musical endeavour.

Later tonight - on the evening of Wednesday, July 18th - Triple J's Short.Fast.Loud will be premiering 'Nothing To No One', the extremely pissed-off, riffy and lyrically bitter debut single from the newly launched band, Wither. Wither, is in short, a "supergroup" outfit: made up of five musicians who are all highly active in the local Australian heavy music scene.

On vocals is Belle Haven frontman, David De La Hoz (center), whose now touching upon a heavier, more aggressive vocal performance than what many people have heard from him over the years in Belle Haven. (Trust me, the dude has never sounded as angry and as violent as he does here). On guitars is the signature team of Pridelands guitarist Liam Fowler (far right) and former Sentinel member, Jamie Marinos (second from the left), whose name you'll often find on the production and engineering credits of many other Aussie releases. Over in the band's rhythm section, drummer Luke Weber (second from the right, ex-Dream On Dreamer) and bassist Jeremy Hughes (far left; Sanctify The Serpent, Taurus) solidify the Wither line-up; making for what is a really well-rounded group of individuals.

Of course, I could just wax lyrical about this new outfit and it's five members forever. But I'd rather that you hear from Wither themselves about the birth and intent of this new project as it now goes beyond its baby steps and begins to run. Starting with their frontman.

"Wither was initially an idea between friends a few years ago, we wanted to do something new and heavy, so this started just as a hobby", states David about how it all began and what this band means to him. "For me, Wither is a big juxtaposition to what I do creatively with Belle Haven. It’s an opportunity to express a part of myself I can’t in any other creative endeavor. The guys in Wither are some of the most talented musicians I’ve had the privilege to write and play music with and it’s all very new and exciting to me."

"Wither just kind of came out of nowhere for me," recalls Liam, getting into how the Pridelands songwriter/guitarist first came on-board. "One day almost two years ago now I was approached by David and asked if I wanted to join what we thought was going to be just a fun band with a group of awesome people, so I was all for it. After a short amount of time, there were like three demos’ written and we started to realize that we could make something really cool out of this. Throughout 2017 and 2018 a lot of work has been put into writing and jamming this band out and I couldn’t feel anymore privileged to be playing with such a group of talented people."

For drummer Luke Weber, this project was something that started as mere fun, with just a casual vibe, yet grew to become more serious. "For a good while there, Wither was just us writing and jamming for fun and we didn’t really expect much to come of it. However, the more we wrote and jammed, the more it became apparent that we really enjoy working together as a band and the connection was so natural that is was obvious for us to take things more seriously," he says.

Bassist Jeremy Hughes mentions how much of a change-up this new band is to him personally, what with his past musical creations coming from a predominant death metal background. "Wither, in the beginning, was just the sound of riffs I was hearing through the walls while I was hanging out at Jamie’s house. A few months on from that he asked if I was interested in playing with him, Luke, Liam and David in a band they had been working on over the last couple of years. Having come from a predominantly death metal background, this is very refreshing and exciting for me and I get to work with some of the nicest and most talented guys I know playing some sick songs," he continues.

The flipside to that part is guitarist Jamie Marinos, who is just over the damn moon to get things rolling out after sitting on this material for so long. Something he's extra keen for, given he hasn't played in a band to this degree since Sentinel ended back in 2016. "I was super keen to take the opportunity to try and write some different music than what I was used to at the time with good friends. Wither for me is an outlet to try some fresh writing styles with some great musicians and get back to playing live shows again."

Check out a lil' teaser trailer for 'Nothing To No One' below, catch the song's radio premiere tonight, and then smash the full release first thing tomorrow morning (Thursday, July 19th). This three and a half-minute single is the brooding musical equivalent of a scathing middle finger and shows real promise for what future Wither releases hold. Speaking of, absolutely expect more to come from Wither in 2018. From what I've heard and been shown so far, shit's gonna be good!