Biography
TEMPLE WITCH
Andy Russell - guitar/vocals
Jacob Jones - bass
Jacob Wherley - drums
During the downtime of the Covid-19 pandemic, Andy Russell, a songwriter, guitarist and singer approached Johno Benedik, asking him to record drums for an old song Russell had penned for his previous band, Totvm. Eventually, while fleshing out an updated version of the song, the two bonded musically and decided to grow the project into a completely new, stoner/doom metal band. Temple Witch was born.
Upon writing several new songs in quick succession, Russell and Benedik booked studio time and set out to find a bass player to round out the group. Jacob Jones was soon brought into the fold and within a few weeks the trio had begun recording their debut album which would be titled Hand In Hand With Chaos, and released in June of 2021.
It seemed all the right people saw their progress and heard Hand In Hand With Chaos, as the trio continued to grind away in the studio, recording the tracks that would come to be on Ocean Thousand, Mountain Thousand, they signed their first management deal with Extreme Management Group Inc.
Over the course of the next year and a half Temple Witch secured endorsements with DR Strings and InTune Guitar Picks, Inc, travelled to Las Vegas to play the first annual Apocalypse In The Desert festival, and toured along the United States east coast. In April of 2023, the band parted ways with Johno Benedik and began the search for a new drummer. By May 2023 the band met and instantly gelled with Jacob Wherley, guitarist and singer of the Akron, Ohio power metal band Emerald Rage. Jacob Wherley was a fan of Temple Witch since the release of Hand In Hand With Chaos and tried out for the position of drummer and very soon after agreed to join as a full-time member.
Also in May of 2023, Temple Witch signed our first record label with WormHole Death Records. Since then, the band has been tirelessly preparing for the release of our second album Ocean Thousand, Mountain Thousand.
Temple Witch, not simply a catchy title, but a reference to the body and spirit. As a band the goal was to write songs which tackle philosophical and, at times, existential matters. The word ‘Temple’ as a nod to body and mind; the word ‘Witch’ a reference the the shadow within all of us.
The trio’s goal is not mainstream fame, it is not absurd riches. Their greatest mission is the mission of the artist: communicate and hopefully connect with as many people as possible, leaving a positive impact. When even one person has heard the music and is moved by it, the artist has succeeded. When a thousand people in an audience watch a band onstage play their music, and enjoy it, there is perhaps no purer form of communication. To do this in a thousand cities, in a hundred countries, for a million people; that is the goal.
Temple Witch’s message is not overly complicated. It is this: though we may not all understand one another, we all share the experience of being; the beauty, the wonder, the terrible suffering, and the utter cluelessness. The band doesn’t wish to make any sort of final or conclusive statements other than they know very well what it’s like to be human, and to that all people can relate; and that is what Temple Witch writes about.
