WITCH: KCRW Live from HQ

Click in for electrifying renditions of Zango cuts like the cosmically-reaching “Waile” and the eviscerating hard-rock jam “Stop The Rot.” Plus, read on as Jagari breaks down the band’s complex backstory in conversation with KCRW’s Travis Holcombe.

The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

KCRW: Can you take us back to when you recorded your first record, Introduction, in 1972? What was going on in your home country of Zambia, and what was going on in your own life?

Jagari: We didn't have facilities for recording in my country, so a lot of good bands that existed at the time could not record. They didn't have the opportunity to [record music] like my band had. And we had only one radio station in Zimbabwe.

We had music from Europe, music from America, and some parts of Africa. And of course, we also had our own traditional music. In my country, we have about 72 ethnic groups. In terms of language, it's a bit negative [to have] too many languages in the same country. But from my point of view, that’s a very big repertoire of traditional stuff. [What] you get from public domain, you can match with the Western music. The [biggest] difference is that the Western music is wider — you have about 12 halftones in the atomic scale. … Our strength is in simple rhythms, criss crossing, and making a result that sounds a bit complicated. This gives us a very strong base for rhythmic patterns. We wanted to play rock! That’s what we heard on the radio, that’s what we heard people play. 

Can you tell us about “Zamrock” in your own words? It’s a fusion of musical styles that you basically invented, right?

It took a long time for us to settle on “Zamrock.” We were calling it “Zambiano…” all sorts of names because we didn't know which one to pick. One of our friends is the one who coined the term “Zamrock.” He’s a physician, but [at the time] he was doing part time DJing with the National Broadcasting. 

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Let’s break down the history of WITCH a little more, you were involved with the band’s first five albums, and then you stepped down for a while. Where did you go? Were you pursuing other musical opportunities? 

[In conversation with the leader of a band we opened for] I found out that he had a diploma from London School of Music. That's what caused me to apply for training at the only college that offered music, but it offered music with the condition that if you're government sponsored in that program, [after] graduation, you needed to teach in government schools for two years. So upon graduation, I sneaked out of the country and went to join the band in Zimbabwe until I was found out. I had not reported for work as a teacher. So I came back to Zambia to take up my new job, and that coincided with the pandemic we had that time — HIV and AIDS. [There were] curfews and blackouts in the country which were detrimental to the progress of Zamrock. If you wanted to play at night you [had to] go into the venue at 6 p.m., and you could only come out the following day at 6 a.m. Only a machine would play that. 

When did you get word that Western audiences were discovering WITCH? And is this the biggest reason that you were able to find your way back to the band?

Well… it started with a negative report that there was a group of people in Germany who were bootlegging Zambian music, Zamrock, on the pretext that most of the musicians had died. They didn't know where to look for permission, or things like that.

But one of the pioneers of Zamrock (also a friend of ours) Rikki Ililonga was living in Denmark. He got wind of it. And… I don't know how they met, but he talked to a guy here [in Los Angeles] called Egon. He’s the proprietor of Now-Again Records. So one day I got a phone call, and I was asked Are you [part of this band]? Yes [laughs].

[Editor’s note: WITCH’s early work was given a new spotlight in 2011 via Now-Again’s reissues, and Egon’s dual instincts for archivism and amplification.]  

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Credits:

KCRW Music Director: Anne Litt
Interviewer: Travis Holcombe
Director / Editor / Color: Angie Scarpa
Director of Photography: Vice Cooler
Camera Operators: Dalton Blanco, Vice Cooler, Angie Scarpa
Recording / Mix Engineer: Katie Gilchrest
Assistant Engineer: Hope Brush
Executive Producer: Ariana Morgenstern
Producers: Anna Chang, Liv Surnow, and Krissy Barker
Digital Producer: Marion Hodges
Digital Editorial Manager: Andrea Domanick
Lighting Design: Jason Groman
Art Director: Evan Solano