With a gleam of enthusiasm in the eye. Agnes, holds up a phone to the camera of the zoom meeting. “Just look at all these!” She exclaims before scrolling, seemingly endlessly through a litany of names. All of which potentials for what would eventually become the final agreed upon name, CWFEN. What began as a light hearted question about how many times they’ve been asked on the exact pronunciation, (it’s ‘coven’) has turned into a rabbit hole of a discussion about what’s in a name, but also highlights just how much care and attention the quartet put into their work.
Agnes Alder – vocals, rhythm guitar and Guy DeNuit – Backing vocals, lead guitar form half of the engaging powerhouse that is CWFEN and despite all of the passion and emotion they pour into the music are perfectly relaxed. At peace in their living room, conversing with a manner suiting two musicians who, while new to this project, are very familiar with the territory of the music industry.
Portable speakers
For those that have heard the current singles from debut Sorrows, the laid-back atmosphere that surrounds these two musicians seems at odds with the emotive weight and passion that comes through in their music. However, there is no sense of underestimating either the talent or experience contained within CWFEN. As Agnes explains when asked about the seeds of this project. “Both of us have been in bands and playing music for a very long time. Yet it had been a while since I had played live, I had been writing in secret for a while with no intention of anyone seeing it.”
With this outlet aspect, it’s clear that the soul of the music is a passion project and that fits with the intensity that they have subsequently weaved into their latest releases. However, the origins were not clear-cut metal in terms of genre identity. “I was doing some kind of electronic stuff initially,” is how Agnes describes the germination. Turning to Guy, “then I let you hear it.” Through nods of agreement and a knowing look. It appears that CWFEN may have originally been heading down a darkwave route. Discussing the first rehearsal and the preparation he went through with equipment, “I brought a lot of equipment. Synthesisers, drum triggers all set to get electronic, then I went away on tour with the band I was in.”
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Album release
“And I ruined it,” says Agnes with a chuckle. With no hesitation in agreeing, Guy confirms “yep, I get back you said right, ditch the synths we’re a metal band now I’ve written new demos.”
Album release
From this point forward, the idea of what would become CWFEN formed very quickly. Rös Ranquinn was in place on drums. Guy says of him “he’s a long-time collaborator with myself. We go back to high school. So long term friends and playing together our adult lives.” The final piece of the CWFEN puzzle is bassist Mary Thomas Baker. Again, a previous collaborator of Guy‘s “Mary was at my birthday party and heard some of the demos and wanted to contribute. So, the three of us, Rös, Mary and I have all played in bands previously.”
With a group now assembled, with the added bonus of previous understanding of influences, playing styles and creative influence Guy continues, “the four of us got in a room, you brought in the seeds of ideas [gesturing to Agnes] and we got the ideas down quite quickly into what is heard now.”
From having fledging demos recorded, the next logical step for CWFEN was gigs. For four seasoned musicians live is where they can hone their collective sound and allow the preconceived ideas to flow. “Everything with this band happened really quickly, at that point we thought we should try and get some gigs,” Agnes explains before adding, “we had the demos down before we’d played live. What we found, quite quickly, after playing live is that we’re much, much heavier (than the demos). That has shaped the sound and made it’s way back into the style.” This is born out by the reworked versions of Embers and Bodies both of which were on those demo recordings and are now fully realised on Sorrows having been through this evolution process.
The organic nature of how CWFEN have come to be, is one of the clearest things that come through in their music. Even though Agnes undertook a hard pivot from an electronic idea into metal, many of the songs owe their origins to this singular outlet of creativity. The subsequent combination of working with friends who are all accomplished musicians within the field of metal has helped nurture the music. Agnes sums it up succinctly, “I had a clear vision initially with how I wanted these some of these songs to sound, the natural chemistry of playing with these really good friends has translated beautifully.” Adding with a shared laugh with Guy, “it’s surpassed all our modest expectations!”a
