Glytsh arrived on the music scene in March with a big bang, screamy vocals, distorted guitars and a fresh sound that made the industry take notice. With a string of absolutely rave reviews from Amazing Radio (Charlie Ashcroft, Frankie Francis), Radio X (John Kennedy) and BBC Sounds (Richard Latto), the two fascinating and talented women are going from strength to strength. Their debut single “(Hard)core Memory” gained nearly 6k views on their YouTube channel in a short period of time, was shared countless of times among fans and spread like wild fire in the metal/heavy rock community. To find out more about the band, we sat down with Hella Sin and Luna Blake to discuss their inspirations, career and plans for the future world domination.
Official bio: Formed of 2 seasoned female musicians from the London scene with several years of touring experience in iconic venues and festivals all over the world, the explosive Glytsh duo mixes their love for metal music with their passion for dark and haunting sonic soundscapes and visuals. The duo formed in late 2021, when French singer Jennifer Diehl (aka Luna Blake) and Swiss guitarist Claire Genoud (aka Hella Sin) decided to start writing music together after having met in a cover band a few months before. With their common passion for heavy music and pole dancing, the pair decided to find a way to make these two completely different musical worlds collide. Glytsh’s music also aims to empower and inspire their listeners, especially amongst women and the LGBTQ+ community. (Hard)core Memory (out June 1st 2022) is their 2nd single and talks about the addictive and destructive side of love, in the continuity of debut single ‘Closer’ (released on March 18th 2022), a reinvented version of Nine Inch Nails controversial hit song.
A perfect Glytsh in the Matrix
Bonjour mademoiselles! Please introduce yourselves to our readers.
Luna Blake: I’m Luna, singer and co-founder of the band.
Hella Sin: I’m Hella, I’m the guitar player and co-founder of the band!
The word “Glytsh” is self-explanatory, but we wanted to ask why you decide on this particular name?
Luna Blake: I love reading and watching documentaries about parallel universes, quantum physics and glitch in the matrix. When you see what is going on in the world, it really feels like we got caught in a black hole where nothing is functioning properly, going from hope to chaos in a second. Obviously, we had to change the spelling to make it unique.
Hella Sin: Glitches can be many things, but just from an aesthetic point of view, it looks cool to incorporate them in our visuals (music videos and online content). We like the broken computer/old technology effect. Our music is also full of glitches, production wise, and in the song-writing too, when we switch from an electronic/hip hop verse to a super heavy chorus for example.
Everybody has a past. You both have played in different original bands and toured the world as session musicians before. Do you think those experiences shaped you as artists and musicians?
Luna Blake: Massively yes. It’s been like going to a school of rock all these years. Learning more about myself and feeling more confident on stage. Entertaining a crowd was absolutely not natural for me before. It still isn’t, but I feel more comfortable with it now. It has also taught me what I want to achieve and choosing the right people to work with like Hella.
Hella Sin: Absolutely. I think learning other people’s songs is crucial for developing your own style as a guitar player and as a songwriter. You can then decide what you like best from everything you learned and mix all of those things together to create your own identity. I also learned to put on a great show and entertain people. There are so many things to think about when it comes to gigging – from your gear to your stage presence and I’m glad I got to experiment all of that for years before I met Luna and started Glytsh.
You are the first group we know that combines elements of industrial metal (NIN, Filter), riot grrrl movement (Jack off Jill, Bikini Kill), Brooklyn metal scene (Crisis, NY Loose) and college/alternative rock (Hole, L7). Such a powerful combination of influences but it is quite a surprise for a European act. Is there any particular reason why you seem to look to the other side of the Pond for inspiration?
Luna Blake: First of all, thank you for not mentioning the obvious bands people always mentioned when it comes to women in a rock or metal band. My dad is a musician too and a big fan of rock, so I grew up listening to Led zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath and discovered later on that great stuff was existing on the other side of the Pond too. A whole world full of dirty sounds with grunge, punk and metal but also hip hop.
Hella Sin: Generally, my favourite bands and biggest influences are American bands and artists (Rage Against The Machine, Tool, Audioslave, Issues, Slash, etc). Not sure why. But we wanna play the US a lot so that’s probably a good thing!
Let`s talk composing for a bit – what comes first in your song-writing: riffs or lyrics? Do you work separately or jam together?
Luna Blake: I usually start writing the electronic part which so far happened to be the beginnings of our songs. Then record some vocals on a 1st verse chorus and send it to Hella so she can come up with some heavy guitar badassery for the rest of the song. We meet to work on the arrangement and once we are happy with the result, we get it produced, mixed and mastered.
Hella Sin: I would typically come up with riffs and other sections sometimes. We both prefer working separately and sending ideas back and forth.
Glytsh opened the doors to the music biz with a proper bang. Your first release was a cover of “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails. Despite being 28 years old, this song is still considered shocking by many mostly due to its lyrics. Did you want to retell the story but from a female perspective?
Luna Blake: What amazed me with this song is that the lyrics can actually apply for men and women. I don’t know if Trent Reznor did it on purpose or once again didn’t realise how genius he is! The first motive wasn’t really to do it from a female perspective, but mostly to cover a song we love and speaks to us in many ways, musically and lyrically. Of course, playing it from a female perspective ended up being another motive as we are fighting for women to speak and act freely. I’ve spent way too much time being burned at the stake!
Hella Sin: We didn’t necessarily think about it from a female perspective. What I like about this song is that it can apply to any gender. It’s about being addicted to someone, in a not so healthy way and trying to heal from your past trauma through sex with this person. It can feel like real love, but it is not. I think a lot of people can relate to that. I certainly bore Luna with similar stories every day.
This project does not only come with jaw dropping music, but with full artistic vision as well. You put so much effort into your videos, visual effects, stage costumes. And all of this is overseen and produced by yourselves as well. Is DIY ethos important to you?
Luna Blake: It’s important for us to share the vision we have for this project and the only way to do
at this stage is to stay in charge. DIY does take more time. It’s a lot of work and we can definitely say that it’s almost a full-time job lately. That’s the reason why we are so grateful to see so many positive responses so far.
Hella Sin: At this stage it is, because we wanna make sure we set the scene properly with our visuals and image etc. In the long run, it would be nice to get some help for sure. We want to be able to focus on making the best music we can. But to be honest, we already have people helping us massively, including you guys at Vanadian Avenue!
And speaking about videos – “(Hard)core Memory” just hit 5.5K views on YouTube in just two weeks. Congratulations. Did you expect such an interest in the song and its visual representation?
Luna Blake: Releasing a new song is always very exciting and scary. You never know what is gonna happen. When you put so much effort into a creation and expose it on the wild web, you get a feeling of being completely naked and vulnerable. There’s nothing more rewarding than getting a response like we’ve had so far even though it’s always important to remember that as long as you are happy with what you did, it’s all that matters.
Hella Sin: Thank you! We’re very grateful for it! We didn’t know what to expect because it was the first song we ever wrote together from scratch. It feels good because we put tremendous effort into it. It took a bit of time to find the right mixing engineer especially, but Ras (Raw Sound Studio) really made the song the best it could be.
In a recent interview you mentioned a tour around the UK and even the US. Do you have any shows booked yet? If yes, when are you hitting the road?
Luna Blake: Loading…
Hella Sin: Everything is work in progress. More news on that coming very soon.
You are currently working on a third single. When can we expect it and what can you tell us about it?
Luna Blake: We are gonna work hard on it this coming summer!
Hella Sin: Early September. Loads of industrial guitar chaos incoming.
Last questions are fun at Indieterria. Let’s say Hollywood called and you are cast in the new Matrix movie. What role do you play and which side are you on?
Luna Blake: I like the Oracle role! “Know thyself”! The only thing I can say is that I took the red pill a long time ago!
Please follow the band online at:
https://glytsh.com/
https://www.facebook.com/thisisglytsh
https://www.instagram.com/thisisglytsh/
https://twitter.com/thisisglytsh
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3IuN2dAX0Mi7hblMfMbO6X
https://www.tiktok.com/@thisisglytsh?lang=en
Rita and Malicia Dabrowicz
Indieterria 
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