EMQs with Gravewitch
EMQ’s With Gravewitch
Hi everyone! Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with USA Extreme Metallers, Gravewitch. Huge thanks Guitarist/ Vocalist Chris Fleming, and Drummer Andrew Ingraham for taking part.
What is your name, what do you play and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
Gravewitch. We are one of the bands within the underground Extreme Metal scene that seems to be withstanding the test of time. Gravewitch formed in 2013 when Chris Fleming & Andrew Ingraham were both Sophomores in High School. Guitarist/Vocalist Chris Fleming & Drummer Andrew Ingraham are the core founding members of Gravewitch. Chris writes & records the bass for our releases along with the guitar & vocals. Andrew writes & records the drums. Our first fill-in bassist, Kienan Maximchuk, entered the fray in 2015 & gigged with us for about a year until he quit in 2016. Summer of 2017, Brandon Self filled Kienan’s shoes until 2019, when we had to relieve him from his bass duties. Shortly after the departure of Brandon, Doug Green filled the void for us up until right before our most successful tour to date happened in September 2025. We are primarily a duo. We’re one of the very few bands that can get away with performing live as a duo while sounding like a band that has more than 4 or more members. All without the use of backing tracks, intros, outros, interludes, click tracks, autotune, etc. Gravewitch is and always will be 100% real, natural, & raw during our live performances with or without that 3rd member with us on stage playing bass. Our first self-release, the “Soul Reaper EP,” came out February 13th, 2015. Our first full-length self-released album, “The Summoning,” was released August 19th, 2020, during the pandemic. Our 2nd full-length self-titled album was released on June 18th, 2025, by Rock Sun Records & Virgin Music Group. We have over a couple of hundred shows & four tours under our belt.
How did you come up with your band name?
As kids (17 & 16 years of age), we were both sitting inside Andrew’s room at the time, and we were trying to find words we could combine that sounded good together. We wrote several words down on a piece of paper. After several attempts at fusing together a lot of different words, we finally came up with “Gravewitch.” We felt it had a good ring to it, and the name wasn’t taken. We also decided what lyrical topics we wanted to write about for the new band at that point in time as well.
What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?
We hail from Bend, Oregon, in the United States. There is a little bit of everything in the Underground Metal scene of the West Coast in the USA. Mostly “radio-friendly” types of bands, hardcore/deathcore/metalcore bands. The other majority of new bands are Death Metal/Slam Death Metal bands. There aren’t a whole lot of Old School Thrash, Black, Death, or Extreme Metal bands within those elements. There are some, but the radio-friendly & core bands seem to be the majority. We find nearly every scene in the USA is gate-kept to a certain degree/extent. At least that has been our experience trying to spread our music to new states/scenes/territories.
What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single, Video)
Our newest release is our self-titled 2nd full-length album, which dropped on June 18th, 2025, via Rock Sun Records & Virgin Music Group. Our first release that wasn’t self-released.
Who have been your greatest influences?
Ozzy Osbourne, Kreator, Dark Funeral, Children of Bodom, Slayer, Megadeth, Sodom, Amon Amarth, Skeletonwitch, Iron Maiden, etc. Hundreds of bands inspire Gravewitch!
What first got you into music?
For both of us, our families got us into music. Andrew’s dad, Jeff Ingraham, has been playing drums since before he was born. Jeff played for Country music legends Merle Haggard & Kris Kristofferson & is now recording/touring with Merle Haggard’s son, Benny Haggard. Chris’s grandparents played the upright bass & fiddle in a bluegrass band before he was born. They toured & performed with Alison Krauss during a summer-long tour back in the day.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
Dallas Toler-Wade. We’ve been on his booking roster (DNA Entertainment) for almost a year now. We are huge fans! We greatly look up to him and his wife, Andrea Toler-Wade, who is our booking agent. They’re both very incredible people who we look up to immensely, like mentors! It would be incredible to fuse our guitar styles and see what happens! Just having Dallas Toler-Wade record a guest solo on a Gravewitch track would be a dream come true for us.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
Every band probably says Wacken Open Air or similar fests here. Yes, it would be a huge dream come true to perform on the Wacken stages/similar fest stages of that caliber, but in all honesty, if Gravewitch were picked to appear on any festival throughout the world, big or small, it would be a dream come true for us! Our ultimate goal in life with this band is to spread our music to every corner of the globe. Being considered for festival stages & being included in those festival circuit groupings of bands throughout the world is our dream.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
From what we can remember, receiving someone’s rock collection is the weirdest thing a fan has gifted us so far.
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
Our eternal thank you from the bottom of our blackened witchy hearts goes out to all of our fans, supporters, friends, & family for supporting this band over the years through the good times & the bad. Our existence & place solidified within the Underground Metal scene would not be possible without your undying love & support!!! It is an absolute privilege for us to have the opportunity to perform and see you all. Our lives are devoted to bringing you dark, extreme, & witchy-sounding Metal! Expect lots more music from the Gravewitch camp. We’re eternally grateful we get to live this life performing Heavy Metal music for you all.
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
Ozzy Osbourne. The world needs his music now more than ever. He had so much more music left in him… None of us would be here today living the lives we live if Ozzy had never had his father buy him that PA system.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
We enjoy all the traveling we get to do. It is crazy thinking about all the places we wouldn’t get to see, all the people we wouldn’t get to meet, & all of the experiences we wouldn’t have lived if we weren’t in a band together. Being a musician is great because it gives us a reason to live. It gets us out of the 9-5 paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle. We jokingly unjokingly call it “Living life in a hamster wheel.” Trying to pay off all those bills, chase that debt, and such. One of the most rewarding feelings is seeing how your own music changes & affects people’s lives. Especially watching how it affects total strangers’ lives. No amount of money in the world can give you the same feeling as being in a band does, and that’s without the drugs & drinking. We don’t partake in heavy partying. We hate when we’re not out playing shows, touring, & traveling together. Life becomes stagnant. Life becomes difficult to keep fighting for your dreams when downtime off the road occurs. Typically, during the holiday & Winter months for us.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
Gatekeeping. Every band should be given a chance to prove itself. Especially those who put in the work & effort to perfect their craft & those who withstand the test of time. A lot have it easier than others, & a lot have it much harder than others. It should be about trying to keep a dying genre of music alive & thriving. Not about competition & being better or more brutal than every other band there is.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
Kreator – “Phantom Antichrist”
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s or Downloads?
Vinyl. What shows a better commitment to supporting a band than buying their vinyl?!
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
March 1st, 2024, opening for all-female Brazilian Death Metal legends Crypta in Portland, Oregon, at the legendary Dante’s “Keep Portland Weird” building. It was nearly sold out by the time we got up on stage, we had some crazy pits, & our merch line was nearly as long as Crypta’s merch line was!
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
We’d both probably be dead without music and having this outlet. No drive to work, no drive to exist in this toxic money money-driven society. Or we’d be thinking completely differently and just be regular 9-5 joe schmos like we are during our off-time to fund this band.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Ourselves, our merch woman, Trinity Chism, our booking agent, Andrea Toler-Wade, & her husband, Dallas Toler-Wade.
What’s next for the band?
We’re currently writing our 3rd full-length album, searching for a new live fill-in bass player to join us, & trying to book some tours & festival dates for 2026 with or without a bassist. We plan on releasing three new singles in 2026 & 2027 that won’t be included on our third album to make the wait for new music not nearly as long.
What Social Media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gravewitch
Instagram: https://instagram.com/gravewitchofficial
Bandcamp: https://gravewitchofficial.bandcamp.com/album/gravewitch
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2YeNndNnnjC40KlROdma33
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@gravewitch
Time for a very British question now. As an alternative to the humble sandwich, is the correct name for a round piece of bread common in the UK either a Bap, a Barm (or Barm Cake), a Batch, a Bun, a Cob, a Muffin, a Roll or a Tea Cake?
We have absolutely no idea since we are from the United States and have never left the country before. Would our guess be tea cake? We have no clue… Hahaha!
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Thank you for interviewing us! These were really great questions to think about and answer. Looking forward to being interviewed by you again in the future!
