PHANTOM SPELL

I have noticed this trend recently where bands are really just one-man shows.  PHANTOM SPELL is just such a band as it is the brainchild of Kyle McNeill.  McNeill performs everything giving you the purest vision of his art.  Following up after a few years since his debut “Immortal's Requiem”, we get 2025’s “Heather & Hearth” which continues with the 70s prog rock leanings mixed with a bit of NWOBHM.  I got the chance to chat with Kyle McNeill and he offered his insights on a number of topics from PHANTOM SPELL, his other band SEVEN SISTERS, and songwriting all the way to his latest music purchase and personal Spinal Tap moment.  I really enjoyed his candid and thoughtful answers and it gave me a sense of where he was coming from musically.  So, let’s dive in and get to know this multi-instrumentalist.

WORMWOOD CHRONICLES: Congrats on releasing your great new record “Heather & Hearth”.  The new record has a similar vibe but with a few new twists.  Were any of the songs leftovers from “Immortal's Requiem”?

KYLE McNEILL – Thank you very much! No, it’s all fresh material that was written in the first months of  2025. It’s extremely rare for me to have leftover material, so to speak. Every song I have finished  I have released. It’s just the way I like to work. By the time I consider a song “finished” it’s been  through several stages of writing and re-writing so I’m pretty committed to it by that point! 

WC: Since you write and record all the music, what is the writing process? How do you start  constructing songs? 

KM– They often start as voice memos on my phone or little snippets of music that whirr around in  my head for a while. The voice memos can range from me mumbling a tune while I’m out and about to a fully-realised guitar melody or chord progression. Once I’ve captured the initial idea I tend to let it sit and “percolate” for a while. Not always, but most of the time. If I give the idea time to sit and develop in my mind the next section can present itself to me in a very natural  way. If I could record what goes on in my head it would be equally hilarious and worrying to listen back to. I run certain sections hundreds of times, over and over again, until I stumble onto  the next section that seems to work for me. At some point I will commit to demoing the song. I  always start by laying out the drums first and any sort of structure I may have. Once the drums are at a certain point I’ll start to put down guitars and bass. The synths and organ normally come after that unless the idea was originally written on, or for, a keyboard instrument. I’ll keep  working on the song until I have a complete structure. Then I’ll go back over the whole song  from the beginning and refine the ideas. If I can, I’ll let the song sit in that state for a while and  then come back to it with fresh ears. On the first listen after taking a break, if anything is odd or  some transitions aren’t working, it’ll be really obvious. I also like to listen to the demos quietly  while doing other stuff – cooking or emails – if at any point the song takes me away from my  other focus then it’s usually an indicator that there’s something not right in that part. 

WC:  Why did you decide to take on all the work yourself? 

KM: Well, PHANTOM SPELL started as a studio project. The writing and recording side of PHANTOM SPELL will always be a solo effort. I will, when money and time permits, get the live band involved  to record parts. Live drums would be the first step and that would be a huge improvement over the programmed stuff I do. I suppose it might seem like I’m some sort of control freak--in many ways, I am-- you sort of have to be if you’re going to manage yourself as a self-employed creative.  However, I don’t record everything on my own because I want to – necessarily. A big reason I do it that way is because it’s the quickest way for me fully realize my ideas. I would love to be able  to record the band live in the studio and do things that way. I just don’t have the money to do  something like that right now. It’s absolutely something I’m working towards, though! 

WC: This new record follows a similar pattern as the first one with two longer pieces and four shorter tracks. How do you determine when a song is done? 

KM: That’s an interesting question. I’m sure every songwriter will have their own answer to this.  For me, a big indicator for a when a song is done is just when it feels right in the current form it’s in. When starting with a 4-bar melody, or whatever, there’s no indication at that point where the song might go. It could be 60 seconds long or 60 minutes. You just have to be open to the  possibilities that present themselves when you’re in the writing process. It sounds a little spiritual, and I guess it is, but I believe that as creatives we’re acting as a sort-of funnel for these ideas that are floating around in the void. We spend our time fishing around in our subconscious  for inspiration and, if we’re lucky, we catch something. Those of us that “fish” more often catch more ideas. The craft of songwriting comes in when you begin to shape the ideas. And like with  any sort of skill, the more you do it the better you become. So yeah, when is a song done? When it tells it you! 

WC:What was the defining moment where you decided to become a musician? 

KM : I’m not sure there was a single defining moment. More a culmination of things that led me to  becoming a musician. Both my parents dabbled in music when they were younger. My mum  more than my dad. I was always around music – my earliest memories are of me listening to music in the front room. I was a typical kid in the sense that I went through a lot of different hobbies and then I “found” guitar and that basically took over my life from that point on. At the same time as me starting to play guitar I started buying my own music and developing my own  tastes. So my guitar playing journey was directly linked with my musical discoveries. At some point I just started identifying with the guitar and music as a whole. It became part of me and  that, as they say, was that! 

WC: I hear a lot of 70s prog influences in these two records. What are your main influences? 

KM: As far as prog goes, my main influences are all from the 70’s-era. Bands like CAMEL, GENESIS,  RETURN TO FOREVER, KANSAS; The list could go on but they are the main groups that influence my  kind of prog. They all on the more “structured” side of prog rock. Meaning that they still have  very definable song structures and genuinely catchy songs. I love listening to groups like EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER but my ideas are way more conservative than anything they dreamt up! 

WC: Are there any bands or artists that you like that would surprise your fans? Any guilty pleasures? 

KM:  Ah, I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. You like what you like! It’s tough to say what might  surprise people when we have instant access to all the music ever made. I guess people might  not expect me to listen to modern pop? I really like CAROLINE POLACHEK and HAIM. My wife calls it  “Sad Girl Pop”. I think that’s pretty accurate. I also spend a lot of time listening to AOR/Hard  Rock. MICHAEL BOLTON is my current obsession. 

WC: What are your touring plans for this record?

KM: We have some club shows booked in the UK this September. We’ll be playing London, Manchester, Newcastle and Portsmouth. In 2026 we have a good amount of festivals booked  already, most of them aren’t announced yet but I can say that we’re returning to Athens for the Up The Hammers 20th anniversary edition and we’re so excited for that! 

WC:  What bands would like to tour with or who would be part of your “dream bill”? 

KM: I think the perfect show for PHANTOM SPELL would be with IRON GRIFFIN, WYTCH HAZEL, and HÄLLAS. I would love for that to happen one day! If not all at the same time, at least on separate  occasions. 

WC: Switching over to your other band SEVEN SISTERS. You just release a few months back “Shadow of a Fallen Star Pt.2” which contains the amazing “Andromeda Descending (A Fallen Star Rises)”. What was the writing process for such a long piece and did you set out to write a long track or did it  just keep building? 

KM: Before any real writing was done for that song I’d already separated it into five sections to  match the story. It helped me break the whole thing down and focus on one part at a time. I gave each section a mood to aim for (also guided by the story) which further helped me piece it all together. I basically treated the whole thing as five separate songs until the moment I wove  them together. I had transitions in mind and thankfully they worked out as I intended! The whole time I was prepared to drop the idea if it started to feel like the music was suffering in quality because of the idea of doing one long song. It’s like the key to writing a long song is to not really try and make it long. It needs to happen as naturally as possible otherwise it’ll distract the  listener and become laborious to listen to. 

WC: SEVEN SISTERS has a more modern feel whereas PHANTOM SPELL is rooted in an older 70s prog  sound. Was there a concerted effort to make the two bands sound different? 

KM: Yeah, absolutely. Otherwise what would be the point? I started PHANTOM SPELL as a way of  exploring ideas that wouldn’t work within the context of SEVEN SISTERS. It was also fun to free  myself of any idea of playing it live and just go with whatever comes to mind. That has changed a little now, but not much. Also, PHANTOM SPELL has definitely started to develop its own personality. Much like SEVEN SISTERS has. I think once ‘Heather & Hearth’ is released people will  clearly hear the differences between the two groups. 

WC: What was the last album that you purchased? 

KM: “V: Lamentations” by WYTCH HAZEL

WC: What was the last concert you attended as a fan?

KM: It’s cheating a little bit because PHANTOM SPELL also played on the same night but I’m going to  say FIRMAMENT at the Golden Nugget in Nürnberg. I am a big fan of those guys! 

WC:  Do you have any Spinal Tap moments in your career?

KM: Man, almost too many. I think one of the most hilariously tragic moments of my career (so far) was when SEVEN SISTERS had to drive from Paris to London, mid-November, with a broken starter  motor AND a broken front seat passenger window because it got smashed the night before our journey home. Our drummer’s bag got stolen (with his passport inside) along with some drum cymbals. The starter motor went on the second night of our tour so we spent the rest of the tour push-starting this Toyota Yaris Verso like the absolute losers we were/are. On the way home we had to wrap ourselves in whatever blankets and sleeping bags we had and freeze our asses off  on the motorway the entire way back. Thankfully they let us on the ferry and we made it home without any other issues. It was so depressing at the time but it has since become one of our fondest memories. 

WC: Any last word for your fans? 

KM: Just a tremendous thank you for all the support so far both with SEVEN SISTERS and PHANTOM SPELL. I’m truly lucky to being doing what I do. Also, life sometimes throws you a broken starter  motor and a broken window before you need to drive all the way home. That’s okay, you can still get where you’re going. Don’t give up!

PHANTOM SPELL