How to Write Witch House Songs

You want a song that sounds like a midnight ritual played on a busted tape deck. You want vocals that sag like syrup. You want drums that feel like heartbeats from another dimension. You want the listener to see neon crucifixes and old VHS static in their head. This guide gives you the tools, workflows, and jokes you need to make tracks that actually scare in a good way.

Everything here is practical and written for artists who do not want fluff. Expect clear steps, studio tricks, sonic recipes, lyric drills, release ideas, and a handful of real life scenarios that make the whole thing click. If you are a millennial or Gen Z artist who lives for mood, this is your manual for making witch house tracks people will save to slow mo playlists and late night feeds.

What Is Witch House

Witch house is a micro genre that sits at the intersection of slowed down hip hop, occult imagery, industrial texture, and hazy pop. It formed in the late 2000s and early 2010s from producers who loved chopped and screwed techniques, dark ambient pads, and spooky aesthetics. Witch house is as much visual as it is sonic. The music uses heavy reverb, pitched and time warped vocals, mangled synths, and drums that can feel both trap influenced and desolate.

Important terms explained

• Chopped and screwed This is a hip hop production technique that slows tempo and chops vocal lines to create a syrupy effect. The method was pioneered by DJ Screw. In witch house it is often used to make voices sound like sleepwalkers.
• Formant Formant refers to vocal resonance. Changing formant moves how a voice sounds without changing pitch. Lower formant makes a voice darker and broader. Increasing formant can make a voice thinner or chipmunk like. We will use formant shifts like a paint brush on words.
• Half time This is a rhythmic feel where the snare lands on beats that make the groove feel slower. A 140 BPM track in half time feels like 70 BPM to the listener. Witch house often sits in this space.
• Convolution reverb A reverb that uses real spaces captured as impulse responses. Put a tiny voice inside a cathedral impulse to make the voice sound like a roaming ghost.

Core Aesthetic Principles

Witch house is mood first. If the mood is correct the rest will follow. These are the aesthetic pillars to check off.

• Atmosphere over clarity Let texture carry meaning. Instruments blur into each other. The song should feel like a fog with a shape.
• Slow but heavy groove Do not confuse being slow with being boring. Slow can be enormous and deliberate. Use tension in space and weight in low frequencies.
• Occult and suburban Combine ritual imagery with everyday detritus. A hymn played through cheap speakers is a good place to start.
• Visual identity The cover, the font, the short video clip all matter. Witch house is a mood you sell visually as much as you write sonically.

Tempo and Groove

Most witch house tracks live between sixty and eighty BPM if counted in real time. Producers frequently work at double that tempo and then imply half time. Here is how to choose.

Option A Real slow

Set your DAW at sixty to eighty BPM. Program kicks on one and then the rest of the kit with a broad feel. This gives natural space. Good if your vocal wants to breathe and you want long reverb tails that do not collide.

Option B Double time and feel half

Work at 120 to 160 BPM but program your drums to feel half time. This gives you access to faster sounding hi hat patterns while keeping the overall feel slow and psychedelic. This is useful if you want trap style hi hats but a sagging tempo.

Sound Palette

Witch house uses a compact sonic palette. Keep it simple and invest time into texturing each element.

• Bass Sub heavy 808s or sine bass with a little saturation. Let the bass be a force not a melody.
• Pads Long evolving pads with slow filter movement. Use dark waveforms like saws layered with noise. Add a convolution impulse of a small room and a cathedral at low wet mix to make it huge.
• Leads Bell like tones, detuned saws, and heavily effected electric piano sounds. Process everything with chorus and subtle bit reduction to age it.
• Drums Sparse kicks, deep 808s, snare or clap on the three when in half time, trap hi hat rolls, and occasional industrial hits. Use long reverb on snare for atmosphere then gate to keep low end present.
• Vocal samples Choirs, church organ stabs, ritual chants, field recordings of footsteps. Treat these with pitch shift and granular stretching.

Harmony and Scales

Witch house prefers minor modes and exotic intervals. It does not require advanced theory. Focus on moods.

• Natural minor The safe choice that gives sadness and weight.
• Phrygian Use Phrygian for a darker, slightly exotic feel. The flat second creates immediate tension.
• Harmonic minor Use this for a more dramatic, cinematic flavor. The raised seventh pulls the ear in a way that can feel unsettling.
• Dissonant intervals Tritone and minor seconds are your friends. Use them sparingly for moments of shock.

Example progressions that work

All examples in A minor for clarity

• Am minor chord to F major to E major to Am minor. This uses modal color to create a loop that rises then falls.
• Am minor to G major add9 to Em minor to Am minor. Simple and cinematic.
• Am minor add b2 to Am minor add b5 for a ghostly drone. Use as a pad motion rather than a strong progression.

Melody and Vocal Approach

Vocals in witch house are often textural. They function as another instrument. That does not mean your lyrics cannot land hard. It means the voice will be treated like clay.

Vocal processing recipes

1. Record a clean take. Double the performance if you plan to pitch shift.
2. Create a duplicate and pitch it down by four to eight semitones. Reduce formant to keep naturalness. Blend under the main line for weight.
3. Add heavy convolution reverb with a long decay. Wet the reverb only on the duplicate. This makes the pitched layer sound like a shadow.
4. Use a transient designer on the dry vocal to keep attack present. Use saturation on the low pitched layer to add harmonics.
5. Try granular stretching on one word for a moment of glitchy ritual magic.

Real life scenario

You are in a tiny apartment. You sing into a cheap USB mic at midnight. It sounds thin. Do not panic. Record two takes. Pitch one down six semitones and low pass both around three thousand Hertz. Add a cathedral impulse reverb to the pitched take and a tiny plate to the dry take. Suddenly the bedroom becomes a late night chapel.

Lyric Themes and Writing Tricks

Witch house lyrics lean into ritual, isolation, suburban unease, occult metaphor, and late night confession. Keep lines tactile. Avoid abstract sentiment without imagery. Use small details to conjure a wider world.

Lyric micro prompts

• Write a line that names an object that does not belong in a church.
• Write a line that includes a time stamp like three am or midnight bus number.
• Write two lines where one is an apology and the other is a spell.

Line examples you can steal and adapt

The VHS player remembers your face longer than you do.

I slow my voice as if to fit inside the cabinet where the phones are kept.

Offer the moon a cigarette and it answers with a cracked light bulb.

Notice these lines are concrete. They do not declare emotion directly. The image does the heavy lifting. That is witch house lyric craft.

Structure and Arrangement

Witch house does not follow pop rules but structure still matters. Keep arcs so the listener has payoff.

Common structure

• Intro with a motif or sample
• Verse with sparse drums and a low vocal
• Build with textural changes
• Chorus with a heavier bass and expanded reverb field
• Breakdown where sounds are chopped or stretched
• Final chorus with added element or a vocal taken to a new pitch

Use contrast as your storytelling tool. Pull elements away and offer them back with one changed detail. The listener senses progression even when the tempo is slow.

Sound Design and FX

The magic in witch house is often a handful of processed samples and layered effects. Here are production tricks that give immediate character.

Granular glitches

Take a vocal or a synth and pass it through a granular sampler. Set long grain size and random pitch jitter. Automate the position and grain size so the sound behaves like a living thing.

Tape style saturation

Use tape emulation to add compression and subtle wow and flutter. Push the low mids and then roll off high end with gentle EQ to make things feel aged.

Convolution reverb with unusual impulses

Impulse responses do not have to be real rooms. Load impulses of old telephones, stairwells, car trunks, or even the inside of a vending machine if you have it. Blending normal and weird impulses creates the uncanny valley you want.

Pitch and formant stacking

Layer the same vocal passed through different pitch shifts and formant settings. One layer sits low and monstrous. One layer sits high and thin. Pan them slightly and glue with a gentle bus compression.

Sidechain for movement

Use sidechain compression not to make pumping dance music but to make the pad breathe around the kick. Set a long release so the pad ducks slowly and returns like a tide.

Drum Programming Tips

Drums in witch house can be minimalist and ritualistic. Use space as a rhythmic element.

• Kick Deep 808 or acoustic kick with low end emphasis. Keep it sparse so it hits like a pulse.
• Snare Use clap or snare with long reverb. Put a gate that closes before the next beat to keep the low end from turning to mush.
• Hi hats Rolling triplets and stuttering patterns help. Use random velocity to avoid machine like repetition.
• Percussion Add metallic hits, bowls, and percussive samples with long tails to create ritual punctuation.

Mixing and Mastering Strategies

Mixing witch house is a balancing act between clarity and grime. You want low end to be felt and textures to be immersive.

Mix checklist

1. High pass everything that does not need sub. Clear mud without killing warmth.
2. Make space in the mid range for vocals with subtractive EQ on pads.
3. Glue pads and drums with gentle bus compression. Use long attack and release to preserve transients.
4. Use parallel saturation on the low end for weight. Blend to taste.
5. Automate reverb sends to avoid washing out the entire track. Bring reverb up for moments you want to feel lost.
6. For mastering, aim for dynamic range. Witch house benefits from a darker master rather than one that is loud across the board.

Instrumentation and Plugins That Help

You do not need expensive gear. You need tools and the knowledge to use them. Here are practical recommendations.

• Soft synths Use synths that can do lush pads like Serum, Massive, or free options such as Vital. For bells and churchy textures try a sampled piano or electric piano with tremolo and chorus.
• Granular plugins Grain based tools like Granulizer or the granular effect in Ableton are invaluable for texture.
• Pitch and formant Little AlterBoy or VocalSynth for formant shifts. Pitch shifting can be done with built in samplers too.
• Reverb Convolution reverbs like Altiverb or free IR loaders. For vintage character use plate reverbs with long decay and then saturate.
• Saturation and tape Use tape emulations or saturation plugins. Decapitator and RC-20 are popular. These add warmth and noise.

Visuals and Branding

Witch house is half aesthetics. Your visuals must read like a mood board from a fever dream. Think VHS textures, occult symbols, grainy Polaroid, and pastel goth color palettes with neon overlays. Keep consistency across cover art, short video clips, and profile images. Fans notice when artwork is sloppy.

Real life scenario

You release a single. Your cover is a washed out photograph of a convenience store at two am. You overlay a translucent sigil and your artist name in a font that looks like it was carved into metal. Your short clip is thirty seconds of your chorus slowed and pitched with a visual tremor. That clip becomes a six second loop for a story and gets saved to a late night playlist more than a sterile polished gradient ever would.

Titles and Hooks

Song titles in witch house should be short and mysterious. Use everyday objects with uncanny adjectives. Keep hooks repeatable and chant like.

• Title examples: Midnight Vows, Static Psalm, Graveyard Shift, Slow Sacrament
• Hook example that fits the vibe: I call you at three am and the phone eats my voice

Collaboration and Community

Witch house thrives in niche networks. Use Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and Discord servers to find likeminded artists. Micro labels and netlabels often champion this music. Reach out with clear, tiny collaborations. Send a one minute stem and ask for a vocal idea. Keep the ask small and the exchange precise.

Release Strategy

Witch house benefits from slow burns. You can release with a single clip that becomes an identity. Here is a practical rollout.

1. Create a thirty to sixty second clip of your chorus with a lo fi visual loop. This is your social clip and teaser.
2. Release the single on Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and the streaming platforms. Use platforms that cater to niche audiences first.
3. Pitch to playlists and curators that focus on dark electronic, lo fi, and ambient. Use precise genre tags so your track lands in the right ears.
4. Create one unofficial remix pack of stems and invite producers in a Discord or a forum to remix. Highlight the best remix and feature it as part of the single release life cycle.

Practice Drills and Songwriting Exercises

Use these timed drills to produce ideas fast. Speed forces creative accidents which witch house loves.

The Tape Slow Drill

1. Pick a short vocal line. Record it in one take.
2. Duplicate and pitch the copy down by five semitones.
3. Apply a long convolution reverb to the pitch down take. Automate the wet level to swell on every second bar.
4. Timebox twenty minutes. Build a two minute loop around it.

The Ritual Object Drill

1. Pick an object you can see in your room. Write five one line lyrics where the object performs an action that feels forbidden.
2. Pick the best line and make it your chorus. Repeat it with one small variation at the end.
3. Make a two verse story that builds to that chorus.

The Texture Swap

1. Take an existing piano chord progression and run it through resampling. Bounce a single chord and resample it as a one shot.
2. Pitch the sample up and down and stack three layers at different pitch centers. Add long modulation and a tiny bitcrusher on the top layer.
3. Use the result as a pad or motif. Timebox twenty minutes.

Examples and Before After Lines

Theme A breaking of a suburban ritual

Before I am lonely and I miss you.

After The bathroom light stays on behind you like a promise I do not want.

Theme An offering to the night

Before I make a wish in the dark.

After I blow smoke into a jar and label it Sunday the way someone labels leftovers.

Common Mistakes and Fixes

• Too much clarity Witch house benefits from mystery. Fix by adding texture, lowering sample fidelity, or increasing reverb.
• Too slow without movement If the track drags, add subtle rhythmic motion like a triplet hat pattern or a gated pad movement.
• Vocals washed out If vocals disappear, bring a dry top layer in the mix and compress it so the lyric can be heard when it matters.
• Overproduced drums Keep drums sparse. If your mix sounds busy, remove a percussion element and let space carry the rhythm.

Practical Tools and Sample Sources

Where to find the raw materials

• Field recordings via your phone. Record footsteps, fridge hum, public transport announcements.
• Public domain choir samples and organ loops. Use them as texture and chop aggressively.
• Free sample packs labeled dark ambient, lo fi, and post punk for drums and FX.
• Use Bandcamp tags and SoundCloud search to find artists to collaborate with or to sample legally with permission.

How to Finish a Witch House Song Fast

1. Lock your core motif. This is a one bar or two bar loop that holds the track emotionally.
2. Choose a single vocal line for the chorus. Make it repeatable and slightly ambiguous.
3. Keep verses short and textural. Use one new image per verse.
4. Make a simple arrangement map. Remove anything that repeats without change by bar 60.
5. Record a demo. Listen with headphones and a cheap speaker. If it works on both, you have balance.

Monetization and Live Ideas

Witch house performance is ideal for immersive shows. Think low light, projection mapping, and ritual like pacing. Small venue sets can be built like a listening session where one song gels into the next through texture rather than abrupt transitions.

• Sell limited physical releases like cassettes or lathe cut records. The aesthetic fits analog formats.
• Offer stems for remixers. People like working with raw spooky material.
• Create visual loops for VJs and sell them as an add on or part of a Patreon tier.

Frequently Asked Questions

What tempo should a witch house track be

Witch house typically feels slow. Real tempos often sit between sixty and eighty BPM. Some producers work twice as fast and program in a half time feel. If you want trap inspired hi hats but a molten pulse, set your DAW faster and count the groove in half time. The goal is mood not a precise number.

How do I make vocals sound spooky but not unreadable

Layer a dry vocal with a pitched and reverbed duplicate. Keep one layer clean and forward in the mix with light compression. Use the processed layers for atmosphere and punctuation. Automate presence so the lyric can be understood on key phrases and buried the rest of the time. Also speak lines at normal speed before singing to find natural prosody.

Can I make witch house with just a laptop

Yes. All you need is a DAW, a few free plugins, and some creativity. Use your phone for field recordings. Free synths like Vital and free convolution loaders will take you far. Tape emulation and bitcrushing plugins will give you vintage character. The rest is taste and editing.

Do lyrics need to be about the occult

No. Witch house is about atmosphere. Use occult words if they help but concrete suburban details often land harder. A line about a broken lamp in a church basement can feel more haunting than a literal spell. The best songs use metaphor and small objects to summon something larger.

What is chopped and screwed and why use it

Chopped and screwed is a technique of slowing tempo and slicing vocal phrases. Pioneered by DJ Screw it makes vocals feel heavy and narcotic. In witch house the technique gives voices the weight of sleep and memory. Use it for choruses or single words you want to feel like they are sinking.

How do I create a compelling release visual

Keep it cohesive. Use one color palette, a consistent font, and a motif that repeats across posts. Grainy video loops, VHS overlays, and occult symbology work well. Create a short thirty second loop for social and a static cover for stores. The visual should prime the listener before they hit play.

Action Plan You Can Use Today

1. Set a tempo at seventy BPM and lay a two bar chord loop in A minor.
2. Record a one line vocal chorus in a single take. Double it. Pitch one copy down five semitones and add a long cathedral impulse reverb.
3. Program a sparse kick on the one and a deep 808 beneath it. Add a snare or clap on the three for half time feel.
4. Find a small object in your room. Write three one line lyrics where the object does something uncanny. Pick the best line for your verse.
5. Make a thirty second social clip of your chorus with VHS texture. Post it. Ask people what emotion they felt in one word.

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