Interview - Pestilence (Australia)

1.Destructive greetings from Peru Kim! is a pleasure do this killer interview with you! Pestilence!!!
Blearghhhh total cult in the extreme sicknes from fast and loud tunes around the fucking world!
All brutal and sick there? how going the things in these times?
Hi mate all is good here, still listening to and playing underground extreme music!

2.Kim explaim more about Pestilence to the true and real grinders! how be form this putrid and violent band!
Well Perth is the Capital city of Western Australia, its pretty small and isolated,its always had an
underground music scene since the 70s with early punk bands like the Victims,Orphans,the Geeks etc
I started hanging around the Perth punk scene in the mid 80s,back then everyone pretty much knew everyone else by name.if you saw a new punk at a gig or on the street it was like oh wow another punk and you
would go up and start talking to them etc.

I met this guy named Ian Belford in 86/87 who did a Punk/HC radio show,we became good friends and as well as 
both liking all the same bands Exploited,Varukers,Disorder,Chaos UK etc we both also really liked discovering more
underground rawer extreme bands such as The Shitlickers,Neos,Siege,Terveet Kadet,Olho Seco,Head Cleaners,Wretched etc.
We soon agreed to the idea of forming a raw HC Punk band,I played a bit of guitar and we set about looking
for other band members,we tried with an early line up but it was pretty bad ha ha...none of us could play
our instruments very well,We started thinking of a band name and we actually got it from the Kreator:Pleasure to kill LP! I think we saw it in a record shop and Ian & I were like wow that's a killer LP cover ha ha....not a very
original band name and we weren't even influenced by Kreator..but that's where we got the name.

The first line up was Ian:Vocals,Kim:Guitar,Bill:Bass,Robert:Drums.
We only rehearsed with this line up,people would come and sit and watch us rehearse at our house,have a beer with us as at that time all the early 80s Perth Punk bands (,Insurrection,Black Sheep,Memento Mori etc) had split up.Our drummer moved away and the band stopped rehearsing for a while.

We met this guy called Stuart on the streets in the city-he just came up and started talking to us,he must have seen Ians huge mohawk from miles away ha ha,Stuart had moved to Perth from Sydney he started hanging around with us and he was like...oh you guys want to start a band Ill play drums,Stuart bought himself a drum kit and taught himself drums!
We started rehearsing and it was great,Matt Snashell who had played bass in a few early 80s Perth Punk bands
asked us if he could have a jam with us and we had a full line up.
With this line up we rehearsed,played gigs,recorded a studio demo tape,got on television (yes really) and appeared on the Nuclear Blast Records "The pleasures in life"compilation LP/CD.

3.In the old times how many stuff Pestilence edited?
One studio demo tape and we had a few tracks from this recording appear on the Nuclear Blast Records "The pleasures in life"compilation LP/CD.

4.About the influences in Pestilence,talk more about this point Kim.
The main influences at the beginning was UK82 Punk especially the more noisy stuff on Riot city records,
we basically wanted to play that stuff in the very beginning,Ian and I always were on the look out for more
faster,noisier extreme HC and Punk...we tape traded alot with people all over the world,We also liked the Punk metal stuff a bit like Broken Bones,Sacrilege,etc,Coming across records like "Cleanse the Bacteria" compilation
and Beating the meat compilation really put us onto more crazy stuff.
Also at this time all the mid 80s British HC bands were coming out...Napalm Death,Heresy,Ripcord,Extreme Noise
terror,Electro hippies etc..that was another smash in the face for us.The peel sessions recordings of those bands
was a big influence...first Peel sessions of Napalm Death,Extreme noise terror,Electro hippies-Killer!
Stuart our drummer was great too as he had introduced us to alot of American HC bands,DRI (1st LP!).Negative Approach,and Fucking Negative FX.....the Negative FX Lp was a big influence on Stuarts drumming in Pestilence
those crazy drum rolls.

5.Returning in the destructive years Kim! explaim more how was the extreme scene in Australia!
To be honest I didnt think there were many, if any other bands playing similar extreme style in Australia,maybe there were some but remember this was before the internet existed and we live in an isolated city.
The main Australian HC bands at the time might have still been playing Depression,Vicious Circle,Mass appeal etc.
We had other Punk bands starting up in Perth the same time as Pestilence;Barbary Corsairs,SDI,Anti Pogram,Stool pigeons who all played varying styles of Punk and we played alot of gigs with a Thrash metal band Cremator.

6.Now the members from Pestilence have another proyects? talk us more about this.
At the time we all only played in Pestilence,after Pestilence split up we went on to form other bands;
Ian sang in Storm of perversion (Cross over) who put out a self released LP.
Matt went on to form Rust(Melodic punk)who he sang and played guitar in.
Stuart went on to drum in Crippled Children (Sing along American style punk)
I played guitar and sang in Resolute (Grind/Thrash) Guitar in Refuse (UK Punk) and started Nailed Down.

7.You know the extreme scene from Southamerica? maybe Peru?
I only really knew Ataque frontal at the time around Pestilence,other bands Olho Seco,Colera,Ratos de Porao (1st LP) all great.

8.Some label have interest in the re-edition from the stuff from Pestilence?
No nothing definite,it would be great to see the whole studio recording re-released, be cool to see it on vinyl.

9.Maybe someday Pestilence reunion? would be totally killer!
I would do it if the other guys would be interested,it wouldn't be quite the same tho as Stuart our drummer passed away and Matt the bassist lives on the other side of Australian now.

10.Kim thanks for your time in this interview! last words grind maniac!
Many many thanks for the interview,really appreciate your interest and support,amazed that 28 years later
someone still has interest in Pestilence ha ha..
I would also like to say a big hello to anyone reading this that might have been in contact with us back in those days.
Again thank you.
Cheers.
Kim.