Interview done with Brendan by Arnaud through email in early June 2007.

Here's what Pristina is all about : "Hell bent on destroying the predictable, formulaic, stale metalcore fad, Pristina was originally formed in 2003 as a side project by Brendan K. Duff (vox - formerly of 100 Demons, A Thousand Falling Skies, Invocation of Nehek) and Jay Barnes (guitar - formerly of Born Under Saturn, Farewell Order) with every intention on crushing you and the crap you listen to." I discovered Pristina a while ago cuz I know their label since quite some time now and believe me, these crazy dudes are totally insane and so are their tunes ! "Devil music" as they say, Overcast were the masters of "Devilcore", so let's say Pristina are the new masters ahha ! Seriously, support them as much as you can, they deserve it in my opinion ! Brendan, your answers are genious, informative and fun, thanx again a lot brother for that !

Arnaud - Hi bro, hope you're all going well ?! First useful basic question, can you sum up in a few lines the band history please ?
Brendan - Yeah man, the story is pretty simple. In 2003, myself and my friend/guitar player Jay wanted to make an obnoxious metal band that kind of went against all the lame "metal core" crap that was becoming popular. We really didn't have a specific idea of what we wanted to sound like, we just wanted it to be fucking LOUD and BITTER !

Arnaud - And what about the line up nowadays ? Any line up changes or feelings to share about yours now ?
Brendan - Jay and myself are the founding members. We had a bunch of different people come through between 2003 and 2004, but we became so frustrated with all these local hacks, that we became tired of spending all our rehearsals teaching different people the songs. We started to feel like we were wasting our time so we abandoned the project. In 2005, we started talking about trying again with some friends whom we knew could play. We got my good friend Colin to play second guitar, Jay's friend Chunk on drums and my friend Tim on bass. We had to replace Chunk and Tim after about 4 months and got Mike and Ian, whom comprise our current and hopefully permanent line up.

Arnaud - What are you guyz doing for a living ? Is it easy to mix it with your band thing ?!
Brendan - It can be very difficult to make the time sometimes. As long as this band has been together, I've been on tour full time with my other bands. It was how I made my living, so I'd be gone like 7 outta 12 months a year. Those guys would rehearse without me and keep me up to date on the phone, and when I got home in between tours, we'd jam out and I'd catch up. I'm currently off the road and going to audio engineering school in NYC, Colin works at a tattoo shop, Jay and Ian work for the government making explosives and watching TV and Mike is a chef. We have a 4 to 6 hour practice once a week and it seems to work great that way. We get alot done and we love playing together.

Arnaud - Any of you guyz have side-projects or played in previous bands ?
Brendan - Oh yeah, we've all been at it forever. Jay has basically been in a band with everyone in CT at some point. I was a big fan of a couple of his bands like The Farewell Order and Born Under Saturn. Those bands were way ahead of their time. Mike was in Godsburn and The Unlucky Few. Colin was in a crustpunk band called Self Extinction and Ian was in a band called Silenced and some others that I can't remember. I've been in a shitload of bands as well over the years. The ones I spent the most time in were : Gargantua Soul, A Thousand Falling Skies (Stillborn Records), Invocation Of Nehek (Prosthetic Records) and 100 Demons (Deathwish Inc). We have other bands that we're currently in as well. Jay, Mike and Ian are in a band called The Sons Of Montana (which I used to be in also) and a band called Flee This Room. I'm currently still in A Thousand Falling Skies and I also play in Dry Kill Logic. Goddamn, that was a long fucking answer hahaha.

Arnaud - Can you let us know what are your personal musical influences and the whole band influences ?
Brendan - We all have such dramatically different tastes that it would literally take days to type it out. As far as bands we all agree on and draw inspiration from I'd have to say : Deadguy, Bloodlet,Today Is The Day, Starkweather, Rorschach, Dissolve, Overcast, Sheer Terror, Into Another, Negative Approach, Black Flag, Motorhead, Kiss It Goodbye, Integrity, Neurosis, Celtic Frost, etc... We don't really sound like any of them per say, but there is a heavy influence.

Arnaud - How could you describe your sound to kids who don’t know you ?
Brendan - "ROCK AND ROLL DAMNATION !!!!!!" hahaha I dunno man. Whenever anyone asks, I just tell them "Devil music". I guess I'd say that if you could actually hear smallpox, that's what we sound like.

Arnaud - Can you tell us a bit more about the area you're coming from, be it its underground "scene" or the daily life !
Brendan - To be honest, after I left 100 Demons in 2005, I started to back away from the scene. I just got sick of seeing the same carbon copied "hardcore" clones night after night. I've played thousands of shows, all over the world, and it's just exactly the same everywhere. I sort of got burnt out I think. On one hand, the "scene" is the strongest it's ever been in sheer numbers. Hardcore and metal are really popular and because of the internet, you don't even have to go to shows to find out about bands anymore.
You just go to the mall, buy a Terror shirt and some camo's and abracadabra, you're a hardcore kid. The internet is a bands best friend...but it's also the downfall of the heart of Hardcore, Punk, whatever. Aside from fans I already had from my previous bands, it's because of sites like myspace that Pristina is even on anyones radar at all. I know that, but at the same time, the current crop of "hardcore" kids rely too heavily on it. No one busts there ass night after night flyering anymore. Kids think of a band name, ripoff their favorite bands riffs, record a shitty demo in their basement, put it on myspace and add friends and think that's how you build a following. The scene is saturated with thousands and thousands of shitty rip off bands, with nothing real to contribute, that 10 years ago wouldn't have gotten past one show because live, they'd be exposed for what they are. Sorry, I think I drifted way off topic.

Arnaud - Any cool old or new bands from your area/city to recommend ?!
Brendan - Fuck yeah, don't let my rant from the last question throw you off. There are so many great bands right now. Wrench In The Works, A Day Of Pigs, Hope And Suicide, The Risk Taken, Jagged Visions, Engineer, Living Hell, Everythings Ruined, The Red Chord, The Acacia Strain, IG, The Architect, Human Bone Bicycle Science Industries, Pale Horse, Beyond The 6th Seal, Catalyst, 100 Demons, The Sons of Montana, ATFS, Shallow Water Grave, The Horror Story, Unholy, Sea of Bones, Lord Fowl, Nerve Gas Tragedy, Robots And Empire...I mean, I could go on and on, and I'm probably forgetting some of my favorites. Also we're fortunate to have Phoenix Records and Redscroll Records in our area. No one cares about underground music like those places, look em up. Also, our label Spare Change Records. Roman who runs it is such an awesome guy and he really cares about heavy music. Guy at Blackmarket Activities is great too.

Arnaud - What are the few cd's/bands you're lately listening to on a regular basis ?
Brendan - Lately, I've been obsessed with : Tom Waits-Closing Time, Jeff Buckley-Grace, Saint Vitus-Born Too Late, Type O Negative-Dead Again, Jesu-Conqueror, Carpathian Forest-Fuck You All, Black Sabbath-The Mob Rules, Neurosis-Given To The Rising and High On Fire-Blessed Black Wings.

Arnaud - As audience, what was your very first show you attempt ? Any other awesome show memories to share with us ?
Brendan - I'm not sure I understand what you're asking. Do you mean what was the first show I ever went to ? Or the first show we ever played ? I guess I'm forced to answer both you french bastard ! haha. The first show I ever went to was in 1994. It was Jasta 14, VOD, Overcast, Stigmata and some others. Changed my life. The first Pristina show was pretty lame. We played for a bunch of shoegazing fashion posers. So we turned our full stacks all the way up and tried to deafen everyone !

Arnaud - And as a band now, any fave shows or fests you remember ?
Brendan - I think my favorite show was the last one we played with Extreme Noise Terror. It was such an honor to share the stage with them.

Arnaud - How is the crowd reaction to your live shows ? Any good venues in your area for hardcore/metal gigs ?
Brendan - HAHAHA funny you should ask. The crowds at our shows almost always look confused and depressed when we play. I try to book us on diverse shows, so we are constantly performing for people who probably aren't interested in hearing us haha. That's what all the bands I respect did and that's what I wanna do. It's a constant struggle, the way it should be. I almost like it when people don't seem to like us. It makes me play harder, I try to kill them with my voice.

Arnaud - Any crazy stories you had with the band, at shows or on the road maybe ?
Brendan - We are such a strange bunch of people that pretty much everytime we're in the same room, crazy shit happens. I can't really go into detail of the really good stories to protect the guilty. But, take last week for example. We were recording a track for a compilation coming out to benefit the family of my friend Ian Keeler (rip) of Dismay. While tracking it, Colin and I decided it was a good time to practice kung fu on eachother, mind you we're all in the same tiny room, so Jay is laying down guitar, and me and Colin are throwing eachother around, smashing into Jay mid track. It then escalates to objects being thrown, then out comes a staple gun. Anyone who knows me, knows that there cannot be tools or weapons present when I'm around. So I threaten Colin with being stapled, and our kung fu match ends. But I'm riled up so I decide it would be a good idea to staple gun Jay while he's playing. So I do, and then quickly run because I was sure he was gonna rip his guitar off and kill me. I poke my head back in and he lets me live. I decide to show Pennance by stapling myself in the chest about 8 times. It's a friendship thing, I can take what I dish out. So my shirt is now stapled to my body and Colin decides the easiest way to get em out is to rip them all out at once by pulling on my shirt. It really hurt. Then we went to Taco Bell and bummed out some lesbians. Just another day in the life hahaha !

Arnaud - Is there any lyrical message within the band ?
Brendan - Yes and no. I like to challenge people to think for themselves. Alot of my lyrics on the last album are very tongue in cheek. I want to weed out the weak minded by saying fucked up shit and seeing who gets it and who doesn't. When making "Boner Jams '07" I left alot of the funny shit that I randomly say while tracking vocals in the final songs. I thought it gave the songs some character. We take what we do very seriously, but we do not take ourselves seriously if that makes sense.

Arnaud - What is you your main goal with the band ?
Brendan - Our only goal with this band is to make music that we enjoy and bumming out as many people as possible.

Arnaud - Weird and stupid question ahah, what means "hardcore" to you ?
Brendan - That's actually the easiest question for me to answer of the whole interview. Hardcore to me is : Black Flack, The Bad Brains, Cro Mags and Minor Threat. That's what hardcore is. The current lifestyle's, messages, attitude and work ethic all go back to those bands.

Arnaud - Back on the music side, can you list us your band discography ?
Brendan - Our debut "Boner Jams '07" came out yesterday. That's all we have at the moment. The whole album is about sucking cocks ! Play it for your grandparents.

Arnaud - Any new record and/or studio time planned for the near future ? Any label search or projects for 2007/2008 ?
Brendan - Yes actually. We are busy motherfuckers. As I mentioned, we just recorded a cover of the Dismay song "Waiting" for that comp. In august, we are going to Nashville to record with Steve Austin (Today Is The Day). We wrote a 20 minute song that we want to release as one side of a split, or just on it's own as an EP. It's fucking awesome and I got some guest vocalists that's gonna blow motherfuckers minds ! It's 3 guys from 3 legendary bands (in my opinion) that have never shared a track together, and people are going to go apeshit I think. I would. We are also already writing our next full length that we want to release by late 2008 at the absolute latest. "Boner Jams" is a great representation of who we were 3 years ago, but we have definatly evolved already.

Arnaud - Do you plan doing a real tour soon ? With who ? What bands would you like to bring on tour with you ?
Brendan - We would love to tour. Unfortunatly we can't tour hard until we have some tour support from somewhere. We get offers, but nothing has come up yet that would make it worth getting fired from our day jobs. Know what I mean ? We're just gonna keep doing our thing and playing weekend warrior shows until something else presents itself. As far as bands we'd like to tour with... shit man, we'll tour with anyone. A wish list would include : Starkweather, Celtic Frost, Eyehategod, A Day Of Pigs, Wrench In The Works, Today Is The Day, Watain, Satyricon, The Red Chord, Blessing the Hogs, The Great Deceiver, Shai Hulud, Clutch, Daath, All Shall Perish, Despised Icon, Ion Dissonance...I could go on and on.

Arnaud - What type of merch is available from you as of now ? How can we order them from you ?
Brendan - You can get our album "Boner Jams '07" at www.sparechangerecords.com or www.verydistro.com or you can probably special order it at your local S mart, shop smart, shop S MART ! Also I hear it'll be available on Itunes in the near future. We also have shirts and shit, but until I figure out how to set up a paypal account, you have to come to a show.

Arnaud - Thanx bro for your time and very long & informative answers ! Feel free to end this interview !
Brendan - Thanks so much for actually talking to me. How the fuck did you find us anyway ? hahaha (I am a huge "fan" of Torn Asunder who was on your label Spare Change Records, and first time I heard your songs, it brings me back to my good old Overcast, Godbelow, Unholy faves so that's why I felt in love with Pristina ahah !). We have some shows coming up with God Forbid, Dark Funeral, Naglfar and Daath. If anyone reading this wants to go, check out www.myspace.com/pristina666 for info. SUPPORT REAL MUSIC !!!!! These days, a band cannot exist for very long without your support. We don't make any money doing this, it's done simply through Balls and Viscera. I'm not talking about us even. All the bands out there. Don't let legitimate passionate bands fall by the wayside to these fucking bullshit artists trying to take your money under the guise of metal or hardcore or what have you !!!!!! Bands like Emmure and The Breathing Process. Bands with names like "Gunslikegirls", "Fightstar", "Autumn Bleeds the guns with hearts and blood" or shit like that, or fucking "Karate Highschool". Bands who care more about how their hair looks than how they sound. These bands are bullshit !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't perpetuate the lie ! I'm sorry about my spelling errors and poor grammar. Smoke Crack, worship satan and fuck !

Links :
www.myspace.com/pristina666
www.sparechangerecords.com
www.myspace.com/sparechangerecords

Contact : none.

Media : none.