Interview to PENDLE HILL (Australia)

1. Hello dear friend, pleasure to have you on Rotten Pages ´zine. How are you doing today? Let us set the scene first. Where do we find you right now? Please describe your surroundings.

A: Hello my man, happy to be here answering the questions for ya. Im Rhys, I'm the vocalist of PendleHill.

You'll usually find me in the morning in my backyard in the western suburbs of melbourne having a coffee in the sun.

2. Let us start out by learning a little bit more about the members of Pendle Hill, perhaps you can tell us about your personal musical background?

A: Well my personal background in music, im a big fan of Nu-Metal and Deathcore.

We all got different types of backgrounds, few of us like a lot more trash metal and even prog rock

Its nice to have since we do have a mix of genres in most songs.

3. So as a band that plays Melodic death metal, which are the major bands that had an influence on your music? And do you prefer European or American death metal bands?

A: We have played covers at alot of our gigs, or even just to practice to. Goes on a pre big range in bands like Sepultura, Megadeth, Rage Against The Machine, Parkway Drive and Thrown.

We listen to all metal really, we listen to a lot of both. European and American metal have always been so good no matter what.

4. Your debut EP, “The Familiar” delivers a powerful, massive, and melodic sound. Can you tell us about the inspiration behind these 5 tracks how it felt to release your music to the world?

A: Well when i joined the band they already had written Death, Nether and Ritual.

Then we had our old guitarist Tobias and old bassist Brianna, influences then were more death/trash. Legit, we would just rock up to the studio, either Tobi or Sam come in with a riff and we built on top of that

And all talked about what would be good next in the song. It seemed to work out really well got us all excited to record it. Still was so fresh so we were more just seeing what happens in each practice session.

5. Did you have some kind of a vision to nail a specific sound when you got to write and record the music?

A: we definitely found that each time we would write something it'd be melodic and groovy. And always kept that since i found thats what made the music catchy.

We did want each song to stand out on its own, since we really just wanted to experiment a bit also. I myself lyrically wanted to write stories in one point of view, that would take you in a journey. So always tried to somewhat tie in each song together.

6. How do you manage to incorporate melodic elements into your music while maintaining the aggression and brutality of death metal?

A: nice sounding chords with a lot of distortion and a savage solo always seems to work for us.

7. In the less than three years the band has existed, you have released only one EP, which was the reason you´ve not attained to create and release new music so regularly?

A: since the EP release we have had a few member changes.

Tobi left for work reasons and same wirh Brianna.

We ended up getting another bassist Abigail who is in another band we have played with before called Thallium. Who ended up staying for a bit and then got us Brighton who we have now and he is also an amazing bass player.

And we also got our guitarist Ben, hes good mates with a band called Deadweight80 and he would fill in from time to time for them.

Going through all that we were writing a little bit, since we were playing a lot of shows last year too it was pre hard to find time to write.

But we have new songs now that we play live sometimes.

Definitely on a new journey writing for our next EP.

8. When you write music, is it a group thing or is there someone who writes all the music and someone writing the lyrics individually?

A: At the moment, we actually got each guitarist writing songs and we have been adding our own little bits into them. Its really good that way since everyones got different style and we really like to explore through styles and sound.

9. Do you cope with your own emotions through your music and if so: how? Through the writing or performance?

A: Personally Im always letting it out, theres definitely some songs that resonate with me for sure. And live it really shows, i feel all musicians are always putting a piece of their heart into what we write, coz its how we express ourselves. Its our outlet.

PendleHill Band

PendleHill Band

10. Can you briefly inform us about the overall lyrical theme of your songs?

A: well a while ago we had a different name (with the og members) and we wanted to change it.

One of us mention Pendle Hill in england where they used to execute witches.

After that we talked, themes how we could make crazy ass stories lyrically and even visually for music videos.

Definitely opened that world for us, i have done so much research on the pendle witch trials and its actually so insane and interesting how the world was back then.

Now we are really digging into the concept we now wear robes on stage to really give that witch/cultist vibe. We really find this in melbourne anyway, different. To stand out.

11. Can you tell me a little bit about the EP cover, and do you think art work is important to public perception and branding for a band?

A: we found a guy merzgrind_ on instagram that did insane drawings my hand, and the design he gave us was amazing. We all love cats so we wanted a demon cat absolutely, even our merch has other demon cats on them.

The Familiar is a witches cat that is possessed by the devil. And our last song Kolgrim is about a town exectuting a witch.

So it defintely goes in for our lore.

Absolutely its important, i feel you need a good visual to capture what your music stands for.

12. In terms of guest appearances – you had Ralph Brown and Big Yarns come in on two of tracks as well. How did that come about?

Well our drummer Curtis knew Ralph Brown through mutuals, he is a vocalist of a band called Without Belief. Amazing vocalist we knew his gnarly vocals would make it sound amazing. He was so down straight away to get on it.

Big Yarns i knew for years, i used to be in other bands. My band and his old band Epimetheus used to play all the time.

Been friends since and just had to put him on a track. We were so happy with our guest appearances, keen to get others on some tracks on our new songs!

We love collabing with other artists.

13. The Melodic death metal genre has been quite solid and consistent since the last years. How do you see the future of the genre going in the future?

A: it sure has, and i feel like we got a good balance of heavy and melodic.

I can definitely see people making melodic death metal heavier. Through the years of metal, its constantly changing and evolving.

14. What is your opinion about the Australian metal scene in general? Do you think the scene is more active than it was before?

A: absolutely more active, i do remember a time in melbourne where there were fewer venues available to play at.

Since last year ive seen the scene more alive than ever. In Melbourne you can get 50 people in a small venue on a monday night for sure. People are always looking for live shows with new bands. Best way to find new music.

15. Do you have a special “dream” to achieve in music? Like playing a special show, doing a special recording or playing with a special musician?

A: Theres definitely a dream and a target, our goal this year is to play for regional shows thats for sure.

So many places where we can play in the rural areas, really keen to hit them up and possibly play in sydney too.

Just got back from Adelaide and its really boosted our motivation to get travelling a lot more.

16. So, what’s coming out next? Anything you want to divulge from the vault of your future plans?

Well we are working on a new EP, plans for music videos. We wanna tie into our lore a lot more. At the moment its that and play shows in areas we havent been before.

17. We have reached the end of our conversation, is there something that you want to say still?

A: just wanna say thankyou so much for having us, we really hope listeners out there have enjoyed our songs and EP

Dont forget to check our youtube for music videos! Coz we had so much fun making them and so keen to have more out.

https://www.facebook.com/p/Pendle-Hill-Band-100086404583930/