Malefic are lazy bastards

Malefic is the brainchild of long-time musical Collaborators Stuart Pendergast and John Ridler. Originally formed in 2000 as an outlet for a number of songs written by Stuart, they immediately set about recording a demo with which to recruit new members. The demo turned out very well, and attracted many positive responses, but it proved too difficult to find other musicians of the same calibre to complete the line up. As such, the band was put on hold while John and Stuart pursued other endeavours.

The fire for Malefic never burned out though, so another attempt was made to recruit in mid 2002. This time the right people were at hand –Ste Bratt and Mike Pilat of popular Warrington band Donkey Wong. With the later addition of bassist Mike Platt, The newly completed line up forged ahead, creating a devastating live sound and recording the first official Malefic release (available for download on the Audio page).

Advance playbacks of the CD have received an intensely positive response from all quarters. Although influences range from Carcass, Death and Cannibal Corpse through to Lost Horizon, Primal Fear and Rhapsody, the music has retained an original feel and sounds absolutely nothing like any of these bands!! (well, maybe...)

interview with Stu on 15-11-2003

Please give us a short introduction of yourself?
Alright - My name is Stu and I play the drums for Malefic!

Why did you start the band? What is the drive to create your own music?
I started the band with my good friend John in 2000 just to record some songs I had been writing and perhaps get a band together to do a few gigs. However, It didn’t quite work out like that and we had so much trouble finding the right members (I was on guitar at the time - decent drummers are a rarity round here) that in the end we just put it to one side while we went off to do other things. I Joined a brutal DM Band called Diamanthian for a while, but ended up leaving as I became obsessed with Power Metal!

I don’t really know what drives me to write songs - not much most of the time as I hardly write anything for months on end - mainly because I hate programming drum machines. However, I would say I love to hear it come together when I record it, so maybe it’s the feeling of satisfaction when a great riff comes out? Hmmm.

Where do you know John from? How did you find out he shared same interest?
I met John through a mutual friend - He was at MI (musicians Institute) in London and I was studying Music up here in Leigh. This friend of mine was telling me about this guy who loved Morbid Angel and was great on the guitar, and maybe we should meet up and get a band together. At some point after this the guitarist in the band I was in at the time broke his wrist quite severely so we needed a replacement - John stepped in and that was that!

What is the goal for Malefic? What do you wanna achieve in 5 years from now?
We aim to become a successful Metal band (ofcourse!). In five years, I think we should be touring for our second album.

Where are you located in England? How is the metal scene in Warrington?
Warrington is in the North West of England Between Manchester and Liverpool. The Metal scene in Warrington is fairly lame - there aren’t that many good bands around to talk of. A great thrash night started up recently at a club in the town but hardly anyone bothered to turn up so it closed down - it stinks really as everyone I knew was moaning about the lack of a good Metal night, and when they get one they don’t show up!

How did the recording go for the first disc? Had any experience before?
The recording went okay - we took our time over it to try and get it sounding as good as we could and so ended up re-recording everything several times. Luckily, we recorded it mostly in John’s home studio so it didn’t cost us anything really. The first drum takes were recorded in a local studio but sounded like shit as the engineer really had no idea. So, we did it all ourselves - Both John and I have studied sound engineering at college, so this was no problem. We just begged and borrowed bits of gear and did it when we could.

How did you finance the recording? Trying to get it back when found a label? What are you doing for a living?
The only part of the recording that cost us anything was the initial studio session - but split between the five of us it didn’t cost a great deal. Also, we bought the cds and cases, and managed to find someone to print the inlays for free, so the whole thing was well cheap as far as these things go. So, we won’t be trying to recoup it.

Because producing the CD was so cheap, this has meant we can give them away at gigs, which is a far better way of getting people to listen to us, as who will refuse a free CD?
Both John and I work in the same bank - Ste is as Security Guard, Mike Pilat works for a healthcare company and Mike Platt works down sewers whenever he gets the chance.

How does your house look like? What kind of relics are hanging on the wall? Do you clean, iron and cooking by yourself?
I live with my wife in a small terraced house in an old mining town. We only rent it so we aren’t allowed to decorate - so its pretty inoffensive on the inside. My wife likes to hang up mirrors and pictures and all that Ikea stuff, but in my Metal room(!) I have posters and guitar stuff everywhere.

We share the cooking and cleaning, but neither of us iron clothes, because there is no point to it!

Which Teletubbie do you wanna ass-ride?
I’m not sure I want to ass-ride any of them, but Platt tells me he would do all of them and pay for the privilege too.

Share with us how many sweat, tears and blood it cost to get a band up and running? How much time do you spend into the band?
Getting a band going is a real pain in the arse - Especially when it is a bunch of lazy bastards like us. We have been practicing twice a week or so for the past year which is fairly hard work at times, but the gigs we do make it worthwhile.

Do you think England is losing connection with Europe for not joining the Euro, drive fucking leftside and not working with cms?
I think although the UK was criticised by some for not joining the Euro at its inception, we did exactly the right thing, as now we can sit back and observe the trouble it has caused - plunging certain countries into recession and seriously devaluing the economies of others. I think this is the reason the GB Pound is so strong right now.

Driving on the left makes a lot of sense to me - it’s you people who are backwards! I have no idea what CMS is.

Did you visit other countries? Which one is favourite and which would you like to visit? Why?
I have been to quite a lot of places, but I have to say as far as having a good time, the USA was best. Greece and Austria are also great places though. I’d like to go to Germany to the Wacken festival. Every time I try to go something goes wrong!

Do you speak foreign languages or don't they learn that in english school?
I learned French and German at school, but have forgotten most of it now. I can remember swear words and that’s about it. English people are lazy when it comes to speaking other languages, as it’s the general opinion that there is no need, as everyone speaks English anyway.

Is Malefic a live band? Do you have your own equipment? How do you travel to clubs?
We try to play live as much as we can (which isn’t a lot at the moment) - we all have our own gear and three of us drive, so its not a big problem to get to clubs, except when John decides he can’t be bothered driving!

What kind of music do you play in your car?
At the moment, Symphony X and not a whole lot else - I go through phases with bands and Symphony X are THE band at the moment.

You believe in sharing your music and put them online for free. How will you ever get royalties?
The way I see it is no-one wants to buy a CD blind having never heard any of the music - it might be a load of crap. So, I download things, and if I like them, I buy them (eventually). I know other people who do the same. Even if we didn’t support file sharing, the songs would probably end up on the internet anyway so why fight it? The majority of people buy cds anyway - as far as I can see the only people who care (apart from Metallica) are the record companies as it eats into their big profits.

Although we are giving our demos away for free and will continue to do so, obviously there will come a point when we will be obliged to sell our music, but our file sharing views will stay the same.

What about bands that are fighting the internet music sharing programs? Like the hypocrites of Metallica?
They are fighting a losing battle. The RIAA are prosecuting the few hoping the many will be scared and stop file sharing, but I don’t think they will ever succeed - pPartly because they are only doing it in America - but the whole world does it! Apparently a new EU directive has cleared the way for a similar thing to happen here, but I’d be very surprised if it had a big impact.

Metallica are ridiculous. They know their career was built on the tape-trading scene of the early 80’s, and now they are trying to put a stop to music trading! Money has become the only thing that matters - you can tell by the way that St Anger sucks balls. Anyone want to buy a copy?!

Was it hard for you doing this first interview? Hungry for more inties?
It wasn’t that hard - takes a while though - I’ll make someone else do the next one!

Wanna say something nice to me or the rest of the UG?
BRUTALISM is great!!! Keep promoting Metal!!!!!!

Last rites?
“Heavy Metal, or no Metal at all, Wimps and Posers, leave the hall.