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Interview with Pristina vocalist and bassist Brendan Duff

I recently spoke with Brendan Duff vocalist and bassist for the hardcore band Pristina about the band’s debut offering, Drought (Ov Salt and Sorrow). This Connecticut based band consists of former members of bands such as 100 Demons, Invocation Of Nehek, A Thousand Falling Skies and Born Under Saturn. The CD is a super heavy and brutal as hell, lethal mix of hardcore and metal that adds up to an all out auditory battering.

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I recently spoke with Brendan Duff vocalist and bassist for the hardcore band Pristina about the band’s debut offering, Drought (Ov Salt and Sorrow). This Connecticut based band consists of former members of bands such as 100 Demons, Invocation Of Nehek, A Thousand Falling Skies and Born Under Saturn. The CD is a super heavy and brutal as hell, lethal mix of hardcore and metal that adds up to an all out auditory battering. Here is what Duff had to say about the band and their disc, Drought (Ov Salt and Sorrow).

The name of the band Pristina is interesting to say the least and sounds as if there is a story behind it. Where did the name come from and what is the story?
Brendan: We named the band after the Faith No More song of the same name. We honestly didn’t give it much thought, the name worked for us and it’s short and sweet. We weren’t aware at the time that it is the capital city of Kosovo, which for some reason a lot of people seem to know and ask about it. We also learned later that there is an electronica band called Pristina, but we don’t care; It’s not like we can be confused with each other sound wise.

Now that your brand new CD, The Drought (Ov Salt and Sorrow), is complete how do you feel about it? Are you satisfied with the outcome?
Brendan: I have never been more proud of a record I’ve done. First off, I love the songs, I think this is the album that brought us into our own. We write music that I would listen to, even if I wasn’t in the band. Sonically the recordings perfectly represent the sound and the vibe of what we were trying to express. It’s dirty and raw, but also clear. We didn’t want it polished and over produced but at the same time didn’t want it to sound like a 4 track black metal basement tape. It’s a perfect balance of the two I think.

What was the writing process like for this CD? Did you guys all write together? How long did it take?
Brendan: Honestly, from conception to completion it took years. Writing the 23 minute title track took at least a year in itself. Between playing live shows and writing material for other albums we put out, plus the other songs on this album, it really took forever. I’m sure some bands can write a 20 minute song no sweat, but we are not one of them. And then there was the whole recording aspect. We had no help, no budget and no label support so we had to save up the money ourselves. If memory serves the song was done over a year before we had the money to record. To answer your other question, yes we write everything together. It’s always a riff by riff process. The only thing we don’t write together are lyrics. I do those alone.

Give us some insight into the meaning behind its title?
Brendan: “The Drought” is about where my head was at, after years of drug abuse problems I was going through. At the time I had just entered recovery and I was a complete mess. Mentally, physically and spiritually I was all dried up, hence “The Drought”. Besides my wife and daughter, the only thing holding me together was the band and writing. The other part of the title started with something our then guitarist came up with. We were going to call it “The Drought (Salt and Sorrow)” but then Coalesce put out the “Salt and Passage” EP, and it sounded way too close, so I added “Ov” to it.

Are there any tracks on this disc that are personal favorites or that have good stories behind them?
Brendan: My two favorites are “The Drought” and “Temple of the morning star.” “The Drought” was the most intense experience I’ve ever had with making music. Just so much went into it that it consumed us for quite a while. I am so happy with the final product. Not to mention through it we were able to work with Steve Austin, Rennie Resmini and Scott Angelicos. I grew up loving their bands and couldn’t believe they were actually singing on my bands music, you know? “Temple” was quite the opposite. we banged out the whole song in one afternoon. It was easy and a really good time.

How did you guys decide to record Today Is The Day’s song “Temple of the Morning Star?”
Brendan: We all love Today Is The Day and we wanted to do a version that was it’s own thing with it’s own vibe. You can’t fuck with the original, so we wanted to do our take on it.

The band keeps things interesting thematically. Can you talk about some of the subjects you tackle on this record?
Brendan: Well, I already mentioned the drug thing, I just write about what I’m thinking from song to song. This album was a dark period in my life so it deals with betrayal, sadness, frustration, loneliness, depression, isolation, suicide, destruction and all that good stuff. Of course it’s not like when everything is okay for me I write about unicorns, flowers and puppies and shit. Our music is our means of expression, but it’s also an outlet, you know? We’re an aggressive band so we’re getting out a lot of negativity through it. Not that our message is about being negative all the time, but the subject matter tends to be on the “darker” side I suppose.

Tell me about a book or two that you’ve read that you think other people should read?
Brendan: Well I’m a huge nerd who reads all day, so you’re asking the right guy. The last few that I most recently liked were “The Last Story I’ll Ever Tell” by John Crawford, “Human Sacrifice (An Expose of Ritual Killings Worldwide)” by Jimmy Lee Shreeve and I just got finished re-reading “Iceman: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer” by Philip Carlo.

Do you have any touring plans made yet?
Brendan: We want to tour much more than we do. Up to now we’ve mostly done weekend warrior type stuff. We’ve always had a hard time getting tours happening. We’ve been trying to find a booking agent but haven’t found the right one yet. It’s tough too because we’re all dudes in our early 30’s with full time jobs, bills, wives and kids etc. So any tour that we can do has to make sense for us. There is talk about a couple weeks in Europe in late Winter or early Summer. That would be rad.

Are you looking at any particular bands you’ll be touring with?
Brendan: We just played with Unearthly Trance and SUMA, I’d love to tour with them. I’d love to tour with Eyehategod, Today Is The Day, Starkweather. I hear Buzzov*en is playing again and that would be rad. There are thousands of bands I’d love to tour with. Shit man, we’d tour with damn near anyone. If you know anyone who can help, send them our way, man.

Any closing words?
Brendan: I just hope people out there check us out and dig on the music. Thanks for the interview.  [ END ]

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