Hell Is Other People

I began writing music in 1995 with Steve Le Marquand and Matt Barnes in our tiny living room in Newtown, Wellington. Our conditions weren't ideal but somehow we managed to channel the torment we were inflicting on one another into a collection of gritty little punk songs that I'm still rather fond of today. When we weren’t playing music together, we were suffering in other ways like climbing over each other to get to an empty fridge or arguing about who never cleans the flat or puts the rubbish bags out. When we had had enough of that, we would retreat to our respective bedrooms and try to pretend we lived alone. It was on one of those evenings that my eyes fell upon the line in Jean-Paul Sartre’s play Huis Clos, "There’s no need for red-hot pokers. Hell is … other people!" In an epiphany, I not only came to peace with my co-inhabitants and our miserable co-existence, but had the answer to the burning question of what to call the band. We continued to play under the name Hell Is Other People. The months that followed were possibly the band's most creative and harmonious. This - the first incarnation of Hell Is Other People - lasted only a year but left its dirty mark, however small, on the Wellington music scene and I’m extremely proud of that. We moved out at the end of the year. Steve started a family much to our surprise (and his), and Matt and I continued to play recruiting Craig Terris to work the bass guitar. Several turbulent but memorable years later, Hell Is Other People began to run out of fuel and finally split in 2000 after a decidedly average attempt at recording a studio album.After spending several years in London, I’m now back in New Zealand writing and recording in preparation for finally releasing the album that never was. I will be posting songs here somewhat randomly over the next few months and keeping you up to date with the progress made. More soon.Peter