In 1992 I started the band Havalina naming it after the last track on the Pixies album Bossanova which came out that same year. The name was a definate nod to one of very few bands that I actually listened to constantly. The original line up, which never recorded, (with exception of one track on the retrospective called "Mess With The Little Guy"), featured a fellow named Ray on the Bass. He didn't last to long, but he did write the bass line for "Proportion Thing" which made it on the first self-titled record. Shortly after I met Orlando slam dancing at a show. He had recently shaved his eyebrows and head. He came to see us play a few times and upon Rays departure eagerly joined the band. We bought him his stand up bass as a surprise before recording our first album. We did a demo during the two years between '92 and '94. Orlando played all the bass on it with exception of one instrumental track played by my Engineer friend Orlando Nieto. This track is included on the retrospective and is called "Venture". This is noteworthy because Orlando Nieto introduced us then to his little brother Erick Nieto who sat in from time to time and became a regular band member playing violin on Russian Lullabies, and later, became our drummer. Orlando Nieto, who had actually played with Havalina before, is now the bass player for Matt Death and the New Intellectuals, the new incarnation of the remaining Havalina members.

The rest is fairly known history to anyone who knows us or has followed us over the years, that is until recently. In Early 2004 we were recording a new record to be called Pacific, Mercedes had just left the band to live the married life on the East Coast and start her own band Miss Argentina. The songs, for the first time, were about our world, and more specifically, my world as my life is forever tied to this ocean. It was in many ways a large departure from certain aspects of traditional Havalina. We really recorded what I believe to be our best material ever, but it was an up hill battle the whole time. After 10 years of moderate success and nasty breakdowns, it becomes harder and harder to loose time and money to what you love. We all committed to getting the record done and we did do that, and then one day Orlando called a meeting. He didn't say what it was about but that moment it hit me, I've written the best songs of my life on this record, I've become a serious engineer and I've put months of my life into this record, and if this meeting is about him leaving the band, I'm going to find a way to not be broadsided and to move on with the record that I wrote, played, recorded and mixed. I called Orlando Nieto that moment and asked him to be in my new band. The meeting came and it was as I thought. Orlando Greenhill needed to leave the band for various undisclosed reasons. Me and Dave sat and listened, Erick was in his existential haze somewhere else in Long Beach unaware and unaffected like always. Orlando left to continued friendship and the possibility of some future work together. Dave and I dove into the new band. We have recorded new songs together and they are everything that I think Pacific should be and should have been in the first place. Havalina had escalated over the years into somewhat of and acrobatic freak show. While this was as good and entertaining and punk as anything has ever been, at the end of the day we like to make good music and we will continue to do so. The spring of 2006 should see the arrival of Matt Death and the New Intellectuals, Death on Pacific.

Lovingly, Matt Wignall and the boys.