It all started back around 1986…The Fiendz were still playing birthday parties and basement shows. We didn't have enough of our own songs for a full set, so we would cover songs by The Ramones, 7 Seconds and the Misfits (all bands the Fiendz would eventually open up for).

In 1987, we released our first 7" called "Runaway With Me". This was the first official release on Black Pumpkin Records. We mostly sold them locally and in our high school. Then once we started playing clubs, we sold them at our shows. We also played on the Uncle Floyd Show, a local underground cable comedy show. In 1988, the Havin' Fun 7" EP was released on black vinyl and blue vinyl. At this time, we started getting some college airplay. I can remember sending our first 2 records to Caroline Records (probably to try and get signed) and they wrote us back right away saying that they would take 25 of each to start. (Great!)

As a teenager, Totowa NJ native, Jerry Jones, admired the way his favorite punk rock bands released music on their own record labels. So when Jones formed the Fiendz with Passaic Valley High School buddies, Jim Joyce and Joe Darone, he was determined to go the do-it-yourself route as well. "We were intrigued by the way The Misfits made their own records and T-shirts and had their own fan club". Shortly after forming the Fiendz (the band name comes from The Misfits fan club, The Fiend Club), Jones, Joyce and Darone created Black Pumpkin Records.

In 1989, we released our first full-length record, the underground classic "We're The Fiendz". We finally had a chance to record a lot of our songs that we had been playing out live for a while. We had a lot of fun recording that record, which we did in our friend, Dave Cintron's, basement where we would later record 1990's Dead End 7" EP.

We were getting a lot of really great shows at this time and this was also about the time we started distributing and releasing records for other bands. Over the years, we released some really cool records including : Beatnik Termites, the Family Jewels, Flatus, Demonspeed and New York's Hardest 2.

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