In 1992, singer/guitarist Daniel Woodcock and his school friend Ben Lawson started playing music together whilst they were attending the Junction Public School. When they moved to High School Chris Wilson joined the pair on bass. They formed a band called "Pure Massacre" with second guitarist Toby Finn who soon left. They played lots of shows around the Hunter Valley region in their early teens as well as coming 3rd in YouthRock 1994, a competition for school based bands. At a late 1994 show, the band asked the crowd if they should keep the name "Pure Massacre", or change it to "Emotion Sickness". The crowd chose Emotion Sickness.