BLOOD SHED RAIN ZINE

A few questions with Shinto Katana vocalist, Zelda freak and Penrith legend Dave Naylor

I remember going to punk and metal shows as a kid and one day I saw Mindsnare support 28 Days. Think it was like 2001. Same year, I took a chance and picked up a Hatebreed CD off the shelf. Life changing shit.

Tron, Joelzy and I have been good friends since before I can remember. In 2005, we started jamming on the weekends, trying to sound like on broken wings and unearth. Got our first show and never looked back. Playing in a mosh band never stops being fun.

I think a lot of bands find each other through music, becoming friends because of a common interest. With us, it’s a little different. We found music through each other, not the other way around. We already had thousands of things in common before we got into hardcore, so it’s not like we find it hard to be around each other on tour etc. In fact, I doubt I could do this band without the other three guys in it right now.

Those shows and the experiences I had during that period will always remain in my mind as the most fun I have ever had in my life. The shows were wild, the bands were fun to watch and one of the things that made it so special was the fact that nobody thought it would ever go anywhere. A hardcore scene in western sydney? You have to remember that this was when Parkway Drive and Prom Queen were only playing to 350 - 500 people in the city, so nobody thought bands like Shinto, Jack Napier, Die Trying, Eastwood, Punch Out!, and Persist would be playing to 400 kids in Penrith. It was a very special time to me and I know everybody who was lucky enough to be a part of it will remember it in dear light, as I do.

If I were to take an educated guess, I’d say it’s going to be out late March to early April. I feel like we took the best elements of both our older records and fine tuned them to make everything better. This record was the most comfortable to make. We just let it happen and nobody tried to force it to be something it wasn’t. If I had to choose, I’d say we’re leaning more towards Cold Streets again. That’s who we are deep down. We just had to hit a few bumps in the road to realise it.

The bands are doing huge things. Hand Of Mercy, Phantoms, Endless Heights, Relentless, Shinto, Thy Art, Sienna Skies, The Bride, Buried in Verona, Resist The Thought, etc. No, not all of these bands are “hardcore” if you’re really going to be ‘that’ guy, but if you look at this list, you can see that sydney is on top of the mountain at the moment. All of these bands have something special to offer and everybody’s constantly stepping up their game to run with the pack. It’s amazing to be surrounded by all this talent. New 10 Paces is going to catch some people’s attention. Keep an ear out for that shit.

Considering that On Broken Wings are 90% the reason we wanted to be a mosh band, I’d say things got a little “fanboy” haha. I remember when I first heard that we were doing the Emmure tour, the first thing that shot to my head was “Jon Blake is their tour manager.” I hassled Mistzal a little bit to find out if he’d be on the tour. It was kinda sad. Haha. One of the coolest things that’s ever happened was when we were in Melbourne on said tour, and we covered A Lazarus Envy, and Jon jumped up and sang it with us. I don’t think 90% of the crowd knew who the hell he was, but for me, it was the highlight of my band’s history to this day.

Ocarina of Time. No question.