BLOOD SHED RAIN ZINE

A few questions with Warbrain vocalist and RL Polo enthusiast  Lloyd Carroll

I spent the latter part of my childhood and all my teenage years in a beach town and my mates and I were all into bodyboarding and surfing and shit. There was always heavy stuff on surfing movies in those days plus one or two of my mates older brothers had mad record collections so when they went out we used to raid their rooms and find stuff we liked. I was always into Fat Wreck Chords type punk bands so the transition was pretty natural for me and I got into NYHC bands then into the wider scene.


-howd you join carpathian?

I had sorta known the guys for a while so when I heard Ben was leaving I spoke with Skan and Marty about what their plans were. We T’d up a meeting to talk shit over and that was pretty much it!

Yeah word the Aus scene really is one of the best in the world - it’s fucking pumping at the moment! You ask any international band that tours here and they’ll tell you the same. The kids here are hungry for hardcore and it’s really inspiring. The only thing we all need to be aware of is how lucky we are to have so many bands coming out so often and to keep supporting our own bands and keep going out to local shows - we are super spoilt!

Well my boy Kain McWaters was living with Josh Manitta who I played guitar with in Carps. Kain had filled in on a few Carps tours so we all knew each other pretty well and had been wanting to do something a bit different to what we had been doing for a while. So when Carps had some down time one year Josh, Kain and I sat down and wrote a few songs. I was originally going to be playing guitar but we couldn’t find anyone to sing, or play drums so we asked Tim Carter (Bear Trap, Hopeless) who I had always wanted an excuse to do a band with to play guitar. He was into it so we decided I’d sing, Kain would play bass and Josh would play drums. That was pretty much it for a while until Josh moved overseas and Neil Bloem (Frozen Over, Iron Mind) filled his spot on drums. Josh has recently moved back from the EU and is now playing Guitar and Neil is full time on drums so we’re back in full force!

Haha this is a tough one. Both have their negatives and positives. I mean as far as being able to move around and have a good time, being a vocalist is way more fun but you do have a lot more eyes watching you and you have to hold up the entire band where as on guitar you can fuck around a bit more. I do miss playing guitar live but with WB I am sill writing riffs with the other boys so I feel like I’m in a pretty lucky position right now!

Well as I said earlier we’ve got Josh back, so we’re gonna focus on writing a record for the next few months. Without sounding like a complete fuck head we’ve essentially got 4 guitarists from some of the best hardcore bands Australia’s seen in the band so we are really conscious of what we’re gonna produce next and want to keep the quality high and the ball rolling. We’ve also just finished recording 2 new tracks for a split which is in the works but I can’t say much more than that just yet! We’re working on a couple of tours for the middle of the year as well, so keep ya ears peeled!


-are you the reason that Melbourne hardcore kids now wear nautica/lad attire hahaha

Fuck bro, I have no idea… Maybe? Hahaha. I wear fly shit because I come from a hip hop background and like to dress well… I mean if you saw me in Carps 2 years ago, I’d be wearing black jeans and a black T but that was part of the whole thing with that band you know? I think it’s just that hip hop culture has made a come back and kids are into that shit as well as hardcore, which is cool. That being said, inciting kids to look like junkie tennis players is nothing I ever intended to do and if I did cause that I am sincerely sorry, hahaha.