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Carpathian
 Some bands sit around and wait for their time to come. Others jump into the ring and give it their all. With constant tours and almost as many changes in line-ups, Carpathian do everything full on hardcore. Martin Kirby, the band's aggressive voice, is a lot more laid back in conversation. He's happy to talk about the band's success including a tour to New Zealand, Europe and the UK.
"For the Europe and UK tour our CD came out about three weeks before we arrived, so the kids knew who we were and were singing along. They didn't really understand what I was saying but they were singing along anyway, so that was cool."
Touring Europe or just getting overseas is a goal for many musicians and for Carpathian's members achieving this goal was a double-edged sword. With some members deciding they had done everything they intended to, they departed. But Kirby felt that Carpathian still had more to offer. "There's a lot of places I want to go to, like back to Europe and maybe to Japan. The other dudes just wanna stay home and drink piss or something. I dunno."
Recovering from the loss of a band member can be tough but Kirby assures us that the current line-up has a good chance of succeeding. "The cool thing about the line-up now is that everyone is on the same level. Our guitarist Ben from Day Of Contempt has done the touring thing. Everyone in the band is now living a drug-free lifestyle. So there'll be no fighting about who can go get drunk. I think it's going to be the most chilled line-up we have, as far as everyone getting along and having a good time."
As easy as it could be to slap the straightedge brand onto them, Kirby is unsure if the sound of Carpathian would really fit. "It would be good to I suppose. No one really does that in Australia. I think someone needs to. I dunno if the dudes in the band want to do that. I haven't really spoken to them about it. I'd like to be in another straightedge band but I don't think Carpathian is that sort of band I suppose. It'd upset too many people."
Hearing Kirby talk of being aware of upsetting people is a stark contrast to the band's attitude to aggressive dancing. "We've always been seen as a band that sort of promotes it. I think our new music is less sorta mosh dancing. The new stuff is more trying to get people involved and singing along and going crazy."
Later on in the year the band will be touring as part of the Taste Of Chaos festival. "It's sort of five or six huge USA bands. Last year Parkway Drive played it, and now this year we've been asked to play it. Let's hope the line-up stays strong and pulls through."
But the big thing for the boys at the moment is preparing for the Sike Your Mind festival. "Ben actually works for Washed Up Records who is putting on the tour so that's cool and before that our first EP was on Washed Up Records back when it was just our friend Tommy Dollars. We played Sike Your Mind last year and the year before which was just one show in Melbourne. This time it's a tour and we're headlining the tour and some cool bands are playing."
Adelaide gets the special honour of having the tour start here, something that is often a very good thing as the bands are well... psyched for their first show on the tour. "I think it's going to be a really good show so I'm very excited to be playing Adelaide again." The current line-up is yet to be fully tested, but a glimpse of it was seen recently when the band played at Hardcore 07. "Hardcore had a big barrier, so it was hard to get in with the crowd when you're five metres back behind this huge barrier. I always enjoy the smaller shows where it's heaps of kids packed out. I think Sike Your Mind is going to be that sort of tour. It's going to be an intense show in every town."
Mat Woods
Carpathian play Sike Your Mind on Fri 24 Aug with Miles Away, Down To Nothing, 50 Lions and Abandon All Hope.
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