Hi, I'm Marcel and I'm writing an interview for the german internet fanzine Allschools. Please introduce yourself!

My name is Dickie and i play guitar in The Carrier.

You have been touring Europe for several weeks. How would you describe the tour so long?

The tour so far has been really good. We've got along with Dead Swans really well. We've become very good friends with some of them so it's been really fun. The shows have been great, we feel like there's a better response now, so we've enjoyed it.

Compared to last year's tour with Killing the Dream, which one did you enjoy more?

I would say this tour has just been a little bit better for us particular like last year I think less people knew about us. Last year's tour was amazing as well because it was our first time over here. So.. both were good. Maybe this one a little better. More people know the words and stuff like that. „No Love Can Save Me“ has been out for a long time now, so it's been cool.

There are lots of well-known european hardcore bands such as Born From Pain, Black Friday '29, Dirty Money, Dead Swans, Ritual, Gold Kids and so on. Can Europe be proud of it's hardcore scene? Are there differences to other continents?

Yeah, there are a lot of awesome bands in Europe. Some of the bands really surprised me. For example Daggers. I saw them and i was fucking blown away. This band was awesome. And there is another band.. called something like The Eight Arms from Sweden? Oh that's embarassing I can't even remember the name right now. They fucking blew my mind. Awesome band. And obviously Dead Swans.. I mean, they are fucking awesome. It's cool to play with a band that you actually listen to and that you like.

German Bands sometimes complain about the fact that most kids only come out to the shows if there is an american Band in the lineup. Do you think it is easy for american Hardcore bands to come over to Europe? Are there certain bands you would evaluate as somehow „overrated“?

That's not really my position to say. You know, we come over here and we get treated very well and maybe some people are saying that about us. I'm not from here. There's a lot of hard working bands in the United States so we're not gonna talk shit about anyone. It's fucking difficult to tour over there so I think most of the bands that come over to Europe worked their asses off, so they deserve it.

Are there unknown bands european Hardcore fans should definitely check out?

Definitely check out The Bonus Army from Boston. The Bonus Army, Watchfire.. there's a lot of good bands. And oh! Hammer Bros. are like my favorite fucking hardcore band ever. So.. Hammer Bros. for sure!

Let's go back to the beginning of your band. How did it all start out? Where there any projects before?

Yeah we were in a band before and we were called „Bring Your Own End“. We were all like a hardcore band before and our singer, Anthony, used to play bass. Our bass player was not in the band so we had like a different vocalist or whatever and that just fizzled away. So were all just like best friends for a very long time. It's a real pleasure for us to play together and every time we tour and we come over it's just like being with your best friends.

The Carrier is very respected for the passionate lyrics. But they are not very catchy. Do you like it when fans singalong at your shows or do you think it is stupid because the lyrics rely on personal experiences?

I love it when people sing along! I think it's like an honor to have people sing along. The lyrics are personal and heavy but if people can relate to it that's okay. A lot of things that we sing about are just like common sentiments that people have like growing up. The lyrics especially on the EP are personal but somehow kind of conceptional. The songs build up on each other. I think people can relate to it.

Would every member of the band probably deal with the same sad topics Anthony sings about or is it just his way of writing? Are you pessimistic persons?

To an extent we all kind of deal with the same problems. We're all very similiar people. We're all just like very normal kids. None of us are fucking assholes or something like that. I don't think we would be mean to you, nothing like that. I think it's mostly stuff you should deal with yourself and not necessarily reflect and involve other people and stuff like that.

Another thing that impresses me much about THE CARRIER is the artwork of the releases. Can you explain the meaning of the images on both „One Year Later“ and „No Love Can Save Me?“ Who did these paintings?

Everything we've done up 'til now is been hard work from Ken Stewart. He's a friend of us. He's been doing a lot of artwork for local bands and he does really good work so we've been working with him for a while. I don't think we were necessarily going for like a message. I think we were just more trying to create an image that is kind of captivating. I think it is kind of hard to form a message on one picture. We really wanted to create something that was synonymous to the music. It should not have to say something in particular.

What do you think of violent dancing?

I don't really care. I think it's cool when my band is playing and I look out and people are just fucking going nuts. In Europe it's not as common but back home violent dancing is kind of like .. (Benjamin DEAD SWANS: ..the best thing!) .. and the worst thing. It seems like in the US it's more common when people are dancing. It's not even necessarily that people are trying to be assholes. People have a fucking shitty week and the way to get that out is they are literally going nuts to the bands. They are losing their minds. I don't really have a problem with that. There's a difference. I think you can see through who is actually there to see a band. I think Hardcore just has a kind of violent subculture to it. Some people take that too far but I think to an extent that's kind of part of it.

What do you think of hardcore values, such as a straight-edge lifestyle or veganism?

No one in The Carrier is straight edge or vegan. That's not for us. Me and my bandmates don't appreciate it when people kind of force that lifestyle on us because I don't agree with it at all. But if that is someone's belief then I don't care.

When will your next output be available?

We actually just went to the studio. We recorded nine tracks and it's gonna be a full-length. We don't have a name for it yet. But we recorded all the music, when we go home we're gonna do all the vocals and hopefully it will be out sometime in May or June 2010.

What will be different about the new songs?

It's less conceptual than „No Love Can Save Me“. I can't really say it. I guess lyrically it's more like „One Year Later“ just in the sense that it's a little more personal. It's a little less sugar-coated. It's not much like uplifting songs like „Panicstriken“ and „Memoirs“ and shit like that. It's a lot more darker. We really wanted to make like the darkest, heavy shit. With every release we hope to get a little darker, heavier. More like music that makes you wanna take a bracket and just fucking throw it through a fucking window. That's kind of what we try to go for with this album. It's more like a punch in the face.

Thanks a lot for the interview. Do you have any final words you would like to give to the Allschools readers?

Check out The Bonus Army. Check out The fucking Bonus Army.