From Within Newsletter #8
An interview with Oli of Fröthing Mad
What’s up, everybody? We’re finally back after a little hiatus… I apologize about that. Merry Christmas and happy holidays to the From Within family. Regardless of what you do or do not celebrate, I hope everyone had a good day. We’ve already talked at length on the podcast about this year, but I gotta reiterate that this year was awesome. More hardcore than most individuals can handle, and I personally had an amazing year with my friends. Went to a ton of shows, played a ton of shows, and toured JAPAN for the first time (We have an epic zine about the tour coming soon!). I couldn’t be more grateful for these opportunities and the time I get to spend with my friends.
We’re starting off 2026 strong with FYA in just a few weeks! If you come by the From Within table, we will have an in-person mailbag type situation set up with a notepad and box (old-school style). You can ask a question, make a statement—really whatever you want. We’re going to do a big FYA recap episode where we’ll read all of these out and answer any questions we get. Aside from that, just come by the table and say what’s up. I’ll see everyone on the Wit’s End dance floor.
Today we have an interview with Oli from Fröthing Mad. There’s a lot I have said about the demo already, but I really want to emphasize that this is maybe my favorite release in the history of the label so far. The only other release that stands toe to toe with it for me is Envision - The Gods That Built Tomorrow. When it’s all said and done, at the end of the day I can hang my hat knowing I got to release this absolutely classic piece of hardcore media. It hits all the buttons for me, and I am fiending to finally see it live. Thank you to all of Fröthing Mad for letting me be a part of this release with them. We’ve still got some vinyl in the store for this release. On to the interview. Enjoy!
What’s up brotha, introduce yourself to everyone and let us know where you’re from
Hullo Carter, I’m Oli, I do vocals in Fröthing Mad. I’m from London, England, born and raised. I also sing and write riffs for Smashing Time, an Oi! band, and run fortbraggmagazine on Instagram.
I know you’re originally from the UK, but you currently live in NYC. What made you wanna get up and move to another country? I feel like that is something everyone dreams about at some point in their life, but probably 0.001% of people actually do it.
I was born to a very culturally white British family although I’m brown. My dad’s white British while my mum is Indian, specifically Gujurati. I don’t believe in dwelling on identity politics, but I’m grateful to have had insight into both of these cultures as a result of my ethnic background. At the age of 9, I moved to a very rural and homogenous county known as Dorset. The vivid scenery and landscape there feels like something from a Thomas Hardy novel (or an Amebix record), but ultimately it didn’t offer much of anything else. I was one of two brown kids at my school, and despite the fact I considered myself British, a lot of people there didn’t. As a result, I had some disenfranchisement regarding my identity from a young age. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a British skinhead through and through who’s very proud of my country, but I didn’t always feel welcome here.
I’ve always loved American culture and I’ve always found it to be an absolutely fascinating, and sometimes bonkers nation. There’s an idiosyncratic identity in nearly every state. My old man had a job which required him to come to the US a lot, so I came here a few times when I was a kid and fell in love with it. I finally had the means to move to NYC via university when I was 19, and I’m incredibly grateful to have been fortunate to have had the resources to move out here. America’s really given me a place in this world I feel like I didn’t have previously. Despite the blatant horrifying everyday insanity regarding misogyny, racism and wealth disparity that’s present nearly everywhere in America, I truly love the madness of this place.
Before we get into Fröthing Mad, I wanted to talk a bit about the differences between the US and the UK hardcore scenes. I have a few friends I regularly talk about stuff like this with, but hardcore is especially interesting to me from a sociological point of view. It’s fascinating to see how different places do things slightly differently within such an insanely niche subculture. One of the first things I noticed is that the UK, overall, just has better dancing than the US (much to the dismay of most people reading this). What are some differences you’ve noticed between the two scenes, for better or worse?
While I’m flattered you consider us better dancers, I’m perhaps not the most well equipped to discuss this, I’ve never been a great mosher haha. Also, I think Europe probably has the best moshers. Shoutout to Ratel, dude’s got at least 20/25+ years on me and he’s still a Polish ninja.
I think you’ll find in a lot of countries where hardcore isn’t as big as it is in the states that while the scenes are smaller, the absurd amount of dedication to discovering rare parts of the culture is truly exceptional. If it’s not fed to you directly and one has to make more of an effort to find it, people really go all the way. I’ve noticed living in NYC that while there’s been a brilliant renaissance of the spirit of the bands of the 80s, especially from young people (unlike the punk scene here, but the less said about that, the better), there are a lot of kids here who aren’t well informed on the classics, where as in somewhere like Finland there’s literally kids younger than me who’ve put me onto stuff. I’ve seen kids in NYC look clueless when I mention a gateway band like The Abused, and personally, as someone who’s not even from this country, that’s insane. I feel like an old man at 23, what can I say?
However, nerdship aside, I am consistently astounded by the spirit of hardcore in the states. After all, it’s one of the reasons I moved here. People really will work as hard as they can when it comes to putting on shows or doing bands, and while I still love my home country very much, I didn’t find that same work ethic present when it comes to booking shows. I’m not throwing shade at the UK scene, there’s some brilliant bands going right now that I’ll mention later, but I think there’s a lack of urgency in some aspects of the scene there that is indebted to several factors. The most important of this, I think, is that the UK provides a safety net for its citizens in a way the US doesn’t. There’s free healthcare and a benefits system that really strives to prevent people from falling into abject poverty, something that’s completely non-existent in the States. The welfare system in America is a complete joke, and the US is far more systematically racist than the UK, although it should be acknowledged that the UK is far from innocent in both regards. However, as a result, this has led to Americans having more of a drive instilled on a more widespread level in general life, and naturally subculture is therefore propped up by several rather than a select few doing all the work.
I think sonically there’ll always be unique qualities based on region. I saw Spoiler post something on Total Supply about how regional sounds have largely dissolved in the internet age due to greater exposure to different scenes through blogs, social media and Discogs, and while that’s undeniably true, it isn’t always the case. Imposter, my favourite UK band, are a prime example of this. They sound like they could’ve been on Dark Empire Records yet there’s something so inherently British present there that’s integral to their sound. The same goes for a lot of the classic NWOBHC bands.
Alright, on to Frothing Mad. I’ll just go ahead and say the demo is a complete modern masterpiece. Give us a timeline of the band forming—how did you initially meet the rest of the guys and get the ball rolling?
I appreciate it a lot mate, thank you, although I didn’t write the riffs haha! The band formed when Vito, head honcho and guitarist, reached out to me after hearing my vocals in Antagonizm. Marquis from Bazooka and Beg To Differ put us in touch. Vito and Joe (bass) also play in Beg To Differ. Shoutout to Quis, lovely bloke. We did our first practice with Joe (bass) and Felipe (drums). It was a solid band, but there was a blatant void that we needed to fill. I then brought in Macon from Square One to join on lead guitar. He’s an absolute shredder and those mental solos really completed the dynamic. We played a few shows which were a laugh, recorded with the Long Island legend Darren Nanos, and here we are now!
We’ve talked about this on the podcast, but I feel like Fröthing Mad touches on a side of NYHC that people typically don’t go to first. I understand why, but I feel like when most people start a NYHC influenced band they kind of always go straight to the Breakdown side of things and stay in that lane. It’s all under the same umbrella of course, but I think Frothing Mad is doing something important by showcasing the other side of things. Talk to me about being influenced by that side of things and what the original plan was for the band sound wise.
Vito’s primary influences for writing were AF’s Cause For Alarm and Crumbsuckers’ Life Of Dreams. While we’re all very well versed in these records, everyone brings their own flavour to the band. Felipe’s a big PV head and he’s just absolutely nuts at playing drums. He brings in that speed while also having the skill and range of a professional session musician. He also’s only played drums for two years which is just ridiculous.
Joe’s a brilliant bassist, who, like Vito, comes from a very hardcore-centric background. They’re both Queens-born Italian masters who know exactly how a solid NYHC band should sound, it’s in their blood! Vito really is the mastermind behind it all when it comes to writing. Macon’s a nerd like myself, except he can do just about anything on the guitar. We spent a lot of time in the car listening to Raw Power (Italy), GBH, Altercation, Sheer Terror, Dynamo and The Accüsed, and those bands definitely bled into the sound naturally. You can’t make a half decent hardcore or punk record today without taking influence from multiple places.
Vocally, I’ve gotten compared to Jeff Perlin, but I’m trying to do something that’s halfway between Sebastian Gorgone of Gut Instinct and Karl Willetts of Bolt Thrower, with a sprinkle of John Brannon and Jay O Toole from Life’s Blood. When I first started doing vocals I took significant inspiration from UKHC classics like Mastermind, Payday, Blind Authority and Arms Race, and those are still big influences for me today.
Lyrically, I’m heavily indebted to Neglect and negative hardcore as a whole. I’m quite fascinated with macabre subjects and I’ve previously struggled with suicidal ideation. Neglect got me through some tough times. I’ve been subjected to a lot of death in my life which started at quite a young age, so I find something very cathartic and profound about engaging in discussions to do with death or suicide. I would say I’m a positive person, but pessimism is important, and I don’t always perceive death as necessarily being a negative thing. It’s something that’s inescapable, so I personally find the South Asian and South American approach to death of celebrating it and the presence it has in our everyday lives to be very intriguing and beautiful. Those ideas are present on It Walks Behind You (which I also partially named after a song by British prog legends Atomic Rooster). I also try to incorporate themes from stuff I’ve read and been interested in. I read Mark Fisher’s ‘Capital Realism: Is There No Alternative?’ last year. It’s an incredibly dreary take on the extent of neoliberalism’s absolute domination of our everyday life and the effects this has had, but I found myself really intrigued by his analysis of Kurt Cobain as having been a symbol of revolution in an era when revolution meant capital profit, a matter that’s certainly relevant in this day and age of hardcore.
Yes, I suppose we could’ve gone the Breakdown route, but everyone’s done that, it’s so played out. My old band did it and I’m not interested in doing something like that again. NYHC was a breeding ground for such a variety of sounds… I mean look at SFA or The Mad, two brilliant bands from here that no one here cares about, simply due to the fact that NY’s just had so many good bands. There’s a million styles to choose from, we’ve had enough democore and enough beatdown. Go listen to YDI.
Are you guys trying to go hard in 2026? I know there’s some sick ass shows you guys have booked already that I don’t think we can mention yet. BUT what else have you guys planned so far?
Haha I’m not sure how much I can say without spoiling some stuff. We are playing with Wreckage, Utility, Madman and a couple other bands in February, but other than that I don’t think I’m allowed to disclose anything else. Madman are sick. I know my discrepancy might make me come off like a bit of a wanker, for which I do apologise. But keep your eyes peeled, it’s a mental year coming up for us for sure haha.
You guys just played two shows on the crazy ass Steamroll tour that had like 6 bands. I heard the NY show was an all timer. How were both of the shows?
Mate, that New York show was the best set I’ve ever played. Absolutely fucking mental. Literally saw dudes taking flight during our set. Wasn’t expecting kids in our day and age to go mad to an Altercation cover. Dancing aside, it was a very special show as it was the first time Square One, Steamroll and Fröthing Mad played together. Macon and Jack are two good pals of mine so it was nice to finally do a homie show together. Philly was also great, shout out to Bob Wilson. We scuffed the cover but that’s alright. While they didn’t join us on the 2nd day, No Guard are great. Sully cracked me up.
The Sissy Boys are absolute mad lads, one of my favourite new bands. Their singer Dom was like “Fröthing Mad, what the fuck does that even mean?” Pot calling the kettle black in my opinion. That kid’s an animal, and hilarious. Shoutout to the King’s Command lads, specifically Harold (whose name I thought was Herald because of weird yank pronunciations), I’m very glad he hasn’t banned me from shitposting on the Total Supply board yet, and Richie, who somehow managed to avoid getting knocked out during our set. He has a playlist of songs he’s been knocked out to.
Hardcore is dope…but so is other shit. What other hobbies have you got to fill your free time? Funny enough you hit me back the other day throwing respect on Rob Liefeld, are you into comics at all? People talk way too much shit on him, he has a dope style.
You couldn’t be more correct mate. I’m currently in film school. I’ve made a few short films, docs and music videos which I’m proud of. I’m currently writing a script for a revenge film that I’ll be filming in England in April. I’ve also got another film I directed last year that I’m still editing that features violence between skins and punks at a Ferment show. I love Cronenberg, Gaspar Noe and Michael Mann.
I’m also interested in reading and listening to podcasts about various cultures and subjects, specifically esoteric fascism, street photography, tattoo history, 70s and 80s cults, WW2 history, and some Japanese erotic art, all from an observational stance. As of writing this, I’ve been reading Bill Buford’s Amongst The Thugs, which is basically the bible when it comes to British football hooligan literature. I also love the Simpsons.
Regarding comics, I love the 80s run of Heavy Metal magazine and Judge Dredd, as well as the work of Chris Claremont, Frank Miller, Alan Moore, R. Crumb and Garth Ennis to name a few. Rob Liefeld’s X-Force is an absolute classic. He certainly gets too much hate. Reading Watchmen at the age of 9 definitely changed my life.
If you aren’t familiar with my stupid page on insta, fortbraggmagazine is something else I do. There’s a new physical issue coming out very soon, the first I’ve done in six years, that I’m very excited to release, albeit it’s not entirely hardcore related and discusses some darker subjects. It’s titled No Surrender, so keep an eye out for that.
Musically outside of hardcore, I listen to industrial, black metal, Memphis rap, Japanese Psychedelic rock, techno, 70s British prog, ambient and some indie. Alright I think that’s enough from me on this.
Before we wrap this up let’s hear your perfect day in NYC. From sun up to sun down what’s the plan for the day
Ough, hard question. For me, it’s gotta be either getting a solid pepperoni slice from either L’Industrie or Carmine’s or a visit to a Nepalese restaurant in Jackson Heights. This has to be followed with a visit to a record store, either Generation Records or Limited to One. If I find a classic 7” that I’ve been trying to find for months, that’s truly an irreplaceable feeling. After this, a great show at Gold Sounds involving bumping into your best mates in the pit, followed by drinking and shittalking with friends can’t be beaten. That being said, the latter is not always an easy task when the edge mates start whining about how tired they are at the end of the night. C’est La Vie!
Thank you for doing this. I gotta say people are disrespecting British food way too much. That shit is just good. You got any last words for the readers?
Carter, thank you for this and for putting out our demo, you’re a star!
I can understand why people shit on some UK food given the exceptional food in America. That being said, you can’t beat a North London curry.
In the UK, shoutout to Lost Cause, Nuclear Children, Stingray, Total Con, the Lichfield Skins, Bodybag, Middleman, Hitmen, Tramadol, Warhead 97, Scab, Wit’s End, and of course, to Imposter, who are undeniably the best UKHC band going right now.
NYHC’s back with a bang! There’s only a handful of bands, but who needs numbers when you’ve got real mates and big sounds. Shoutout to Andrew Vacante, Ill Wind, Runnin’ Hot (LI), Bazooka, Steamroll, Top Dollar, Ferment, Square One, Combust, Beg to Differ, No Values, Shit’s Creek, Psyclop and Genome. Also big props to my mate Lina and all the incredible women who play such a huge part in hardcore. When I first moved here there were basically only cliquey punk shows and giant HC matinees, nothing smaller or local. Lina’s signficantly helped bring back this scene as she books pretty much all the good shows.
In other places, shoutout to Never Again and Dusters from Jersey. Also to Finland’s Forced Humility, Vengeful Blood and Kova Totuus, three of the best bands going right now. Props to the Denver Wolfpack: Direct Threat and The Consequence, Indiana’s Colossal Man, Minneapolis’ Everybody Takes One, Street Hassle from Syracuse, and France’s Take It In Blood.
Finally, and most importantly, shoutout to Ola.
Ola is currently incarcerated on remand (pre-trial detention without bail) in prison. Ola was and still is the living, breathing embodiment of hardcore, even behind bars. Prior to Ola’s incarceration, her label QCHQ prioritised platforming young bands with a fresh voice throughout the label’s existence, and she did so much for the scene, even after many of her peers had long moved on.
Ola and 23 others are being held in connection to alleged direct action against the production of deadly weapons on UK soil which are used in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. So what can YOU do to help? A template for a letter is in production, which can be used to write to the British embassy in your respective country calling for all co-defendants to be released on bail, the right to a fair trial and the urgent demand to ensure the UK government meets with the lawyers of six of her co-defendants who are currently on an open ended hunger strike to secure their rights. As well as this, please consider donating to the legal defense fund for the co-defendants. However much you can donate can and will go a long way.
Free Palestine, Free the Filton 24 and Free Ola.
Fröthing Mad stands against all forms of xenophobia, including anti-semitism, transphobia, islamophobia and homophobia. Bring back the skins. Consider starting an Oi band. Real HC is in full effect. No Surrender. Cheers!
Thank you to everybody who supported the label and podcast this year! We’re starting off 2026 with a bang and have a brand new episode on 1/1/26 featuring Nic Samayoa. We discuss everything from his life growing up to Forced Order reuniting. Stay tuned!
Lastly…our co-host Lennon and our good friend Travis got a new band coming out on Total Supply Records 1/7/26. Think 25 Ta Life with a slightly less crazy singer. THE BIG HURT…WELCOME BACK, GET THE FUCK OUT!
