I was born June 13th, 1971, in Long Beach California to Steve & Lynne Hainley. They chose to name me after my dad, because despite living in the hippy era, they weren't too creative.
I grew up rather unpopular, particularly with females. This trend ended when I was 18, and for awhile there, I was almost a slut, but never went all the way.
Since I was a kid, about 6, I sort of wanted to be a rock star...with a few phases mixed in (superhero,priest,founder of new religion, comic book artist, professional skateboarder),but by the time I was 17, I'd settled back with rock star. I discovered The Cure when I was 15, but REALLY got into them around the time I turned 18.
I quit school at 17 to concentrate on music, but I was easily distracted by friends, NA meetings(I'd decided I was an addict because a friend who'd gone through treatment said I was...and I could either quit drugs and alcohol, or I couldn't stay friends with him)and then when I was 18, girls....LOTS of girls..that was when I dyed my hair black the first time, and I was dressing like a Robert Smith wannabe (except for my eyebrows, which were more like Spock) almost every day. It did wonders for me.
Eventually, I met a girl, fell in love, blah blah blah...it lasted almost 4 years, but ended pretty painfully. Such is life..no big deal anymore. During that time, I was also studying Vocational Music in a community college. I did this originally to appease my parents, who said "Get a job, go to school, or get out!!"...so I chose school, and decided a degree in music wasn't such a bad idea. And the weird thing was I ended up liking it, and learning alot. Sadly, there was ONE class that required good reflexes, and I'm NOT a morning person, and so my reflexes were always off for the tests...which were always in the morning. This one class was enough to fuck up my grade enough that my financial aid was cut off.
So, I never got that degree, which kind of sucks, but I learned alot about music, and it improved my playing skills.
I think some of the earliest songs I remember from childhood are "Rock The Boat", and "Shake Your Booty".
When I was 6 and 7, like many kids in the 70s, I was very into KISS. However, on the other hand, I also loved ABBA and the Bee Gees, so that probably explains why I can like The Cure, Skinny Puppy, AND Village People. I like music that spans all emotional possibilities.
When I was 21, I met another girl, Fareeba, who I also fell in love with, we lasted 2 years, but we're still friends.
During alot of that time(and after), I was working lots of shit jobs, dishwashing, telemarketing, temp services, janitor, real fun stuff. For awhile, I thought I'd never even get on a stage in a band. I ended up getting depressed about it and started smoking again(I quit for 3 years when I was 22). I finally made it onstage when I was 25, with a crappy band called Mrs Grimes.During that time, I also came up with my name, Carroll D. Kraston, inspired partially by my love of Lewis Carroll, and also because it's a sort of gender bending name, but I never brought it up with Mrs Grimes, because I saw that mostly as a learning experience,rather than an actual career building band.I was going to quit, but they fired me because my bass playing was too melodic, and clashed with the lead guitarist's style, which was more bluesy.
Strangely enough, the very next day, I joined a real good band. We called ourselves Butterknyfe Wound for awhile, thinking a humourous name went well with dark music, but we eventually changed it to Cerulean Winter, because we were all embarrassed when we had to tell people our name. We did pretty good, but we went through 9 drummers, and eventually we broke up a week after playing a New Years gig at the Paris Theatre in Portland. I'm currently in a band called Nefarium, it's an electronic based goth/industrial band(what the hell is Darkwave?) with alot of Cure/New Order/Bauhaus influence.
Since Nefarium is on an indefinate hiatus, I'm currently working on my own project, Cruelty Pageant, with the help of sequencing software I named Peter Niles. The software is a big help because I live in an area that's kind of in the middle of nowhere and hard to find, not to mention that I'm not really a "core" member of the Portland scene, so few people know who I am right now. The software is my band. It's never late, it plays any instrument I put in it, never gets too drunk to play, and I can "practice"(read:program and edit) pretty much any time day or night, and I didn't have to set up a whole room with noiseproofing for practices and recording. It's the band I've always wanted, and I'm in control I'M THE MAN!!!MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!....er...sorry...
There's a link to the official Cruelty Pageant site on my music page.