XTRMST's Davey Havok Talks Straight Edge!

  • XTRMST's Davey Havok Talks Straight Edge!
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    Davey Havok (who you most likely know fromAFI) is one of the brains behindstraight-edge metal bandXTRMST (along with bandmate Jade Puget) who have just dropped their self-titled album!Davey took some time to talk withLoudwire about how being straight-edge has inspired his music, what it means for him and how the group came about.

    Davey, just love the aggression of this album and its an interesting idea tackling the straight edge lifestyle. Tell me about the impetus of what got you guys wanting to do this album.

    Thank you for the accolades. We became talking about doing an XTRMST record when we were very young, Jade and I. We got into straight edge in our early teenage years and since then weve oft talked about doing a straight edge band, but pretty passively in our whimsical sort of way. As life went on we were more seriously talking about it, but we didnt have the time to dedicate to it until we began writing this record.

    I think it was 2012 when we started writing and recording simultaneously as we were writing the last AFI record. When we first began we talked about doing a simple EP, writing and recording four songs, but we were so inspired by what we were doing that we continued and it ended up being a full length record. Im happy that it did.

    Can you talk about the straight edge lifestyle? You mentioned you got into it growing up. What first appealed to that lifestyle for you?

    Even within the context of the alternative scene I was a part of, within punk and hardcore and the alt scene there was a focus on self-destruction. There was a lot going on within those communities that really postured as being forward thought whereas as the same time they were veering nearer mainstream culture in that they were embracing the self-destruction behavior of recreational drug use. I never found that appealing and I always felt a disconnect for that reason. Then I discovered the straight edge movement and I discovered people who shared my affinities artistically speaking and my political aversions, in that respect. It was really overwhelming, it was such a relief realizing there were people who I actually could relate to, fully. From that moment on I claimed the movement.

    The Conformist. Brilliant video. Simple yet gets the point across. Im even kind of laughing about the fact that you and Jade are basically in the background for 5 seconds. Thats gotta be the easiest video for you guys.

    Yeah, in that respect it was. Fortunately it was appropriate for the sentiment of the piece for us to barely be in it as voyeurs of the violence, the self-inflicted violence. I really wanted to do something that was atypical for the greater genre and something a little striking in contrast with the sound. I feel that it would have been more expectant to do something visually darker and visually more explicit in a way or something dirtier with the sound. But I felt it would have more impact if it was a little less expected. Its kind of difficult to come up with a treatment for this sort of music because its so easy to go for the literal [Laughs] as far as an interpretation of the song goes. Thats just boring to me.

    This album embraces a lot of the hardcore roots as well. Can you talk about some of the bands that inspired you as you were growing up?

    Certainly without hardcore, we wouldnt have been doing this. Straight edge came out of the hardcore scene. I dont necessarily believe, as some people believe, that you have to be a part of the hardcore scene to share that philosophy and stance against recreational drug use. But it is where it came from and it is where it influenced me to be a part of it. So a lot of that was a very important, a lot of that music and culture was and is very important part of my life. We grew up listening to so much hardcore, everything from the very early DC stuff, Teen Idols, Minor Threat, Dag Nasty, SOA, Government Issue to bands who werent straight edge like Negative Approach. I really feel they were one of the greatest punk bands ever. Then into the late 80s with the Youth Crew and then in the 90s with bands like Earth Crisis, Snapcase Refused were a straight edge band. All of that we were listening to, going to shows. Of course, Sick of it All who technically arent a straight edge band, but many of them hold very similar beliefs. They and the Cro-Mags, which one could say the same thing about the Cro-Mags I mean, theyre wildly influential not only on us but thousands of hardcore kids.

    Check out the rest of the interview atLoudwire


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Davey Havok (who you most likely know fromAFI) is one of the brains behindstraight-edge metal bandXTRMST (along with bandmate Jade Puget) who have just dropped their self-titled album!Davey took some time to talk withLoudwire about how being straight-edge has inspired his music, what it means for him and how the group came about.

Davey, just love the aggression of this album and its an interesting idea tackling the straight edge lifestyle. Tell me about the impetus of what got you guys wanting to do this album.

Thank you for the accolades. We became talking about doing an XTRMST record when we were very young, Jade and I. We got into straight edge in our early teenage years and since then weve oft talked about doing a straight edge band, but pretty passively in our whimsical sort of way. As life went on we were more seriously talking about it, but we didnt have the time to dedicate to it until we began writing this record.

I think it was 2012 when we started writing and recording simultaneously as we were writing the last AFI record. When we first began we talked about doing a simple EP, writing and recording four songs, but we were so inspired by what we were doing that we continued and it ended up being a full length record. Im happy that it did.

Can you talk about the straight edge lifestyle? You mentioned you got into it growing up. What first appealed to that lifestyle for you?

Even within the context of the alternative scene I was a part of, within punk and hardcore and the alt scene there was a focus on self-destruction. There was a lot going on within those communities that really postured as being forward thought whereas as the same time they were veering nearer mainstream culture in that they were embracing the self-destruction behavior of recreational drug use. I never found that appealing and I always felt a disconnect for that reason. Then I discovered the straight edge movement and I discovered people who shared my affinities artistically speaking and my political aversions, in that respect. It was really overwhelming, it was such a relief realizing there were people who I actually could relate to, fully. From that moment on I claimed the movement.

The Conformist. Brilliant video. Simple yet gets the point across. Im even kind of laughing about the fact that you and Jade are basically in the background for 5 seconds. Thats gotta be the easiest video for you guys.

Yeah, in that respect it was. Fortunately it was appropriate for the sentiment of the piece for us to barely be in it as voyeurs of the violence, the self-inflicted violence. I really wanted to do something that was atypical for the greater genre and something a little striking in contrast with the sound. I feel that it would have been more expectant to do something visually darker and visually more explicit in a way or something dirtier with the sound. But I felt it would have more impact if it was a little less expected. Its kind of difficult to come up with a treatment for this sort of music because its so easy to go for the literal [Laughs] as far as an interpretation of the song goes. Thats just boring to me.

This album embraces a lot of the hardcore roots as well. Can you talk about some of the bands that inspired you as you were growing up?

Certainly without hardcore, we wouldnt have been doing this. Straight edge came out of the hardcore scene. I dont necessarily believe, as some people believe, that you have to be a part of the hardcore scene to share that philosophy and stance against recreational drug use. But it is where it came from and it is where it influenced me to be a part of it. So a lot of that was a very important, a lot of that music and culture was and is very important part of my life. We grew up listening to so much hardcore, everything from the very early DC stuff, Teen Idols, Minor Threat, Dag Nasty, SOA, Government Issue to bands who werent straight edge like Negative Approach. I really feel they were one of the greatest punk bands ever. Then into the late 80s with the Youth Crew and then in the 90s with bands like Earth Crisis, Snapcase Refused were a straight edge band. All of that we were listening to, going to shows. Of course, Sick of it All who technically arent a straight edge band, but many of them hold very similar beliefs. They and the Cro-Mags, which one could say the same thing about the Cro-Mags I mean, theyre wildly influential not only on us but thousands of hardcore kids.

Check out the rest of the interview atLoudwire


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