Davey of Davey Suicide

by Anabel Dflux
- Photojournalist –

Davey Suicide is an industrial rock band from Hollywood, California (or as they like to call it, Unholywood, Killafornia), whose visual image is just as gratifying as their message! Anabel Dflux had the chance to sit down and talk to Davey at the final show of the Wide Awake and Dead Tour about his new album, The Kids of America music video, as well as his personal snippets on art and the fanbase.

Listen to the interview:

You can connect with Davey Suicide online at www.DaveySuicide.com and give em’ a like at www.Facebook.com/DaveySuicide!

Be sure to check out the Kids of America music video at www.youtube.com/DaveySuicideVEVO.

Interview Transcript:

Hardrock Haven: Hey Davey, thank you so much for talking to me today! How is the tour going so far?

Davey Suicide: It’s the last day, so, it’s been great, and my favorite group of bands to tour with so far. It’s just been cool to see all the fans that have been amassing and how the crowds have been growing.

HRH: Sweet! So, congratulations on the drop of your debut self-titled album! Can you tell me a little bit about your inspirations for it?

Davey: I mean, it’s kind of like how I think the world is built on facades and they try to fear you into believing certain things that control the mass population, so that’s some of it. Some of it is about me growing up, some of it is the idea of how manufactured the music industry has become and the idea of destroying all of these people that have taken an art and put it on an assembly line and it’s losing the integrity of what made music in the beginning. I think those are a couple of topics.

HRH: Also, congratulations on the release of your video for Kids of America! How was it like working with renowned filmmaker and photographer Chad Michael Ward?

Davey: It was great, I love Chad. Chad is an amazing visual artist and we’ve gotten to work together so many times, I feel spoiled now because I used to always hit him up and be like “Dude, shoot my band” and he would never return my calls or my emails or anything. Now we get to talk and be friends and it’s cool.

HRH: How was the video conceptualized?

Davey: I think it’s just, well, music for me growing up gave me a place to go when no one else would listen and would kind of like, wanted to show that in our own way. Just how parents sometimes don’t give enough time to their kids, like appreciate what their life is or what they like or just kind of shrug them off. So we wanted to bring in Cameron and make him just kind of show how there are things that parents don’t really pay attention to, and maybe they should.

HRH: I heard you have some new members in your band, how are they fitting in?

Davey: Perfect! The best tour we’ve ever been on, easiest tour we’ve ever been on, we all like each other and there is no drama.

HRH: Sweet!

Davey: We’re a family and we all work really hard. It’s probably the happiest I’ve been in a band in a long time.

HRH: I know that besides music, you are also a tattoo artist and you paint! What is your favorite thing about art and why?

Davey: I just think it doesn’t have to have boundaries, I think it’s kind of cool to think that everything else, like in school or getting a degree or being tested on something or even sports, there are always rules. You know, art and music and stuff doesn’t have to have rules. It’s only going to be there if you put them there. I think that’s the cool thing, it’s endless if you want it to be.

HRH: A lot of fans look up to you, how does that make you feel?

Davey: I think it’s a lot of responsibility sometimes, you gotta figure out what you think is the right thing because when you have influence over people, you obviously want them to be doing what you visualize as the right thing. It’s pressure sometimes, but it’s also like, I had those people in my life too, so I always revert back to how they made me feel and I think it’s good, you need mentors in your life to make yourself stronger and to learn.

HRH: On that token, what is the most interesting thing a fan has ever given you?

Davey: We get necklaces and artwork almost every day now, it’s all special in its own way. I wouldn’t say that one thing is better, but I think that when they pay attention to what they’re into and they show up with the kind of food that we like or they just draw something and it’s just really gnarly or something like that, it just makes you realize how much they pay attention to every little detail and that’s the cool thing. I think it’s all great, I think whenever someone spends time to make you something, it’s special and I don’t think you can measure that on a scale.

HRH: How do you feel you’ve evolved over the years?

Davey: I became fearless to just be myself and, I used to worry about what people thought or worried about trying to please everybody, and at some point you just realize that you’re not going to please everybody and that as long as you feel confident in what you’re doing, it really doesn’t matter. You’re going to get naysayers even if everything you do is perfect. People are always going to have something to say. I think that’s the biggest evolution and I think I’m finally getting to the point now where I’m really happy with how the songs have come out and I love our record. I think reaching that point, a lot of times you go back and you’re really critical about stuff and now I’m looking back and I’ll be like “yeah, we did a good job.”

HRH: Any juicy tour stories?

Davey: Um, do you have a juicer? (laughter)

HRH: (laughter) If only!

Davey: Tour is tour; we’ll leave it at that!

HRH: And last, but certainly not least, what’s next for Davey Suicide?

Davey: We have three months, almost; we gotta start recording our second record. We’re going to go on a headline tour in July which we are announcing very soon. We got a ton of shit going in the fall and the winter. The really exciting thing is that we’re going to be playing our full record and it’s going to be our shows and stuff in July and August. We’ve done three US tours and now we’re getting to the point where we can kind of float on our own and it’s really exciting!

HRH: Thank you so much!

Davey: Thank you!

Davey Suicide | Davey Suicide

by Mark Allen
Staff Writer –

Post-industrial meets hard rock meets sleaze-metal in an expectations-exceeding mash-up on this debut from rock ‘n’ roll insurgent Davey Suicide. The press release refers to him as “a rebel raging through town with distortion blaring, middle finger in the air, girls dropping their panties, and flames everywhere.” It’d be a nice piece of flamboyant hyperbole… except it’s true. Well, except for the girls dropping their panties. And the flames. Maybe Suicide can get the girls to drop their panties into the flames, ‘cause that would be cool as hell…

Seriously, regardless of whatever hype his publicist is trying to push, Davey Suicide’s debut is a hard rock force to be reckoned with. While Suicide is not the first to try this style — Shotgun Messiah crossbred industrial with hair metal way back in ‘93 — he is among the first to inject it with this many hooks and arena-ready anthems. This album is one quarter White Zombie, one quarter Nine Inch Nails, one quarter Guns N’ Roses, and one quarter ‘80s hard rock. On paper, it’s an amalgam that sounds like it should be an epic failure, but sonically it works amazingly well.

Davey is gifted with a great metal voice, graced with grit that never goes to gravel, somewhere between Tim Skold and Rob Zombie. In keeping with industrial tropes, he sometimes electronically mechanizes his vocals but never to the point of distraction (unless you cannot stomach anything with an industrial edge, in which case you are advised to avoid this album anyway). His vocals have that Axl Rose gutter-rat sneer and all the angry-at-the-world attitude you can ask for.

Proof of this can readily be found in the band’s first single, “Generation Fuck Star,” an anthem of disillusionment that burns with enough renegade attitude to make Trent Reznor seem happy-go-lucky. And yet, beyond the ballsy guitars and slamming drums is a song about self-empowerment: “Generation Fuck Star / The lost have found their way / Revenge will have its day / Cross your heart / We confide / Put your trust in Suicide.” Accuse him of lyrical ego-masturbation if you must, but Davey delivers his trademark rebel anthem with sincere conviction.

This is an intense album from start to finish, thrashing you with pummeling power chords while the drums hit you like body blows from an anvil-fisted prizefighter. But throughout the course of the crunchily corrosive chaos, Davey never loses sight of those crucial hooks. This is one of those rare albums that is musically vicious and super-catchy at the same time. It pulls no punches, but your ears will welcome the smack-down.

That said, Davey is not all serious all the time; he’s more than willing to aim below the waist now and again. “Hustler Queen” lays down a raunchy groove with lyrics to match, using gang vocal “Hey-hey-heys!” to drive the sexy home. “Uncross Your Legs” channels the spirit of Nine Inch Nails while delivering lines that would make Reznor vomit: “I’m just the devil / You can call me Cupid / I’ll rock your world / And you’re not that stupid.” And what to make of “Unholywood Killafornia” with lyrics like “All the ladies want to fuck / So grab your crucifix”? Religion meets sleaze…now that’s different.

Davey Suicide is one of the best surprises of 2012. He brings bitterness, bombast, and badass in equal measure and whips it into an industrialized metal concoction that hits the ears hard and yet is commercially easy to digest despite the vitriol and venom. He may sport an incisive moniker, but Davey Suicide is one heavy rocker that won’t make you want to self-terminate after you give his music a spin.

Genre: Hard Rock, Post-Industrial, Glam, Sleaze

Band:
Davey Suicide (vocals)
Frankie Sil (bass, backup vocals)
Ben Graves (drums)
Eric Grifin (guitars)
Needlz (keyboards, programming, backup vocals)

Track Listing
1. Cross Your Heart
2. Generation Fuck Star
3. Sick Suicide
4. Hustler Queen
5. Uncross Your Legs
6. Unholywood Killafornia
7. In My Chest Is a Grave
8. Kids in America
9. One More Night
10. Professor Asshole
11. Grab a Gun & Hide Your Morals
12. Fallacies
13. God Head Killers
14. I’ll Take a Bullet For You

Label: Standby Records

Webpage: www.daveysuicide.tumblr.com

Hardrock Haven rating: 9/10