Davey Havok | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | David Paden Passaro |
Born | Rochester, New York, U.S. | November 20, 1975
Origin | Ukiah, California, U.S. |
Genres | |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1991–present |
Member of | |
Formerly of |
David Paden Marchand (born David Paden Passaro, November 20, 1975), known professionally as Davey Havok, is an American singer and musician who is the lead vocalist of the rock band AFI, the synth-pop band Blaqk Audio, the hardcore punk band XTRMST, and the new wave band Dreamcar. Among various other ventures, he performed lead vocals for Son of Sam's debut album and for fictional band My Purple Agony in the animated series Harvey Girls Forever!.
Havok is an outspoken advocate of the straight edge lifestyle[1] and veganism.[2]
Havok was born David Paden Passaro,[3][4][5] in Rochester, New York on November 20, 1975.[6] He is of Italian ancestry.[3][7]
When Havok was age 5, his father died,[8][9] and he and his mother moved from Rochester to Sacramento, California to be closer to family.[10] His mother remarried and Havok took on the surname of his stepfather (Marchand),[8][9] and was enrolled in Catholic school through eighth grade.[11] The family moved to Ukiah, California in the late 1980s,[10] where he graduated from Ukiah High School in 1993.[12][13]
Following high school, Havok attended University of California, Berkeley. Following his sophomore year, his career with AFI started, and Havok did not return to the university.[14]
Havok and his friends, Mark Stopholese and Vic Chalker, decided to start a band in high school, but they did not own or play any instruments. Stopholese suggested that Adam Carson might be able to fill the role of drummer because he owned a drum set.[15] That band became AFI.
After high school, the band broke up when its members left for college. Havok attended UC Berkeley. There, he began writing lyrics that later appeared on AFI's first two albums.
After gaining some popularity in their absence, AFI played a show at the Phoenix Theater for several hundred fans. Following the positive reception, they decided to reunite and record an album. In 1995, Answer That and Stay Fashionable, the band's first album, was released on Wingnut Records and in 1996, Very Proud of Ya was released on Nitro Records. In 1997, the band released Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes.
The next release was the A Fire Inside EP, which features covers of "The Hanging Garden" by the Cure and "Demonomania" by the Misfits. In 1999, the band released Black Sails in the Sunset, which was the first album to include the current line-up: Havok, Carson, Hunter Burgan and Jade Puget. In the fall of 1999, they released the All Hallows EP.
In 2000, they released The Art of Drowning to fair record sales. The group had toured with another band, Samhain, on their reunion tour; Havok later joined three members of Samhain and recorded an album under the name Son of Sam. In 2000, when Michale Graves had left the Misfits, Havok was approached by Roadrunner Records to be the lead singer of Misfits. However, Havok told an interviewer that he never would leave AFI as it was his own band.[16]
AFI continued to tour for a few years and released a few EPs along the way. In 2003, Sing the Sorrow, the band's first major label release, was released, achieving platinum status in the U.S. and Canada and Gold in Australia. On June 6, 2006, Decemberunderground was released on Interscope Records, again achieving platinum status in the U.S. and Canada and Gold in Australia.
AFI's DVD I Heard a Voice – Live from Long Beach Arena was released on December 12, 2006, containing a live concert from Long Beach Arena from September 15, 2006. This DVD was released as a CD-version in November 2007. Decemberunderground achieved double platinum status in 2013, having sold more than 2 million copies worldwide. AFI's eighth studio album Crash Love was released on September 29, 2009, and Burials was released on October 22, 2013.
In late 2016, AFI released a series of teaser videos featuring song clips and backwards audio, eventually revealed to be promotion for AFI (also known as The Blood Album), released on January 20, 2017 via Concord Music Group.[17] In 2022, AFI had the Bodies tour. [18] For the 20 year anniversary of Sing the Sorrows, AFI performed the album in its entirety on March 11, 2023 at a sold out concert in Inglewood, CA .[19]
In 2000, Havok formed Son of Sam alongside the 1999 reunion lineup of Samhain. This lineup released one album Songs from the Earth in 2001.[20]
On August 14, 2007, Havok's electronic side project with AFI guitarist Jade Puget, Blaqk Audio, released their first album, titled CexCells. Blaqk Audio went on a two-month-long American/Canadian tour following the release. Blaqk Audio's Bright Black Heaven was released in September 2012, and a brief American tour followed. Material was released on April 15, 2016; Only Things We Love was released on March 15, 2019; Beneath the Black Palms was released August 21, 2020; Trop d'amour was released on September 16, 2022. On September 24, 2022, the Fonda had a one night only record release concert.
A number of cassette tapes appeared around some California record stores in early 2014, bearing the band name XTRMST. Listeners soon noted that the band's vocalist sounded like Havok, and rumors began spreading that he was the group's singer. On March 17, 2014, Jade Puget confirmed via Twitter that XTRMST was his and Havok's project.[21] The band, a straight edge metalcore act, released its self-titled album via Dim Mak Records in late 2014.
In 2016, it was revealed that Havok had formed Dreamcar with No Doubt members Tom Dumont, Tony Kanal and Adrian Young.[22] The band performed at Coachella 2017 on April 15 and 22 and performed at Austin City Limits 2017 on October 7 and 14.
Havok and Jeffree Star modeled for Tarina Tarantino's jewelry line, Tokyo Hardcore in 2007.[23] Havok was a presenter at the Mélange Fashion Show on August 6, 2011 in San Francisco.[24] He was featured in the June 2012 issue of VAR Magazine [25] and in Herring & Herring: Framed in 2014.[26]
Havok played a supporting role in Sarah Jacobson's 1997 film Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore.[27] In 2009, Havok joined the cast of the "illustrated film" series Godkiller. Havok voices the antagonist role, a fallen god named Dragos.[28] For March 2011, Havok joined the cast of Green Day's American Idiot on Broadway, playing the role of St. Jimmy.[29] Havok is featured in at least one episode of Tim Armstrong's musical web series "Tim Timebomb's RockNRoll Theatre".[30] In addition to Armstrong's web show, Havok voiced Hay in Armstrong's 2006 stop motion animated film Live Freaky! Die Freaky! which tells the story of the Manson family. He had a small acting role in the 2012 film Knife Fight.
On February 21, 2013, Havok announced that he had written Pop Kids and published it through Black Candy Publishing. The novel was released April 2013.[31]
Havok released Love Fast Los Angeles in February 2018.[32]
Glitterboy was a short-lived fashion line created by Havok. It was partly inspired by the 1970s glam music scene, among other things.[33] Clothing line Paden was released in 2007 and was available exclusively through Fred Segal clothing stores in California.[34]
Havok's Zu Boutique was launched in August 2008. The line was vegan[2] and featured T-shirts with a limited pressing of 100 shirts per design.[35] A jewelry line was released in March 2009 in collaboration with PNUT Jewelry, the side project of Rusty Pistachio of punk band H2O fame. The jewelry was also limited, with only 10 to 90 pieces of each design made.[36] In August 2009, in collaboration with Macbeth Footwear, Zu released a line of limited-edition shoes.[37] Plagued by legal trouble, Zu Boutique vanished in 2012.[38] Havok continues to collaborate with PNUT Jewelry.
Havok is a vegan and was voted the winner of peta2's annual World's Sexiest Vegetarian contest in 2007.[39] Havok appeared on the cover of Vegan Health and Fitness magazine for their March/April 2015 issue.[40] He has said reading Diet for a New America by John Robbins caused him to adopt a vegan diet.[41]
In more recent years, Havok had some of his tattoos "blacked out", saying "I'm constantly changing, and it's an attempt to cover up bad decisions with worse decisions. That's how I live life."[42]
Havok has appeared as a guest vocalist on releases from various other bands, including:
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1997 | Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore | George | |
2003 | Clandestine | himself | |
2006 | Live Freaky! Die Freaky! | Hay | voice |
2009 | Godkiller: Walk Among Us | Dragos | voice |
New Brow: The Rise of Underground Art | himself | ||
2011 | American Idiot | St. Jimmy | musical |
Tim Timebomb's RockNRoll Theater | Devil | ||
2012 | Knife Fight | Jimmy McSorley | |
2013 | Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton | James Broughton's journals | voice |
2015 | Talking Marriage with Ryan Bailey | himself | special guest |
Darknet Delivery: A Silk Road Story | The Pop Philosopher | ||
Dacryphilia | Pablo | voice | |
2017 | Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk | himself | documentary |
2019 | Harvey Street Kids | Victor Lavender | voice |
2023 | Free LSD | Davinatrix / The Promoter | |
Punk Rock Vegan Movie | himself | documentary |
People don't know my middle name? /--/ Dave's is Paden.