Another instalment of the interview series. Once again, same old rule, if it was done in English, no need to translate it. This time I have Davin, who sings for Philadelphia vegan straight edge band xKingdomx. She is incredibly enthusiastic live and plays with her heart, saying some serious things while keeping the rage in her eyes. Being a girl in hardcore, she must take a lot of shit that I never had to experience, so even more respect for that. Here it it what she had to say.

How do you spend your time? What are you plans, you mentioned that you had the idea of moving to Europe...

Outside of band stuff (which takes up most of my time), I… lets see. I hang with two wonderful cats named Pippi and Ella. Lately I’ve spent an hour a day reading Emily Dickinson poems and recently found myself able to recite them, which made me think of elderly people and their tendency to break into song or poem- MUCH to the embarrassment of those around (or related to) them. So perhaps I’m senile. I ride a rusty red bike around, drink a lot of coffee, listen to records, and spend a time of time at my desk writing. I’m hoping to write a book this year based on my adventures and the lovely, hilarious, and stupid people I surround myself with. I occasionally work (I hate working), but my job is fucking awesome (but I still hate it). I’m a children’s face painter. I’ve been doing it for 4 years. Later this year I’m going to break off from my company, moving to Richmond, Virginia (4 hours south of Philadelphia) and start my own.
And yes, hardcore bands only stay together for so long, and when Kingdom is done I (and our guitar player/my best friend, Dave) are moving to Barcelona, Spain.

How did you get into hardcore?

When I was 12, these dudes (who later went on to start a band called American Nightmare) were passing out flyers for a hardcore show at a Primus concert, and passed me one. I loved music, mostly metal (as a little kid I had been completely consumed by my love of Guns N Roses and idolized Slash), so I went. From the second I walked in, I knew I was home. That’s the short version of a very long story.

Since you arrived in Europe you have been a victim of your lifestyle, you had problems in your foot from jumping around, you got sick from non vegan food. In a weird way, do you wish that you could wake up and just worry about the next club night and sit around your room all day or you think this is all worth it?

Fuck no! I’m not made for a boring life, I’ll leave that to someone else. Injuries and illness suck for sure, but I enjoy it all. The day I thought I might die from my gigantic, purple and grey foot (French doctors told me it could be fatal- turns out they were wildly overreacting and it was just a really bad, really swollen sprained ankle), I was laughing and trying to get our guitarist to film me giving a tour update. It’s all perspective, you know? It’s like Peter Pan said, “To die would be a great adventure!”

What are your goals with xKingdomx, do you want to see it get bigger or you don't take it seriously?

That’s kind of a funny question. I feel like for a hardcore band, we’ve about done all we can do. We’re on a decent label, well distributed, touring almost all year long. I guess we could try to be on Victory or Metal Blade, but that would be all semblance of DIY going out the window and we wouldn’t even really be a hardcore band anymore. I’d say we’ve successfully reached our goals, and now we just want to tour, tour, tour. If that makes us bigger, that’s cool. If it doesn’t, that’s cool too.

You guys play Minor Threat and Bulldoze covers, which is a match made in heaven to me!

Me too!

You must feel dissatisfied with what you see out there, if you could make one definitive change to humanity, what would it be?

That is a hard one. Okay I’ve thought for 3 seconds and come up with this: I’d take Patriarchy out of the mix and see what a world of equal human beings would look and feel like. All people are effected and oppressed by Patriarchy, from men being socialized to dominate (other humans, women, the world), to women being socialized to submit (this needs no explanation), from people who are both or neither being outcast and despised for not fitting into the gender binary, and the way that we stifle parts of ourselves (“boys don’t cry”, “don’t be such a tom boy”)… we are all forced into molds we don’t fit, and we all suffer from it.

The new record is coming out, right?

Yes, the new record, The Rage That Guides, is out March 31st on Eulogy Records.
Thanks for the interview!

Listen to xKingdomx.