Davey Havok

Early life

Havok was born David Paden Passaro, in Rochester, New York, and is of Italian ancestry. At the age of five, his father died, and when his mother later remarried he took on the surname of his stepfather, Marchand. When Havok was five years old, he and his family moved from Rochester to Ukiah, California. There, he attended Catholic school through eighth grade. He graduated from Ukiah High School in 1993. Following high school, Havok attended UC Berkeley as an English and Psychology double major. Following his sophomore year, his career with AFI took off and so Havok did not return to the university.

AFI

Davey Havok and his friends, Mark Stopholese and Vic Chalker, decided to start a band in high school, even though they did not own or play any instruments. Stopholese suggested that his friend, Adam Carson, might be able to fill the role of drummer because he owned a drum set. That band became AFI.

After high school, the band broke up when its members left for college. Havok attended UC Berkeley where he took on a double major in English and Psychology. There, he began writing lyrics which would later appear on Answer That and Stay Fashionable and Very Proud of Ya.

After gaining some popularity in their absence, AFI played a reunion show at the Phoenix Theater for several hundred fans. Following the good reception from the fans, they decided to reunite and record an album. In 1995, the band's first album Answer That and Stay Fashionable was released on Wingnut Records and in 1996, their second album Very Proud of Ya was released on Nitro Records. In 1997, the band released their third full-length album, Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes.

The next release was the A Fire Inside EP. It featured covers of The Cure's "The Hanging Garden", 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 Samhain musicians, Steve Zing, London May and Todd Youth, and recorded an album in the vein of Samhain under the name Son of Sam, entitled Songs from the Earth. In 2000 when Michale Graves had left the Misfits, Havok was approached by Roadrunner Records to be the new lead singer of Misfits. However, Havok told an interviewer that he'd never leave AFI as it was his own band.

Following Davey's work with Son of Sam, AFI continued to tour for a few years and released a few EPs along the way.

In 2003, the band's first major label release, Sing the Sorrow, was released, attaining great record sales. On June 6, 2006, Decemberunderground was released on Interscope Records. Havok, along with AFI, toured around the world.

Along with this concert series, AFI's first DVD, I Heard a Voice – Live from Long Beach Arena was released on December 12, 2006, containing the 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 2,000,000 copies worldwide. AFI's eighth studio album Crash Love was released on September 29, 2009. AFI's ninth studio album, 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 the band's tenth album, AFI (The Blood Album), which was released on January 20, 2017 via Concord Music Group.

Blaqk Audio

On August 14, 2007, Havok's electronic side project with AFI guitarist Jade Puget, Blaqk Audio, released their first album, entitled CexCells. Blaqk Audio went on a two-month-long American/Canadian tour following the release. Blaqk Audio's second album, Bright Black Heaven was released in September 2012, and a brief American tour followed. Material was released on April 15, 2016.

XTRMST

A number of cassette tapes appeared around some Californian 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 new project. The band, a straight edge metalcore act, released its self-titled album via Dim Mak Records in late 2014.

Dreamcar

In 2016, it was revealed that Havok had formed a new band with No Doubt members Tom Dumont, Tony Kanal and Adrian Young. The band, Dreamcar, revealed their name via their social media channels on November 16, 2016, along with a teaser reading "coming 2017". It was revealed on the band's official Instagram that their debut single "Kill for Candy" would be released on March 2, 2017. The band performed at Coachella 2017 on April 15 and 22.

Fashion and modeling

Havok and Jeffree Star modeled for Tarina Tarantino's jewelry line, Tokyo Hardcore in 2007. Havok was a presenter at the Mélange Fashion Show on August 6, 2011 in San Francisco. He was featured in the June 2012 issue of VAR Magazine and in Herring & Herring: Framed in 2014. He was voted peta2's Sexiest Vegetarian Celeb contest in 2007 and 2012.

Acting

In 2009, Havok joined the cast of the "illustrated film" series Godkiller. Havok voices the antagonist role, a fallen god named Dragos. For March 2011, Havok joined the cast of Green Day's American Idiot on Broadway, playing the role of St. Jimmy. Havok is featured in at least one episode of Tim Armstrong's musical web series "Tim Timebomb's RockNRoll Theatre". He had a small acting role in the 2012 film Knife Fight.

Novel

On February 21, 2013, Havok announced that he had written his first book, Pop Kids, and published it through Black Candy Publishing. The novel was released April 2013.

Clothing lines

Glitterboy was a short-lived fashion line created by Havok. It was partly inspired by the 70s glam music scene, among other things. Clothing line Paden was released in 2007 and was available exclusively through Fred Segal clothing stores in California.

Havok's second line, Zu Boutique, was launched in August 2008. The line was vegan and featured T-shirts with a limited pressing of 100 shirts per design. The line "pays homage to pop culture, forward thinking, and hedonism". 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. In August 2009, in collaboration with Macbeth Footwear, Zu released a line of limited edition shoes. Plagued by legal trouble, Zu Boutique vanished in 2012. Havok continues to collaborate with PNUT Jewelry.

Personal life

Havok is a vegan and was voted the winner of peta2's annual World's Sexiest Vegetarian contest in 2007. Havok appeared on the cover of Vegan Health and Fitness magazine for their March/April 2015 issue.

with Son of Sam

with Blaqk Audio

With XTRMST

with DREAMCAR

Guest appearances

Havok has appeared as a guest vocalist on releases from various other bands, including: