Eva ‘xGeniex’ Hall: On Straight Edge, Veganism, Gather, and Inclusive Hardcore Scene

Eva ‘xGeniex’ Hall is a former vocalist of the influential vegan straight edge band Gather (2004-2007) and California’s punk-rock band Rats In The Wall. Currently, she sings in a hardcore band called Power Alone along with two other members of Gather.

The following interview was featured in DIY Conspiracy’s special straight edge zine published in October 2021 along with our compilation tape commemorating the 40 years anniversary of Minor Threat’s song “Straight Edge”.

What was your first point of contact with straight edge and when did you decide that you want to be part of this community? Did you go vegan at the same time you claimed edge?

I grew up with a lot of addiction in my immediate family, so during my childhood, I was always seeing very negative effects of drug use. When I started getting into punk, I lived in a small town and there wasn’t really a scene nearby. The few punks I met in other towns definitely drank and used drugs, and I never felt like I fit in since I had no desire to participate in that stuff.

Luckily, one of the first punk bands I ever heard was Minor Threat, so I knew that somewhere, there were other punks like me who also wanted to stay drug free. So I became straight edge at a pretty young age, maybe 13 or 14? My decision to become vegetarian, and then vegan, was separate, but happened to be about the same time since those were impressionable years for me when I was discovering all kinds of bands for the first time. One day I was listening to the Rudimentary Peni song “Pig in a Blanket” for the 100th time or so, and it finally sunk in, and decided right then and there to stop eating meat (I was 14 years old.) I didn’t even know about veganism yet, but I made the switch shortly after I learned more.

I tell you about the animals—how they suffer how they die, you try to hide guilty doubt—from me with an appeasing smile, you never want responsibility—for this murderous cruelty, the wasteful piles of blood-soaked bodies—you won’t let your conscience see. Ask yourself what makes you want this—torn ripped flesh so desperately, are you worthy of having this suffering—brought about to fuel your greed? Not satisfied with killing animals—you’re killing millions of people as well, as the numbers increase of those dying—in your manmade third world hell. Millions dying all the time—locked in your abattoir of greed, whilst you destroy them plus yourself—by taking much more than you need, there is no justice in this death—no illusion I’ll let you hide behind, the tradition you use to hide animal murder—is nothing but a thin disguise.

—Rudimentary Peni, “Pig in a Blanket”

Do you remember some of the first hardcore shows you attended? What were the first straight edge bands that hooked you, and was there a straight edge singer that was really influential to you with the things said on stage in between songs?

Since I lived in a small town, the first shows I went to were very small with just local bands. The only straight edge bands I really knew about were Minor Threat, 7 Seconds, Gorilla Biscuits, and Teen Idles, which were long gone by the time I got into them (well, I guess 7 Seconds were still around, but no one cared about their later stuff, haha.) In the early years, I was unaware of any current straight edge bands!

When I heard Earth Crisis a little later, I was blown away that there was still an active straight edge scene. But again, I had such limited exposure where I was from that I didn’t really see straight edge bands playing in my youth, and so I was never really influenced by any particular singers on a stage about straight edge specifically. All I had to go off of were the lyrics sheets in their records, and maybe interviews in zines.

How did your understanding of both straight edge and veganism evolve over time as you became aware of a wider range of politics and ideas within the scene?

Since I got into punk with radical politics before I got into straight edge hardcore, those ideals always remained with me, so I only felt any connection with other straight edge kids who also had “punk” ideals. There was, at least back then, a straight edge scene where everyone just seemed like either jocks or rock stars, who didn’t seem to care about radical politics at all, and in fact, were just as misogynist and homophobic as the normal jocks in high school. Now I felt like I didn’t fit in with other straight edge kids, either!

When I turned 18, I left my small, farm town and moved to Santa Cruz where I found the kind of community I was hoping for; a scene of other anarchists and hardcore kids who also cared about radical sobriety. I guess my views of veganism were challenged at that time, too, and I started to realize mere veganism was just green consumerism, and our reliance on modern agriculture is still destructive to the planet, and therefore, all living beings. Some of my peers stopped being vegan and became “freegan”, or started eating meat that was non-domesticated as to have less impact on their bio-region. I’ve stayed vegan, which could mean I’m just dogmatic, but I also realize that NO diet alone is going to save the planet, so neither is eating “sustainable” animal products. My choice to stay vegan is because I feel too much of a connection with animals to bring myself to consume them. I don’t want to consume parts and products of a violent, needless death.

My veganism is an act of solidarity with them, since they are so exploited in our anthropocentric world, that it’s just a slap in their face to participate in their killing and consumption in this society. However, I fully recognize and support indigenous cultures that actually have a connection to their land-base and the animals they might depend on. It’s not inherently wrong to eat animals if you actually live in a culture that’s as much a part of and dependent upon the land as any other living thing on it. But for those of us raised in industrial civilization, which is totally removed from nature, it’s hard to justify supporting such cruel, oppressive, devastating industries as animal agriculture.

Are there any particular books and zines that made an impact on you when it comes to anarchism, feminism or animal liberation?

After I read Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, I changed direction in my life (for better or for worse.) I was studying physics in college and hated it so much, but after reading that, I switched my major to something that actually interested me, which was American Studies with emphasis on Native American Studies, so I guess it was pretty influential on me! When it comes to feminism, bell hooks’ Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center and Where We Stand: Class Matters both had an impact on me. She did such a great job of emphasizing the interconnectedness of all struggles against oppression and hierarchies, and helped make the term “intersectionality” a standard concept in feminism today. But back in my early teens, I depended on zines to learn about anything in the underground world since there wasn’t really a scene where I lived, or even a bookstore! I can’t recall any specific ones, but zines (and music) definitely introduced me to everything from animal rights to anarchism in the early days.

Gather started in late 2003 with the idea of reviving vegan straight edge and political hardcore. Do you think that the Total Liberation Tour played a successful role in that revival? Can you talk about the state of hardcore and the issues you were dealing with when you started Gather?

In the early 2000’s, there was a kind of revival of youth crew type bands, and “fashion-core” was a thing, too. Both scenes were largely apolitical, and it wasn’t uncommon to hear sexist and homophobic things being said at shows, on stage and in the crowd. While punk shows tended to be more inclusive, they were often also filled with people just getting wasted, which wasn’t very inspiring either. So Gather started because we loved moshy hardcore, but we also wanted to keep alive the punk ideals that meant a lot to us.

I wanted to use what little platform I had to talk about things that mattered to me. I think we only played one show before we went on the Total Liberation Tour? That tour itself was an absolute disaster in so many ways! Horrible planning, and the organizer even dropped off shortly after it started because he was so stressed out I guess. But it was successful in bringing up our morale! Haha. I think it had a profound impact on all of us who were excited enough to stick with the whole tour, when there were plenty of good reasons to drop off. And it really did help connect us to other like-minded people all over the country who we otherwise didn’t know. It seemed like there were so few vegan straight edge people out there at the time, so we made lots of friendships, and after that, our little scene did start to feel more like a real community. And it definitely did inspire some of us to become more involved in activism around that time, so in those ways, maybe it was a success.

The international animal rights campaign Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) was crucial for my own involvement in activism of all sorts. Can you talk about the grassroots animal rights movement in the US and its connections to the hardcore scene during the time when Gather existed as a band?

Speaking of the Total Liberation Tour, Andy Stepanian (one of the SHAC 7) was one of the few people who went on that whole tour and he spoke about HLS and SHAC each night. Sometimes he’d even organize a demo after the show that we would all go to. Before that tour, I knew about HLS and SHAC, but I’d only gone to see Kevin Kjonaas (who would become another one of the SHAC 7) talk on a speaking tour, and donated some money to the cause, or I gave out fliers or something. It wasn’t until Andy went on that tour that I actually participated in SHAC demos in front of a vivisector’s house, for example. Then even after the tour ended, we stayed involved with the campaign in Northern California and did local demos, and down in LA when I moved to Southern California. During that time, there really was a lot of crossover with the vegan straight edge hardcore scene, and the animal rights activist community. We’d talk about it at shows, and people would come out to demos, and vice versa.

Between demos, shows, potlucks, and benefits, it really felt like so much was going on and I think I took it for granted that so many people in hardcore really were involved and seemed to give a shit enough to take risks.

Your current band Power Alone started in late 2018 in a similar situation to Gather—a Republican president and a growing need for political hardcore to take a stand against injustice and social inequalities. So what does this union between straight edge and political music mean to you today? Any similarities or differences between today’s vegan straight edge bandwagon and the past?

I feel like back then, since it seemed like there weren’t as many vegan straight edge people (or maybe it just seemed that way when there were less social media platforms), I naively assumed that we were all on the same page philosophically, and with our intentions. I learned the hard way that that was not the case! So many people turned out to be very single-issued, in that they were outspoken about animal liberation, but they were abusers in other ways, and didn’t seem to challenge themselves at all in terms of unlearning patriarchal views and behaviors. Even worse, some of them PRETENDED to hold those ideals and took advantage of people’s trust and abused them anyway. Because of those experiences of having been taken advantage of myself by men in the scene, and knowing far too many women who were also sexually abused, assaulted, raped, manipulated, etc, I am a lot more cautious of who I trust, and I no longer have an immediate bond with someone just because I find out they’re “vegan straight edge.” Being VEGAN SXE doesn’t automatically mean you’re a good person. That’s probably very obvious to most people, but I guess I was too naïve in my past, and too hopeful that they shared, and practiced, ALL the same values I did just because they shared SOME. I am now aware of red-flags that I was blind to in the past. But I’m also so much more grateful for the ones who have remained true to ALL their ideals all this time, and continue to grow and challenge themselves. And I’m inspired by the younger generation, many of whom seem much more critical, aware, and educated about abusive/toxic behaviors, and therefore much more supportive of those who are victimized by abusers. Currently, there seems to be far less tolerance for misogyny, racism, homophobia, etc. Back then, so many dudes—people who were close friends at one time—were so fucking horrible to women, to BIPOC, and it was just ignored, or covered-up, because people were in denial, and no one wanted to believe that an activist, or outspoken front-person of an XVX band, could possibly be a horrible person in other ways. When women spoke out about it, almost no one believed us, and we were blamed and ridiculed, and nothing changed except that the victims’ lives became worse.

The frustration of not being believed leads to more silence. The current scene seems to understand the importance of intersectionality, and is far-less single issued than in the past. It’s great; I feel like hardcore has come a long way in that regard. And not only within the vegan straight edge scene, but the hardcore scene at large is generally much more accepting, progressive, and inclusive. That’s the biggest difference I see from then and now. It’s a positive change in that respect.

In a Power Alone interview that I did with your brother Dustin, he said that punk and hardcore is a balance between the music and the community. That we should support bands with folks from underrepresented walks of life, no matter what their music sounds like.

This kind of ties in to my previous answer, but yes, at this moment, I do feel like hardcore is less of a “boy’s club” than it was in previous years. Also, maybe thanks to movements worldwide like Black Lives Matter for example, it feels like hardcore is reflecting more racial diversity, too. Perhaps more people are tired of hearing what privileged, straight, white boys have to say and are finding the importance in hearing more perspectives, too.

I know there have always been women, queer people, and people of color in the scene, and their perspectives have always been important, but I think it’s also undeniable that they tended to be marginalized, even tokenized more often, and are now more generally given the respect they deserve. We still have a long way to go for true equality, in the scene and outside, but I have noticed improvement over the years.

Do you think that what we’re doing in the underground music scene still has an impact outside of our own communities? Do you believe that straight edge / radical sobriety is still an important tool to enact in our everyday lives against the alienation, violence and nihilism in modern society?

Hmmm, it’s hard to say. It used to seem like the only time I heard about anarchism, prison abolition, radical feminism, veganism, environmentalism, or critiques of capitalism was through punk/hardcore. Now it’s not uncommon to hear these things being discussed even in the media (well maybe not anarchism, but everything else.) Surely, there are people who take the ideals they learned in punk and practice them in a broader community, maybe through Food Not Bombs, or working in wildlife rehabilitation, political prisoner support, or simply raising awareness/outreach, etc.

So as long as people are doing things like that, it will have an impact. However, I doubt that is what’s responsible for this cultural shift that might be occurring. It’s still important, sure, but it’s also exciting to know that more and more people in the “mainstream world” are open to discussing and doing progressive things that I used to only think other punks and hardcore kids would understand.

As far as the importance of straight edge, I do still feel like it’s helpful to recognize the negative impacts substances could have on our lives and therefore to abstain from them so that we could be the best versions of ourselves, and to say “fuck you” to industries that profit off our destruction. I also know that for some people who experienced trauma due to intoxication, being straight edge is very important to them to be able to take back power in their lives. So, for those of us who feel like drugs would hold us back, would dull our ambition and motivation, or would be MERELY escapism, then yes, I think straight edge is a very important tool. But I know there are also people who struggle with depression, or anxiety, or mental illness that makes it so that pure sobriety can be crippling. For them, using some substance that might not be considered straight edge isn’t about “escapism”, it’s about being able to function and get through the day, and be effective in their area of interest. So I try not to judge how someone can be the best version of themselves, because I acknowledge that everyone has different struggles and that’s ok.

What are some current straight edge bands you’re excited about?

I feel like there was a rise in straight edge hardcore for like a second a few years ago, which was exciting, but it’s already dwindled down significantly! I’m not even sure what bands consider themselves straight edge these days! But I’ll go with Magnitude, Headcount, and Tørsö.

Source: diyconspiracy.net