Post-hardcore is best known as a punk genre of music which pairs lyrical creativity with strong vocals and electric instrumentation. Staples of the genre are groups like Fugazi, the Washington D.C. punk band with a cult following, Quicksand, the band which was cultivated in the ’90s in New York City, and Glassjaw, the group which has “outfitted post-hardcore for the 21st century,” according to Revolver. Also a staple of the genre? Bands that almost exclusively feature white, cisgender, heterosexual men.
In 2023, FOXCULT set out to change this. The all-trans, post-hardcore rock band released their debut, five-song EP “THE INDIGO FAULT” in November. In doing so, they helped make the genre more inclusive.
FOXCULT is not the only band bringing women and LGBTQ+ folks into the post-hardcore genre. Throughout the past decade, groups such as Sharptooth, a Baltimore “metalcore quintet,” and The Hirs Collective, a “grindcore duo,” have made hardcore punk with messages of social justice and a focus on women and LGBTQ+ musicians. However, what’s new about FOXCULT seems to be the immediate, online success and community building behind their inclusive, post-hardcore music.
Since FOXCULT’s official arrival on the music scene with their April 2023 single, “The Garden,” the band has seen growing success. Since the single’s release, 129,000 new listeners have streamed their songs and the band has accumulated more than 400,000 streams on Spotify alone. On Dec. 3 of last year, the Seattle,Washington based band played their first concert, an EP release show, in their hometown at Madam Lou’s.
I spoke with FOXCULT’s lead guitarist Ashley Carrera and vocalist Audrey Lane in September, to learn more about the band and their queering of post-hardcore.
Carrera, 34, is the self-identified “resident madwoman” who steers the band. In addition to being FOXCULT’s lead guitarist, she is a founding member of the band, their main songwriter and runs their online presence.
In its early days, Carrera said, the band included vocalist Julian Comeau, who is best known today as half of the pop-punk duo, Loveless. “We didn’t end up doing anything as that little project,” Carrera said. “So I took a little bit of a break, and we took our time finding members. We had a whole lineup prior to who we have now, actually twice over now. The first group of musicians didn’t really work out for us.”
She moved from Boston to Seattle, and FOXCULT began to take the shape as we know it today.
In 2022, Lane, 25, joined the group. She is the lead vocalist and collaborates with Carrera to develop vocal melodies and guitar compositions. Lane also works on the production side of the band, creating graphic design and cutting their music videos.
In May of 2023, FOXCULT signed with Adventure Cat Records. This signing was announced in August, and alongside it they released their debut label single, “GLACIER.”
Lane appreciates FOXCULT’s relationship with the label. “They haven’t been intrusive at all, as far as our process [goes],” she said. “We got to completely do everything exactly the way that we wanted to do it. Obviously, when your band is starting out on a label, that’s a pretty big deal. … It’s been a very good relationship so far, and I’m excited to keep working with them.”
Musically, Carrera said, this relationship is fantastic given FOXCULT’s affinity for authenticity and imperfection in their music. “Nowadays, records almost seem pristine, like there’s nothing wrong with them,” she said. “Everything is just so finite, so mechanical, and we didn’t want that.”
So, Lane said, when producing their music they work to “purposely [choose] which imperfections to leave in. … Everything is chosen to be what it is, deliberately, but it’s also not meant to sound like the most perfect thing you’ve ever heard.” She continued, “There are parts that are very, very pristine, but then there [are] other bits where [we decide], “Let’s leave in the sound of like a scrape of the fingers on the guitar when everything else is quiet.” This choice can be heard in “GLACIER.”
Carrera has found Adventure Cat Records to be “‘huge fans of post-hardcore music.’ [It]is amazing, because it’s a genre that I feel like doesn’t get a lot of attention nowadays. They’re super, super strong allies of queer people, which is amazing,” she continued. “This EP is turning out better than it could have because of that.”
In early 2023, the band met up in Toronto, Ontario, near where Lane was living at the time, to work on their EP. For Carrera, “THE INDIGO FAULT” is above all, “an introspective look into the trans experience,” she told me. “It’s a very diverse EP. I don’t think a single song sounds like anything else on the EP.”
This is due in part to the band’s inspirations. While FOXCULT is very much a post-hardcore band, their inspirations come from all genres. “Surprisingly enough, a lot of our songs have foundations in pop, chill pop and country,” Carrera said.
Lane agreed. “All of my hooks in melodic vocal parts, I’m straight up just writing pop vocals. … It’s completely pop songwriting at its core, and that’s why it works so well.”
“I think it’s a really good mix because we don’t corner ourselves into one genre per se. We kind of hone ourselves in on like the post-hardcore, shoegaze moniker, but we don’t let it pinhole us,”
Carrera continued.
This multi-genre-influenced queering of post-hardcore has been received incredibly well by fans. In addition to the uptick in followers and streams, fans have commented on Instagram and YouTube, sharing how transformative FOXCULT’s music and its band members have been in their own lives.
In a Nov. 17, 2023, Instagram post, one fan commented, “Y’all. This EP is everything. Finding your music at this exact time in my life has been healing and inspiring to my musical headspace as a listener and artist. Trans fucking power.”
On her personal Instagram account, Carrera often shares stories about her own experience transitioning, which has inspired fans to share their own experiences. In response to a September Instagram post by the band, one fan commented, “You’ve inspired me and given me so much strength by being open about your journey. Thank you.” Another wrote, “You’ve been such an inspiration in my own transition, so nice to see you happy.”
While Carrera shares her story through her Instagram following, Lane shares it primarily through her lyrics. “It’s been really gratifying for me, personally, how people have responded to my lyrics. I write in a very deliberate way, and everything is meant to be allegorical and metaphorical in a way, and it’s all reflective of the trans experience,” she said. “It’s been really cool how people have responded to that in general. Singing is just singing at the end of the day, but lyrics and the words you write and the stories you tell are how you connect with people. … So that’s really meant a lot, to be able to resonate with people in that way.”
One of Carrera’s most fulfilling moments of the past year was when she was in Seattle’s Pike Place Market in the summer of 2023. “I was walking around with my friend and I saw somebody wearing a FOXCULT shirt,” she said. “I was like, ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ And like, they freaked out when they saw me and I was like, ‘This is the coolest fucking thing in the world.’ Those are the moments that make me know that I’m doing the right thing.”
Ultimately, for Carrera, it all comes down to her dream — “to create a safe space in metal and rock for trans and queer people,” as she wrote in a December 2023 Instagram post.
As each day passes, it appears as if FOXCULT’s work is closer to fulfilling Carrera’s dream. “Having hundreds of people scream and sing our lyrics back to us will always be an unforgettable experience,” she wrote in a December 2023 Instagram post. “Our first show was unbelievable. Nearly sold out show, nearly sold out on merch and meeting so many incredible fans that are truly passionate about FOXCULT.”
Ringing in the new year, the band took to their Instagram to call 2024, “The Year of FOXCULT.” With a tour teased online and thousands of fans eagerly awaiting new music and concert dates, this title seems aptly fitting. May we all enjoy another year of FOXCULT’s revolutionary musicianship.
Follow FOXCULT on Instagram @foxcultband. Listen to their new EP, “THE INDIGO FAULT” on all streaming platforms.