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David Marchand (born David Anthony Passaro on November 20, 1975, in Rochester, New York) more commonly known by the stage name Davey Havok, is the lead vocalist of the band AFI.

Biography

He was born of Italian-American ancestry in New York. At a very young age his father passed away; and as his mother later re-married, 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, Davey attended Catholic school in Ukiah until the eighth grade.

Music career

For more information please see; A Fire Inside.

During high school, his friends Markus Stopholese and Vic Chalker wanted to start a band (which would become AFI). Unfortunately, they had several problems; chief amongst them was that their lack of a drummer, Mark suggested his friend Adam Carson be in the band. Furthermore, they didn't know how to play any instruments, but they knew that Davey had a good voice, and Adam had a drum set. So Mark learned guitar and Vic learned bass (he was later replaced by Geoff Kresge who would go on to play bass for Tiger Army).

Shortly after high school, the band broke up and Davey moved to Berkeley, California, where he attended UC. Berkeley, planning to double major in English and Psychology. He began constantly writing lyrics to songs that would eventually appear on the albums "Answer That and Stay Fashionable" and "Very Proud of Ya".

In a memorable band reunion, put together by one of their classmates, the band played at the Phoenix Theatre for several hundreds of fans. They decided to reunite and record an album. In 1995, "Answer That and Stay Fashionable" was released on Wingnut Records (re-released in 1997 on Nitro Records). Geoff left during a tour for "Very Proud of Ya" and was replaced by Hunter Burgan . Hunter would eventually become the permanent replacement for Geoff. Hunter was still in The Force until he permanently joined AFI during the "A Fire Inside" EP. However, before that, AFI released their third full length release, "Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes" , in which Davey started getting very serious about his lyrics. He started singing about religion, humanity and other more serious issues.

The next release was the "A Fire Inside" EP. It featured covers of "The Hanging Garden", in which Davey got to flaunt Robert Smith influences, and "Demonomania" by the Misfits. Afterwards, Mark was asked to leave the band. His replacement was Jade Puget, the band's old friend from high school who said he would join after he graduated college. AFI then released their first full length release with Hunter and Jade, Black Sails In The Sunset. In fall of that year, they released the All Hallows EP.

In 2000, they released "The Art of Drowning" to fair record sales, but great acclaim by fans of the band. The group had toured with one of Havok's favourite bands; Samhain on their reunion tour. As a result Havok joined three Samhain musicians; Steve Zing, London May and Todd Youth, they recorded an album under the name Son of Sam titled "Songs from the Earth", it even featured a guest appearence from Glenn Danzig.

Following his return to AFI, then toured for a few years releasing a few EPs along the way. In 2003, the band's first major label release, "Sing the Sorrow" , came out, attaining great record sales with perhaps their most popular single to date "Girl's Not Grey".

Recent times

With the 2006 release of Decemberunderground, Havok and his band reached their highest level of commerical success to date; reaching #1 on the Billboard charts and winning an MTV Video Music Awards (which was presented to them by Lou Reed).

Glitterboy Clothing Line

Glitter Boy Clothing was a short lived fashion line by Havok put together in 2005, in collaboration with designers of the Serious clothing line. It was partly inspired by the 70s glam music scene, among other things. The line was canceled due to creative differences between Havok and Serious. However, on a side note, Havok has said that he is planning another clothing line for the future, but it will be done through a different company; and chances are that it will not be called Glitter Boy. According to Havok, the new line of clothing will be out in 2007.

Sexuality

Davey's sexuality has been the subject of much debate between fans. The claim of one side of the disagreement is that Davey is unarguabley homosexual or, in some cases, bisexual. There have been numerous claims that Davey has come out to the public, though such claims are always uncited and discredible.

In fact, AFI (in most cases, Jade) have made numerous statements as to Davey's sexuality via their official messageboard and myspace. The band has stated:

"Sorry To Burst Your Bubble... but Davey is not gay. Or bi. Get over it. Just because your friend heard he was gay or you read it on some message board doesn't make it so. However, since I've made posts like this repeatedly over the years and people still refuse to believe he's not gay, I guess we'll have to keep hearing about it ad infinitum. I say we talk about Fritch. Or Smith. They're DEFINITELY gay, I caught them holding hands and plus they went to the prom together. Also, my friend heard YOU were gay." -Jade Puget

Regardless to statements made by the group, rumors continue to spread claiming the reverse.

Discography

With AFI

• "Dork" (split with Loose Change) - EP - (1993)
• "Behind the Times" - EP - (1993)
• "Eddie Picnic's All Wet" (live) - EP - (1994)
• "This Is Berkeley, Not West Bay" - EP - (1994)
• "Bombing the Bay" (split with Swingin' Utters) - EP - (1995)
• "Fly in the Ointment" - EP - (1995)
• "AFI/Heckle Split" (split with Heckle) - EP - (1995)
• "Answer That and Stay Fashionable" - (1995)
• "Very Proud of Ya" - (1996)
• "Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes" - (1997)
• "A Fire Inside" - EP - (1998)
• "Black Sails" - EP - (1999)
• "Black Sails in the Sunset" - (1999)
• "All Hallow's EP" - EP - (1999)
• "The Art of Drowning" - (2000)
• "The Days of the Phoenix" - EP - (2001)
• "336" (also known as "Now the World Picture Disc") - EP - (2002)
• "Sing the Sorrow" - (2003)
• "Decemberunderground" - (2006)

With Son of Sam

• "Songs from the Earth" - (2000)

Trivia

• Havok has a plethora of tattoos, including a pair of large black wings on his back and a flaming heart on his chest, daggers on his left and right ribs, a rabbit with wings on the top of his foot, black hearts behind both ears,nautical stars down both his collar bones, hands in prayer with X's on them toward his left bicep, as well as both arms sleeved with halloween imagery with direct references to Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.
• Havok has a lip piercing in the right corner of his lip that he has had for several years. He also had a Monroe piercing but for a very short time. His ear lobe piercings are stretched to around 1/2 an inch.
• Davey Havok is straight edge and vegan.
• Alongside Jade Puget from AFI, Havok is involved in an electronic side-project named Blaqk Audio.
• To date Havok has appeared in two movies; "Live Freaky Die Freaky" and "Mary Jane's Not A Virgin Anymore".
• He is mentioned in the song Mattersville by NOFX ("At the end of my cul de sac/Davey Havok's house is painted black")

Guest appearences

Havok has appeared as a guest vocalist on releases from various other bands.

• Tiger Army with whom he has appeared as a backup vocalist several times.
• The Transplants where he filled a guest vocalist spot on the track "Quick Death".
• The Nerve Agents track "Jekyl and Hyde." from their 2nd release, "Days of the White Owl".
• The Offspring where he provided backing vocals for their 4th and 5th albums "Ixnay on the Hombre" and "Americana".
• Dance Hall Crashers on the song "I Don't Wanna Behave", from the album "Lockjaw".
• Fury 66 on the track "Blue Strip".
• Havok appears on Bleeding Through's DVD, "Wolves Among Sheep".

References

1. Davey Havok at Notable Names Database

• A Fire Inside
• 1975 births
• Italian-American musicians
• Living people
• American male singers
• American vegans