With:	Alicia Cordisco
Conducted by:	RaduP (e-mail)
Published:	30.03.2023
Band profile:	Transgressive

Alicia Cordisco is a musician I've initially encountered from her huge contribution to Judicator, one that brought it close to the top of my favorite power metal bands (as seen here). In the meantime she left the band, revived Project: Roenwolfe, a brand of power metal that's blended with thrash, and also started a very politically outspoken thrash band called Transgressive, one whose EPs we covered in our Clandestine Cuts series, and whose full-length debut I very much enjoyed. Naturally I wanted to know a bit more about the entire thing, so I shot Alicia an email with some questions. Here's how it went.

R: I haven’t found a queerer thrash metal band than Transgressive. You might have a better overview than I do, but has queerness ever been a topic before in a genre as heavily political as thrash metal?

A: There was a Kreator song about queer rights! But as far as queer artists goes, I'm not familiar with any thrash artists, and I'm sure that's just due to my own ignorance. Most of the queer artists I know and love play hardcore/metalcore, punk, black metal, death metal, etc. G.L.O.S.S. is probably my favorite example of explicitly queer music and a huge influence on me – certainly their brand of hardcore punk is very close to thrash.

It’s obvious from how political Transgressive is that you’re not shy about speaking your mind about the issues that affect you. How do you find a balance between the focus on the message and the focus on the music as the vessel of the message?

A: It's an interesting question when you are intentionally focused on a vocal performance and lyrical message. I'd say compared to my other work, I let my rhythm guitar sit back a bit in this project so that I could focus on my vocals more, and also give Leona and Josh more room to show off their talents. Thrash is obviously riff focused as a genre, so it's not gone by any means, but if you compare to my power/thrash band there's obviously a lot more intricacy and focus on the rhythm guitar in that band.

R: How much humor can you inject into art about a very serious topic?

A: As long as you are punching up, not down, I think humor, and even irreverent humor has a place—definitely in satire. I think some of the humor I put into Transgressive is lost on certain people, but there is de finitely a decent use of irony, sarcasm, etc where appropriate. “Landlord Liquifier” is meant to be absurd and tongue in cheek. Wouldn't you know it, my view on landlords is more nuanced than 'Wouldn't it be funny if we threw them in a pool of lava?' But exaggerations and absurdities like that convey the point in a different way than being straight faced, and I enjoy that sometimes. Certainly, it's a very common convention of thrash metal.

R: What’s a sensible way to approach humor about the trans experience, when said “humor” has mostly been used to invalidate trans people?

A: Great question. I think a big part of it is just letting trans people be the funny ones. I see well meaning allies try to co-opt our humor and shitposting sometimes and it comes off very cringe. I'm thankful for the support and the buddy buddy nature of it, but it hits different when a cis person tries to be humorous in the way trans people are. If cis people are going to be humorous about trans experience, my suggestion would be to target bigots, politicians etc, from their own perspective. I've seen a few comedian do this quite successfully and it's honestly very wholesome when done well!

R: Do you think Slavoj Žižek would enjoy your music?

A: I imagine it would be similar to when Frank Herbert got a letter from Iron Maiden and wrote back that it was horrible noise and he didn't appreciate being associated with them. Lol.

R: Both Project: Roenwolfe and Transgressive seem to have had some short hiatus/split up periods according to Metal Archives. Can you tell us what was the cause for each of them?

A: Transgressive had a minor blip because we didn't originally plan to do anything after the first EP and I didn't think I wanted to continue. After some support of my friends and inner circle of musicians and a random jolt of inspiration, we decided to continue. Project: Roenwolfe had a split because I was very busy in Judicator and Patrick was very busy in life. I had left the band and he attempted to continue it and played live quite a bit, but ultimately didn't pan out. When things got a little more cleared up for both of us we originally discussed doing a new band, but ultimately the material (Edge Of Saturn – 2021) felt right at home in Project: Roenwolfe.

R: I have seen a fair share of metal done by trans women and non-binary folk, but I don’t think I can name any trans man musician. I have been informed that all trans musicians know each other, so surely you might be of help.

A: See that's a great example of being humorous as a cis person! Leaning into that ongoing joke that we all know each other and being self aware about how people ask that. Most would ask that question with zero sense of humor or irony. Gave me a good chuckle! I do in fact know trans men in music – here's a real fun one fronted by a trans man – queer ska.

R: When have you resigned yourself to the fact that a whole bunch of the interview questions that you’re gonna get are gonna be about being trans?

A: With Transgressive I expect it since it's such a big part of the band and something I intentionally want to speak about through it. It barely comes up in my other work, typically. My experience might be different though than others because I've been an active musician with a healthy amount of press long since before I came out. Not sure how much that affects it.

R: Let’s switch away from the trans topic for a second. You’re also a communist. Why do you hate America?

A: Does anyone truly love The United States? Even the hyper-patriotic conservatives sure seem to hate... you know, basically everyone that lives here, even people like them. I love the people of every country, including those that would imagine themselves my enemy. The proletariat all deserve liberation from tyranny, Imperialism, colonialism, etc regardless of their own individual views. I believe firmly in restorative justice... and also firmly in self defense. But back to your question, the United States is quite literally built on genocide and slavery, and that violence is upheld to this day through its capitalist, imperialist system. And it isn't just about injustice here – the US has been key in dismantling leftism across the world for 100 years now, and the overexploitation of the global south. We may not be the only country with blood on its hands, but we certainly are making a play for being the #1 contender.

R: I’m someone from the Eastern Bloc, and here people, especially the older ones, have had some nasty experiences with communism. Knowing full well the shitstorm this will start in the comments, how do we reconcile communism’s historical authoritarian applications?

A: It's important to realize this incredibly complex question would likely need a novel to answer it completely. Fortunately, Michael Parenti has written several excellent novels on exactly this subject and I recommend anyone who wants to genuinely learn the nuances of it check out his work—if you've already made your mind up though, I can't really help you. For my money, and I am certainly not a political expert, the truth of the matter is a stateless communism can't exist in this world as long as capitalism and Imperialism do. You would need a post-scarcity society... which, good luck, honestly. Even if major leftist revolutions occurred in multiple countries, they would still most likely take the form of socialist states that we've seen in the past, rather than utopian ideas of communist or anarchist end states. So what that means is, despite that socialism and communism in the old day lifted multiple countries out of poverty, and drastically improved the lives of 100's of millions of people, they were also susceptible to the the very intentional sabotage of the capitalist west, driving once socialist states like Russia, China, Korea, etc into different forms of authoritarianism, to the point where today they don't look drastically different from the US itself and are communist in name only. As long as capitalism exists, any socialist, communist, or truly leftist country would have to have a state structure, hierarchy, and defense against this--lest they end up like the Paris Commune--and they would be at odds with capitalism. Unfortunately in the case of our world, capitalism essentially won against all major budding socialist/communist states of the 19th century. To maybe address the nature of the question you asked better, it is extremely tragic that people suffered in these countries and these events, but they suffered due to capitalist and western interference and their states reactions against that. As we all continue to suffer under similar circumstance today.

I also will say I believe in leftist cooperation. There are many types of communists. And while I largely identify with much of Marxism/Leninism and even Maoism, I believe a truly ideal leftist future would not look like any of these. It would be something new built on multiple aspects and ideologies of the past. I try not to subscribe wholesale to a belief dogmatically, but understand situationally where they apply, how they compliment each other, and the merits of avoiding leftist infighting for the sake of working towards a better future, even if we can't define 1:1 every bit of what that future may be. Even if that future never comes, even if it's hopeless, I still believe in working for better and helping the people around us. We're alive, for now, and we have lives to live. The important thing is no matter what atrocities are occurring, that we take care of our communities, our friends, and our families, and we view the whole world as our neighbor and don't leave anyone behind—all of us or none of us. Kindness carries all through even the darkest of times. And that matters to me more than any singular political belief. I don't raise money for trans rights because I'm a communist, or anarchist, or socialist. I try to raise money, make queer art, voice messages of solidarity, oppose oppressive ideologies, etc because it helps people, and helping people is the right thing to do. Direct action will always matter more than political theory in my book.

R: Having played quite a few of metal’s subgenres, I don’t think it’s a surprise that you chose thrash as your vessel for your most political project. Outside of the lineage of each subgenre, why do you think each subgenre works better at being political than others? And why do you think black metal is the one that is most divided between the political extremes?

A: Black metal is an inherently divisive genre. The point of it, for many, was to be extremely counter cultural, to cause shock, and to oppose more conventional forms of metal music. You can see this in the very nature of the music, especially second wave, in how it is played, produced, presented—almost completely antithetical to the technical and progressive and highly musical directions thrash and death metal were going at the time. Why is it so divided? Because what I just said about it is vague as hell—it could mean anything. There is a leftist version of that, and there is a reactionary/right wing version of that. And we've seen many examples of both. I think this is why there is a specifically Nazi element in black metal and NSBM exists as a sub genre. But I also think this is why RABM exists. I'm not a black metal person, but I do think this is a unique trait of black metal. This is quite different than ay thrash and punk where right wing ideologies simply do not fit in (despite that some exists) because punk—which also heavily influenced thrash—was born very specifically into leftist, particularly anarchist, ideas. The specificity of punk and thrash limited the window of entry by reactionaries. Or say trad and power where the major focus has been to be escapist and focus on fantastical elements or celebrations of heavy metal itself. Black metal is so much more nebulous in its counter-cultural structure, and people from every walk of life have filled its borders, for better and for worse.

Personally, I would not expect to see me play black metal earnestly any time soon, and I'm not a huge fan in general although there is a bit I enjoy. Much respect and love to my MANY friends that do play and love it though. I'll keep holding down the fort in thrash, doom, and heavy/power instead. When I think metal, I think Judas fucking Priest and I'm not changing... ever.

R: I feel like I focused a bit too much on the “trans” part of your trans woman identity and not enough on the actual “woman” part. A lot of metal’s relationship with womanhood was pretty complicated, from often feeling like a boy’s club, or one where metal that is more emotional (see HIM) would make it seen as “metal for girls”, or one where sex appeal is still seen as one of a woman musician’s significant qualities (see numerous mentions on Maria Brink’s Wikipedia page about being voted among the “hottest chicks in metal”, no mentions about her vocal styles), or the entire distinction of female-fronted metal. How have you viewed both in the past and since being openly a woman in metal?

A: The term 'female-fronted metal' is outdated, sexist, and functionally useless. It thrives on the understanding of a period where women-in-metal was highly exploitative. I won't list of the cliches—we know them—and I'm glad to see it's considered very cringe for people to lean into that these days. While I won't say things are on an even footing, it seems progress has moved quit far for the acceptance of cis, straight, white women in metal to be more empowered and accepted and on equal footing with their male peers in both industry and audience acceptance. However, all things being intersectional, we still have a long way to go as a medium for the acceptance of women of color, especially Black and Indigenous women, who are numerous in our ranks if you just pay attention, but get barely a percentage of the opportunities, visibility, and credit. Same applies to queer—especially trans—women although that can be applied to men and non-binary folks as well and is not just an issue of women in metal. The point is intersectional focus is needed in all directions, and we have a long way to go for equality in metal—but things are different now than when I was a kid, and I'd like to think for the better. I'd like to see that continue. And if we could also focus on more than just vocalists that wouldn't hurt too!!

R: New Project: Roenwolfe when??

A: June 2nd via Syrup Moose records! Pre-orders go live 3/31!

R: Anything else you'd like to add?

A: Thank you so much for the interview! This was a fun one!