1. What inspired you to start the band, or if you joined later, what made you want to be a part of it? Was it about more than just being into that style of hardcore?

MicahNoah hit me up out of the blue and asked if I wanted to join after they’d played a few shows and it seemed like a cool opportunity to get to play a different style of heavy music than I had been, as well as an opportunity to play in a straight edge band, which is something I’d had wanted to try and do since high school, I just never felt like I had the means. I also knew most of the people in the band ahead of time and the ones I maybe knew less or had only interacted with in passing seemed super cool, so it felt like a good group to join into, and two years later I can definitely say it has been!

NickyI moved to Minneapolis in the summer of 2021. Like a lot of people the pandemic gave me a lot of time to think about my priorities in life and what actually made me happy. I had always wanted to be in a straight edge band, and when I met Noah I asked him if he knew other straight edge people to make one. He said yeah , my friend Brett and I would play with you. That’s the germ of how it started. Allofgodschildren was then both my first straight edge band and my first time playing guitar in a band.

Brettxaogcx had a very nontraditional origin in terms of how bands typically form. Noah and I were in a now-deceased straight edge moshy death metal band together at the time and he had booked a show for a new crossover band that Nicky was in which I photographed. Nicky was a fan of the band we were in and had explained that he always wanted to be in a straight edge band. Fast forward a few weeks and Noah is booking a big show that needs one more band to fill out the bill. Noah messages me on Sunday saying we are forming a new straight edge band to play a one off show with Nicky and Marc on Wednesday. We frantically threw a few songs together and played the show never thinking it would blossom into anything beyond that. A few more shows we ended up playing for basically the same reason and then we decided to make it a more legitimate, "real" band.

Noahi just needed a band to open this raw brigade show i booked in my backyard. i had booked nickys old band and we had chatted about wanting to do a edge band eventually, and brett had separately mentioned that if a band ever needed a fill in in order to not drop a show or something, he would happily fill in. me and brett were also currently in sentenced 2 die together so i already knew me and brett vibed in a band setting. and lastly, i only ever had 2 ideas for vocals. marc was the one who said yes and i honestly couldn't imagine the band without them. i guess ACTUALLY lastly, we always knew we were gonna be a 2 guitar band, and brett had initially suggested micah as s2d second guitar so we brought the idea back for aogc and it worked out perfectly. kinda transformed into a full band history instead of the start but fuck it lmao

2. You’ve all been part of other bands or are juggling multiple projects—does xallofgodschildrenx feel like a different kind of outlet for you?

MarcYes it does feel different. As the vocalist, I am able to express whatever thoughts I have in my head and whatever I want to accomplish lyrically. It’s a very cathartic release getting to say stuff that matters a lot and able to share that with whoever sees us and listens to our music.

MicahAbsolutely, there was definitely metalcore/hardcore influence in the other bands I had been in previously, but not quite as blatant or pure as this band, so for guitar writing purposes, I definitely get to exercise a different creative muscle than I got to with either Agony Reigns or Klazomaniac.

NickyIt’s definitely cathartic in a different way from anything else I participate in. It also demands more of me technically than anything else I play (speaking strictly for myself here) so it’s a challenge that way. It’s also interesting, as opposed to most guitar music centrally focused on the virtuosity of the guitar playing, to try to write music that serves as a platform for Marc’s ideas and a way to induce people to dance as the top priorities. The melodies, and harmonies, and all that are the backdrop, not the main event.

BrettPersonally, I grew up on early/mid 00's metalcore. I learned to play guitar to all the At The Gates core bands. I had always wanted to be in a metalcore band like that and 13 year old me is extremely happy. With my other bands I am currently in, we do a lot more mathcore and post black metal stuff. An arbitrary Brett riff usually starts as either a sad boi emo chord or an At The Gates riff. All of my bands to some extent write the same kinds of riffs but will definitely lean more in one direction or the other. I have absolutely written demos and had to decide which band it was actually for because in theory it could be for any of them. I play guitar for those other bands and xaogcx I obviously play bass. That aspect is quite different in how I play live because I can just soak it all in instead of always worrying about the next crazy chord shape I need to get to.

Noah100% i cant remember the last time i wasn't in at least 2 bands at the same time. once we found our initial footing, aogc transitioned into the metalcore realm VERY quickly. i've enjoyed some form of metalcore almost as long as ive listened to music with any purpose other than what a parent or uncle put on while i was around. aogc lets me really dig into bands i enjoy and having a sonically similar output to what im drawing from. technically speaking, it also really lets me flex my drum ability into aspects that regular hardcore wouldnt be able to.

3. You just wrapped up your tour with Your Spirit Dies and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. How was it hitting the road with them for five nights? Any standout moments from the tour?

MarcIt was an incredibly rewarding experience. Rockin’ with them for five nights was super sick and I would love to play with them again!

MicahSubmitting my assignments on time, shoutout Matt Mcgee for filling in for me.

NickyBoth bands were full of genuine and hardworking people who seemed earnestly interested in us as people first and foremost. That was really refreshing, made it feel like touring with a group of long lost friends that happened to involve music. Both bands were inspiring to watch every night and pushed me a little bit to try to reconsider my approach to lots of things musically. Highlight was Pita Pit in Greenville SC.

BrettYour Spirit Dies is one of my favorite bands. Hard stop. One of my other bands played with YSD in 2023 they first came to Minneapolis and that was already such a shining moment for me. So then to tour with them was a dream come true. Seeing them every night for a week and hanging with them was something I could not have imagined I would have done, even one year ago. Thus Spoke Zarathustra has some of the most fun music I have listened to in recent memory. At first their shenanigans were difficult for me to understand but after getting to know them I came to really enjoy their company.

Noahit was incredible. the only person on the entire package i had any sort of relationship with prior to day one was Brandon from YSD and even that was mostly limited to social media interaction as i had booked them back in winter 2022 or 23. day one was technically snow and flurry, but the first real day we all got to hang out was in mke on day two. for me personally, there really wasnt an issue hanging out, talking to, or getting along with anyone from either band. every time we rolled into a new city and got food, or rolled up to the venue, it was like life long friends seeing each other again. seriously some of my favorite people ive ever had the pleasure of touring with. its also really hard to pinpoint any standout moments because every food place, every store, or every show we were all in the same place we full of memories i hold dear. i will mention the late night dinner we all got i believe after the springfield show. i can't talk about most of it as it was very much so "you had to be there," but im sure everyone on the package has some stories they could tell you in person. hahaha

4. Any more touring plans? Barring any financial or logistical obstacles, where would you like to play?

MicahI’d love to go back to Canada, because that was a fun weekend to get to do, but honestly I’m down to tour anywhere.

NickyWe don’t have anything set in stone yet, and all of us are gainfully employed adults who (more or less) are well adjusted members of society, which limits touring a bit. But we have some tentative aims on the Pacific Northwest. In the good rather than bad sense, my expectations start on the floor for this band so any amount of touring or anything else comes as a pleasant surprise.

BrettYes, we have done some early stage planning for our next tours for 2025. Barring financial and logistical obstacles, I would love for us to tour Russia so I can visit my friends again.

Noahas of the time im filling this out, (way later than everyone else in aogc because im fucking stupid hahaha) we are doing a one off in st louis for the Volition release show. We're flying down to greenville for azucar fest. theres a handful of really dope home shows both announced, and not announced yet. were trying to do some PNW dates later this summer, as well as a more midwest run also in the summer but both are very early in their developmental stages. and i would love to tour europe. i have some friends in an international straight edge chat id love to meet in person.

5. I feel like you guys really leveled up with An Endless Search For Clarity compared to the demo. What inspired the evolution in sound? Do you think your sound will continue to evolve, or have you found your groove?

MicahFrom my perspective, it was after I wrote No Compromise that we started to evolve into a metalcore band as opposed to a straight up hardcore band. I remember at one point we were talking about maybe that song even being “too metalcore” for this band, but then we all decided that we’d enjoy pushing further into that territory and it just kept going from there.

NickyThe demo was written in 2 practices to fill an emergency opening slot for Raw Brigade in summer 2022. The EP came from an honest assessment of everyone’s musical bread and butter (maybe with the exception of myself, but I grew to like lots of metalcore with time). We simply were collectively more interested in making mosh worthy Poison the Well with the fat trimmed than use my Iron Age ripoff riffs (those will maybe come back some day though, just not in this band). I do feel we’ve found our niche, which is that we retain a lot of melody in our style of metalcore. Feels risky to do to an extent, since so many bands now focus on being as hard & heavy as possible, but it’s a huge payoff when it works.

BrettThe demo was extremely rushed in terms of writing and also releasing. Pretty much three months between our ad hoc formation and putting that out. We all love metalcore and putting us in a room with some time to actually write something we were all proud of, you'd get metalcore in the end plain and simple. I feel like we found our sound with AESFC. We actually put time and effort into writing it. I could see some ebbs and flows of "metalcore" but I would assume that our steady state going forward will be similarly in line with AESFC.

Noahme showing nicky opposite of december, and adding micah is 100% what locked in our sound shift. me brett and marc all fuck with metalcore so it wouldnt have been off the table without the other 2, but we could have branched off into MANY directions, it just so happened that nicky and micah were the ones that shoved us in the metalcore direction.

6. If you could only watch one cartoon series for the rest of your life, which one would you choose?

MarcAnything Star Wars I eat up. But Star Wars The Clone Wars is the cartoon I would watch for the rest of my life.

MicahMaybe Avatar: The Last Airbender, that’s definitely a series I come back to a lot.

NickySpongebob

Brett2005 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Noahoriginal teen titans

7. Instrumentally, the band is pretty overpowered. How old were you when you first picked up the instrument you play in the band?

MicahI was about 13-14 when I started playing guitar.

NickyThanks for saying so! Speaking for myself, I still feel like I struggle against my instrument as much as I work with it, so there’s still miles to go. I started playing guitar when I was 12. I switched to bass at age 14 and didn’t play tons of guitar again until the pandemic, so early 2020.

BrettMy older sister had a bass that I would mess around with when I was a kid but I got my first guitar at age 10.

Noahi appreciate the kind words haha, i got a drum kit when i was 16. i had begged my parents for years and years, like maybe back when i was 8 or 9, but i would always get hand me down acoustic guitars or simple electric guitars with small practice amps but they never stuck. like a lot of people anywhere near my age, i had rock band and guitar hero and i honestly think me being REALLY good at the drums on those games led my parents to finally get me this little shitty gammon starter kit. i never took lessons really, i would just take rock band drum tracks and transfer them onto a real kit. i think i deleted it from my facebook, but theres a very old video of me covering chop suey when i was maybe 17. i did briefly take a drum course through community college my freshman year but i stopped going after a few lessons because i didnt really grasp how important rudiments and shit were so i got bored.

8. If you had to choose one track from the EP as your favorite, which one would it be and why?

MarcScars Shown. I love the chorus and how it pops off live. Seeing people scream the words when we play it live is so sick to see. Especially since I didn’t know how it would first transition from recording to a live setting.

MicahViolent Expansion, because the breakdown at the end is hard and also it has RIFFS (thanks Brett).

NickyScars Shown. The chorus is an earworm, and people go bananas for it. Nothing would be my favorite in a vacuum but seeing the reaction to that song live is a consistent treat.

BrettViolent Expansion. I was in a metalcore band that started and ended during covid. I wrote a good portion of VE for that band and when we fizzled out, it just sat on my computer thinking it would never see the light of day. Fast forward to writing more metalcore type stuff, I showed it to xaogcx and they all really liked it. We modified a little bit of it to fit more into our style but it was really just the chorus and bridge that changed.

Noahscars shown hands down. it lived as a pre pro for months before i revisited it and was HOOKED. id listen to the super chopped version on repeat for days straight until we brought it to practice and fleshed it out as a real song. something about the verse riff just scratches this itch in my brain everytime i hear it.

9. Lyrically, the EP touches on themes like straight edge and Marc’s experience as an Indigenous person. Why are these topics important to you?

MarcThe topics are important to me because my experience as Indigenous Person is something I think about constantly when I navigate through the world. Also with hardcore being a primarily white-dominated space. Getting to share my experience with people who don’t look like me is powerful, also having it resonate with people who look like me helps me feel like I am not alone.

MicahI mean, for the straight edge lyrics, they feel super empowering and I think Marc writes about that topic in a very cool way.
As for the Indigenous lyrics, I feel like growing up as a white dude in a suburb, I didn’t get a ton or really any of that perspective, so there are a lot of gaps in my knowledge and I appreciate getting to be in a band where I can hear and learn about someone’s experience as an Indigenous person.

NickyI’ve been straight edge since I was around 15 or 16, and I’m 28 now. It’s fun and rewarding to feel a sense of community from that disposition to the world rather than what a lot of us likely experience outside the context of hardcore, eg some variety of mild awkwardness or alienation.

Marc’s experiences as an indigenous person cement the importance of straight edge to me. Obviously I’ll let him speak for himself, but I feel it’s important to take straight edge beyond just “a choice to make for myself” and consider some of the political ramifications. Historically, substances and addiction have been part of the arsenal of European colonialism on this continent. That legacy continues to this day.

Outside of the disease of addiction, in the culture at large I also think there’s a certain hedonistic attitude toward drugs that wouldn’t be possible without the position of the US at the top of the global pecking order. In other words, there’s a whole supply chain of violence and immiseration that gets you the coke you snort. That’s also true for many consumer goods, but it’s somewhat overlooked in the case of drugs in my opinion. Straight edge is one way to maintain awareness of and not perpetuate the harms of the above.

BrettThere are a million sxe bands out there but very few bands that touch on Indigenous topics from a first hand experience. I love that Marc can use xaogcx as a platform to bring those topics more to the forefront in our scene and beyond.

Noahstraight edge changed my life and honestly kept me alive so thats pretty self explanatory. as for marc's experience, i didnt ask him to do vocals in aogc to check a box or anything, i understand hardcore, even in 2025, is predominantly white men. i (a white man) love making new bands and making music, and i want to use my experience and my place in the scene to uplift the voices of those around me who might not otherwise be heard, and a pretty easy way to do that is inviting those same people to join bands so their voice can be in front of their peers. and in front of as many people as possible. all of that is important to me because hardcore at its core is a community meant to uplift each other, exchange ideas, and confide in one another. theres 100% time for fun and silly bands, or bands just for the sake of riffs, but there needs to also be bands that have a message. marc has a wonderful way of connecting with people, both through his experiences as an indigenous person, and as someone who is sober.

10. Is there anything you'd like to see more or less of in the Twin Cities scene?

MarcMore fast music. More feeling. More emotion.

MicahCircle pits, push pits, and hardcore pits co-existing peacefully.

NickyI’d like to see more bands with melody and more bands with lyrical themes that go beyond puffing your chest out. Playing a caricature of yourself that’s tough and aggro is fun and cathartic, but there’s so much more to explore thematically that others can connect to.

BrettWhile it is really neat seeing a bunch of new bands pop up, all I ask is that you take your instrument and songwriting seriously. Especially the songwriting. Study songs you enjoy and think critically about why you like them and what makes it cool. Please treat music as an artform and not as social collateral. Develop a love for writing music and what it lets you express. Music that comes from a genuine place in the heart shines so much brighter than music that doesn't. It can be painfully obvious when it isn't. Especially when one doesn't have a firm grasp of how to play their instrument.

Noahmore zines honestly, obviously we have a lot of local bands, and i always welcome more. but i also love reading interviews, reading peoples thoughts on topics both in hardcore and adjacent.

11. Favorite local spots to play?

MarcCemetery Ridge (RIP) or Flying V. We play there next January on the 4th! Be there.

NickyFlying V music hall is legendary

BrettRIP Cemetery Ridge. The new Legion Hall basement that Caydence is booking shows at is a pretty sick spot to play. Also Seward Cafe.

Noahrip cemetery ridge, it will forever by my #1 diy spot

12. Beyond hardcore and metal, what are some artists or genres you've been into lately?

MarcFaye Webster, Clairo, Pile of Love, Discern, and Basement.

MicahI finally gave Sonic Youth some proper attention this year and it’s been a lot of fun, also noise music is something I’ve gotten increasingly interested in the last few years so that too.

NickyI’m a huge 90s emo punisher. I’ve been listening a lot to Piebald and Small Brown Bike. This Belgian band called Feverchild has also been in constant rotation for me since their LP came out last year. Also, Cold Cave

BrettWhen I am sad, I listen to a lot of traditional Russian music and I have been sad a lot lately. To snap me out of being sad I try to listen to ska and mariachi.

Noahim back on a huge purity ring kick right now. ive casually listened to wrap since childhood, im by no means tapped in, but the griselda crew and earl always have me checking out whatever new release they drop at the very least. ive also always been casually into edm. mostly gabber, breakcore, happy hardcore n shit, ill normally just find a random playlist on spotify and shuffle it

13. What's next for xallofgodschildrenx?

MarcTaking over the world and spreading the gospel.

NickyAsk Noah he’s the CEO. (We are writing new stuff at a steady pace.)

BrettWe are currently writing a bunch of new songs to whittle down to just a few to release, hopefully in 2025. We have some touring we are planning on in 2025 like I had mentioned earlier.

Noahweve been writing a lot and we will have some sort of release in 2025. but honestly more shows, more touring, and more dope tracks

Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions! If you have anything else you want to add tack it on here

MarcShoutout Twin Cities Straight Edge.

NickyMore people should abbreviate metalcore as MxC that’s funny

BrettThank you for including us in your zine. Stay in school. Don't do drugs. It's okay to be different.

Noahrip gnaw