Haela Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix (born January 25, 1985) is an American musician and composer. She is best known for her work as creator, lead singer, and guitarist of

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...

band

Liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

Personal life

Hunt-Hendrix was born in 1985 in New York City, the child of academician

Helen LaKelly Hunt Helen LaKelly Hunt (born February 1949) is an American activist and writer. The daughter of H. L. Hunt, she grew up in Dallas, Texas. She holds earned and honorary degrees from Union Theological Seminary (NY) and Southern Methodist University. ...

and self-help author

Harville Hendrix Harville Hendrix (born 1935) is an American writer. Hendrix is best known for the book ''Getting the Love You Want'', which gained in popularity during Hendrix's 17 appearances on ''The Oprah Winfrey Show''. He is a member of the American Asso ...

. She is a member of the Hunt oil/football family which includes her billionaire grandfather oil tycoon

H. L. Hunt Haroldson Lafayette Hunt Jr. (February 17, 1889 – November 29, 1974) was an American oil tycoon. By trading poker winnings for oil rights according to legend, but more likely through money he gained from successful speculation in oil leases, he ...

, her uncle

Lamar Hunt Lamar Hunt (August 2, 1932 – December 13, 2006) was an American businessman most notable for his promotion of American football, soccer, and tennis in the United States. He was the principal founder of the American Football League (AFL) and ...

, and her cousin

Clark Hunt Clark Knobel Hunt (born February 19, 1965) is part owner, chairman and CEO of the National Football League's Kansas City Chiefs and a founding investor-owner in Major League Soccer. Hunt is chairman of Hunt Sports Group, where he oversees the ope ...

. Hunt-Hendrix grew up in New Mexico, New Jersey, and Brooklyn, New York. In May 2020, Hunt-Hendrix came out as

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

in an

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

post, writing, "The love I have to give is a woman's love, if only because it is mine. To varying degrees many already understand this, but I'd like to make a clear statement about my actual gender."

Career

In 2005, Hunt-Hendrix formed what would become her most well-known music project, Liturgy, as a solo project while attending

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in New York City. In the same year, Hunt-Hendrix’s

screamo Screamo (also referred to as skramz) is an aggressive subgenre of emo that emerged in the early 1990s and emphasizes "willfully experimental dissonance and dynamics".Jason Heller, "Feast of Reason". ''Denver Westword'', June 20, 2002Access date: ...

side project The Birthday Boyz released their debut album ''The Bro Cycle.'' Following this, Hunt-Hendrix collaborated with

Krallice Krallice is an American black metal band formed by New York City musicians Colin Marston, Mick Barr, Nick McMaster and Lev Weinstein. They play an experimental, highly technical style of black metal. The band has released twelve studio albums a ...

guitarist Collin Marston and former Birthday Boyz bandmates Greg Smith and Jeff Bobula to form the band Survival, who would later release their eponymous debut in 2013. In 2008, Hunt-Hendrix released the EP ''Immortal Life'' under the Liturgy name, and the band cohered as a quartet with Bernard Gann (guitar), Greg Fox (drums), and Tyler Dusenbury (bass). Liturgy released their first full-length record, '' Renihilation'', in 2009. Liturgy's second and third albums, '' Aesthethica'' (2011) and ''

The Ark Work ''The Ark Work'' is the third studio album by American rock band Liturgy. It was released on March 24, 2015 through Thrill Jockey record label. The first single off the album, "Quetzalcoatl" was released digitally on January 20, 2015. Backgroun ...

'' (2015), were released with

Thrill Jockey Records Thrill Jockey is an American independent record label established by former Atlantic Records A&R representative Bettina Richards and based in Chicago. History Richards started the label in 1992 with $35,000 of family and personal capital, whil ...

. Despite the critical success of ''Aesthetica'', Hunt-Hendrix stated in an interview with Pitchfork that "I was never happy with any other Liturgy release. I didn’t want to release them. But the aim with this one (The Ark Work) was to take that musical vibe and execute it all the way—and I love it." In 2016 Hunt-Hendrix released an electronic album titled ''

New Introductory Lectures on the System of Transcendental Qabala ''New Introductory Lectures on the System of Transcendental Qabala'' is the first studio album of Kel Valhaal, an electronic music focused project of Liturgy vocalist and guitarist Haela Hunt-Hendrix. It was released on Hunt-Hendrix's label YLYLC ...

'' under the band name Kel Valhaal. Hunt-Hendrix describes the release as combining elements of classical music, electronic music, rap, and metal, as well as working "to activate transcendental catharsis using the elements of sound design." In September 2019, Hunt-Hendrix released the single "Seraphim" with the "trap-djent" band Ideal. In November 2019, Liturgy debuted their fourth studio album, '' H.A.Q.Q''. The album features a new lineup, with original members Hunt-Hendrix and Gann joined by Tia Vincent-Clark (bass) and Leo Didkovsky (drums). On November 20, 2020, Liturgy released their fifth full-length studio album, the "cosmogonical opera-album" ''

Origin of the Alimonies ''Origin of the Alimonies'' is the fifth studio album by American rock band Liturgy. It was released on November 20, 2020, via bandleader Haela Hunt-Hendrix's record label, YLYLCYN. Performance The album was performed by the band at the Roadb ...

''; with the release came the announcement of an accompanying operatic film written, shot, edited by, and starring Hunt-Hendrix. Hunt-Hendrix debuted an earlier version of the video opera at National Sawdust in October 2018.

References

External links

Hunter Hunt-Hendrix YouTube Channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt-Hendrix, Haela 21st-century women musicians 21st-century American women guitarists Musicians from New York City Living people American experimental guitarists Columbia University alumni Transgender women musicians American women composers Women opera composers American heavy metal guitarists American women heavy metal singers American heavy metal singers American opera composers 1985 births American LGBT musicians Black metal musicians Hunt family Transgender singers American LGBT singers LGBT people from New York (state)