As we enter the month of March, we are that much closer to the inaugural Womxn Fuck Shit Up DC Fest! In partnership with Tagg Magazine, The QREW, The Coven, Swazz Bar, Lezbesocial, and Dyke Bar Takeover DC, WFSU DC will be bringing womxn to Songbyrd Music House to showcase and celebrate their art and music and its impact on the community.
One of those performers is the ultimate badass Miltia Vox. Hailing from New York City, this non-conforming anti-labelist was singing before they could even speak. Starting their music journey with piano at eight, Vox joined their first band Disciples of Astaroth—a goth/industrial band akin to My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult—in their teenage years. After excelling as a professional backup singer for greats like Cyndi Lauper, Taylor Dayne, and Nancy Sinatra, Vox was left feeling unsatisfied. When Vox stopped doing what they were told and started working outside the confines of other people’s visions, they began to create their own noise. Thus, here we are.
Name: Militia Vox
Location: New York City
How do you identify? Gender/orientation/both: Non-Conforming anti-labelist
When and how did you first become involved in music?
I answered the call early, but I believe I was marked. When my mother was pregnant with me, she and my dad went to see Redd Fox live in DC. Being an interracial couple, black mother and white father, was somewhat rare then. Redd Fox announced from the stage that my folks were going to “give us another Lena Horne.” I guess he didn’t imagine a Lena Horne with a blue afro and studded leather, screaming for vengeance. Either way, it was a brilliant prophecy.
How is music attached to your gender identity? Does your identity play an integral part in the development of your music?
Music is 100 percent my identity, my religion, my faith. I live to serve the muse. Everything I write is a slice of my soul. My songs are my children, my offspring. It’s my therapy, it’s my sexuality, it’s how I see the world, and how I perceive how the world sees me. Id, Ego, Superego…
I never felt satisfied by women’s traditional so-called place in music or what is deemed socially acceptable. Especially a black or brown woman’s place in music. Most often you see women of color as background vocalists or part of a choir in the shadows, behind some socially acceptable front person. Or if they’re in the front, they’re in a girl group or if they’re solo, they’re screaming the ‘black girl songbook’ with all the typical bells and whistles. I’ve always made it my mission to change that—to push the boundaries of how a frontwoman is seen and what a they are capable of.
Who or what is your inspiration and why?
There are many but my ultimate is Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. He gave shape and depth to industrial music, taking the genre into his own hands, writing great songs and creating sounds that had never been dreamed of before. A brilliant composer and songwriter, he communicates his frustrations with the world through existential themes that have always spoken to me. He is truly an outsider artist that has made his own lane.
Why are you playing at WFSU DC?
Because I am overwhelmed with the current state of the world, America, its politics. What better place to vent my frustrations and play some cathartic music, than to do it in our nation’s capital with other like-minded female ass kickers?
How do you fuck shit up?
Freedom, baby. I am me, within my own control. No gods, no masters, no rules, no gender roles, no stereotypes, no fear. FREE.
Find out about this incredible artist’s music, appearances, and more at www.militiavox.com.
