We were lucky to catch up with Aeka Joshi and Devon Koronkiewicz recently and have shared our conversation below.

Aeka and Devon, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?

A running theme in Xeno’s lyrics is the juxtaposition between what we are told we are, or what we are told we should be, and who we are. This began with the insidious idea from those around us that we weren’t good enough, smart enough, strong enough, pretty enough. We both began to write as a way of taking back our voices, and that translated into lyrics and into the band itself existing. We took back our power and re-wrote the narrative of our stories through this band.

Aeka and Devon, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Our band name, Xeno, comes from the word “xenophobia”, literally meaning “fear of the strange”. A lot of our art is inspired by the experience we share of having grown up being feared for being strange. Our hometown, Flagstaff AZ, is a beautiful place with a lot of not-so-beautiful people, to paraphrase shock-rock Industrial musician Marilyn Manson. It’s a predominantly white and predominantly Christian town, being explicitly nonconformist is a risky choice and one that comes with very real consequences, often including physical and verbal confrontations with strangers on the street. So, who are we? We’re the kids with black eyes and bloody noses, we’re the kids who grew up answering to, “hey, freak!”, and we are the strange.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

To reach as many people as possible, and to not just connect with people who share similar experiences of existing outside the mainstream as queer punk artists. To show people that they are not alone, and to give them a voice

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Catharsis, being able to share who we are with the world freely, being given a platform to be heard

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @xenoband_az
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@xenoband444

Image Credits
Aeka Joshi, Devon Koronkiewicz